Telle Whitney

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Telle Whitney
Telle Whitney at Mark Oppenheim Associates.jpg
Whitney in 2017
BornJune 5, 1956
Alma mater BS in Computer Science from the University of Utah, Ph.D. in Computer Science from Caltech
Occupation(s)Past CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology 2002-2017

Telle Whitney is the former CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. A computer scientist by training, she cofounded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with Anita Borg in 1994 and joined the Anita Borg Institute in 2002.

Contents

Early life

Telle Whitney was born on June 5, 1956, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Raised in a Latter-day Saint family descended from Brigham Young, she moved to Southern California when she was 7, and then back to Utah when she was 15 after her mother died. [1] Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a housewife who returned to school to be a history teacher.

Education and early career

Whitney received a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Utah in 1978 and a Ph.D. in computer science from Caltech in 1985. She moved to Silicon Valley to work in the chip industry, creating chips and the software that supports them. [2] She held senior technical management positions at Actel and Malleable Technologies, as well as senior roles at several startup technology companies. [3]

Founding of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

In 1994, Whitney and Anita Borg founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, which is the largest gathering of women in computing in the world. With simply the initial idea of creating a conference by and for women computer scientists, Borg and Whitney met over dinner, with a blank sheet of paper, having no idea how to start a conference, and started to plan out their vision. The first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was held in Washington, D.C., in June 1994, and brought together 500 technical women. [4] Telle Whitney described walking into the conference and being surrounded by 500 technical women as “life-changing.” [2]

Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

Whitney at Anita Borg event in 2010 Telle Whitney at Anita Borg event.jpg
Whitney at Anita Borg event in 2010

In 2002, Whitney became President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, then known as the Institute for Women and Technology. This was originally intended to be a temporary situation, while the organization searched for a replacement for Anita Borg, but ended up being a turning into a permanent role for Whitney. [5]

Under Whitney’s leadership, the Anita Borg Institute has expanded its size and programs. Since 2003, six Grace Hopper Celebrations have been held, and in 2010, the first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India was organized. [6] [7] In addition to the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards, a new awards program has been established to recognize companies that support technical women, the Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award. [8]

Telle Whitney retired as President and CEO of AnitaB.org [9] on September 30th, 2017 and Brenda Darden Wilkerson became the President and CEO on October 1, 2017. [10]

Other activities

In 2004, Telle Whitney co-founded the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) with Lucy Sanders and Robert Schnabel. [11] She has served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is co-chair of the ACM Distinguished member committee. She was a member of the National Science Foundation CEOSE and CISE advisory committees, and she serves on the advisory boards of Caltech’s Information Science and Technology (IST), California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and Illuminate Ventures. She is also a member of the Forbes Executive Women’s Board. [3] [12]

Awards

Related Research Articles

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, reporting nearly 110,000 student and professional members as of 2022. Its headquarters are in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Borg</span> American computer scientist

Anita Borg was an American computer scientist celebrated for advocating for women’s representation and professional advancement in technology. She founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AnitaB.org</span>

AnitaB.org is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institute's primary aim is to recruit, retain, and advance women in technology.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) is a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the world's largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists. The celebration, named after computer scientist Grace Hopper, is organized by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. GHC 2022 conference was held hybrid in Orlando and virtually at the end of September 2022.

The Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards honor exceptional technical women. Three awards are presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology each year, recognizing women in the categories of Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact.

Anne Elizabeth Condon, is an Irish-Canadian computer scientist, professor, and former head of the Computer Science Department of the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on computational complexity theory, DNA computing, and bioinformatics. She has also held the NSERC/General Motors Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE) from 2004 to 2009, and has worked to improve the success of women in the sciences and engineering.

Lydia E. Kavraki is a Greek-American computer scientist, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science, a professor of bioengineering, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering at Rice University. She is also the director of the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University. She is known for her work on robotics/AI and bioinformatics/computational biology and in particular for the probabilistic roadmap method for robot motion planning and biomolecular configuration analysis.

Mary Jane Irwin is an Emerita Evan Pugh Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. She has been on the faculty at Penn State since 1977. She is an international expert in computer architecture. Her research and teaching interests include computer architecture, embedded and mobile computing systems design, power and reliability aware design, and emerging technologies in computing systems.

Margaret Martonosi is an American computer scientist who is currently the Hugh Trumbull Adams '35 Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Martonosi is noted for her research in computer architecture and mobile computing with a particular focus on power-efficiency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of women in computing</span>

This is a timeline of women in computing. It covers the time when women worked as "human computers" and then as programmers of physical computers. Eventually, women programmers went on to write software, develop Internet technologies and other types of programming. Women have also been involved in computer science, various related types of engineering and computer hardware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Center for Women & Information Technology</span> Information Technology For Women

The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to increase participation of girls and women in computing. NCWIT was founded in 2004 by Lucinda (Lucy) Sanders, Dr. Telle Whitney, and Dr. Robert (Bobby) Schnabel. NCWIT is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lucy Sanders, who was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2007, is the current chief executive officer.

Robert B. Schnabel is an American computer scientist. He was executive director and CEO of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from November 1, 2015 to 2017. He is now professor and external chair of computer science at University of Colorado Boulder.

Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou is a Chinese and American computer scientist and entrepreneur. She is a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where she holds the Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Mobile Computing. Her research concerns software reliability, including the use of data mining to automatically detect software bugs and flexible system designs that can adapt to hardware platform variations. She is also the founder of three start-up companies, Emphora, Pattern Insight, and Whova.

Gloria Townsend is an American computer scientist and professor in the department of Computer Science at DePauw University in Indiana. She is known for her work in evolutionary computation and her involvement with women in computing. She has served on the executive committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Council on Women in Computing. She is the author of One Hundred One Ideas for Small Regional Celebrations of Women in Computing. In 2013, she received the Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Tucker Jr. Distinguished Career Award for notable contributions to DePauw through her commitments to students, teaching excellence, their chosen disciplines, and service to the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACM-W</span> Subdivision of the Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W) supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W is an active organization with over 36,000 members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Sanders</span> American computer scientist

Lucinda "Lucy" Sanders is the current CEO and a co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. She is the recipient of many distinguished honors in the STEM fields, including induction into the US News STEM Leadership Hall of Fame in 2013.

The ACM Student Research Competition is an international computing research competition for university students. The competition is held annually and split into undergraduate and graduate divisions, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery. With several hundred annual participants, the Student Research Competition is considered the world's largest university-level research contest in the field of computing.

Valerie Barr is an American computer scientist, and is the Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Bard College. She formerly held the Jean Sammet endowed chair in the department of Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is known for her work with women in computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruthe Farmer</span>

Ruthe Farmer is an American policymaker and activist. She is focused on inclusion and leveraging existing infrastructure to scale change for girls' participation in technology and engineering. She is founder and CEO of the Last Mile Education Fund and also serves as the Chief Evangelist for CSforAll and she was a senior policy advisor for tech inclusion at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration and Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Dr. Shikoh Gitau is a Kenyan computer scientist. She finished her undergraduate studies in Computer Science at the Africa Nazarene University and attained her PhD at University of Cape Town. She is known for inventing M-Ganga and Ummeli, mobile applications for promoting health and medicine and matching unemployed workers with employment opportunities. Gitau was the first African to win the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, received in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing based on her inventions and thesis. She contributes and manages the Technology Innovations for Inclusive Growth program, where she is presently employed in the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

References

  1. ↑ "Oral-History:Telle Whitney - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". ethw.org. 26 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Telle Whitney and Greg Papadopoulis Interview pt1". Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. 30 May 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Telle Whitney". ACM-W. ACM. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  4. ↑ "Anita Borg Celebration: Changing the World for Women and Technology". Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. YouTube. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Melissa J. (11 May 2011). "Voice of Experience: Telle Whitney, CEO and President, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology" . Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  6. ↑ Colborn, Kate (Winter 2010 – Spring 2011). "Grace Hopper Celebration sells out in Atlanta". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  7. ↑ Colborn, Kate (December 2008 – January 2009). "2008 Grace Hopper Celebration: "We build a better world"". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  8. ↑ Barrett, Jerri (26 May 2011). "Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards: Inspiration for All". ValleyZen. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "AnitaB.org's President and CEO Dr. Telle Whitney to Retire at the End of 2017". AnitaB.org. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  10. ↑ "Meet Brenda Darden Wilkerson, AnitaB.org President". AnitaB.org. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  11. ↑ Cohoon, J. McGrath (March 2011). "NCWIT Offers Community, Resources, and Results". Computing Research News. Computing Research Association. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  12. ↑ "Who We Are: Telle Whitney" . Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  13. ↑ Titlebaum, Jessica (24 July 2008). "Highest Leaf Awards Expand to Chicago". The Glass Hammer. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  14. ↑ Moshe Y. Vardi, ed. (June 2009). "Whitney recognized for distinguished service". Communications of the ACM. 52 (6). Association for Computing Machinery: 106. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  15. ↑ Taylor, Emily (1 June 2009). "Dr. Telle Whitney Receives Marie R. Pistilli Award for Contributions to the Advancement of Women in EDA" (PDF). Design Automation Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  16. ↑ "Silicon Valley Women of Influence recognized". Silicon Valley Business Journal. 19 March 2009.
  17. ↑ Schwartz, Ariel (2011). "Telle Whitney" . Retrieved 30 June 2011.
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