Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology
 
February/March 2016
Volume 6, Issue 1

Welcome to the February/March issue of the CMD-IT eNewsletter!
 
In honor of Black History Month we highlight the contributions of Clarence "Skip" Ellison, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D in computing.   We also introduce you to Telle Whitney, President and CEO of ABI, in our Meet the Board of Directors series and feature President Obama's CS for All initiative in our Education Corner. 

To include any job opening or event in our Community Calendar for the April/May 2016 e-newsletter, please contact Heather Berry
  

Best regards,

CMD-IT Leadership   

CMD-IT News
Dr. Clarence "Skip" Ellis 
First Black Ph.D. in Computer Science

In honor of February being Black History month, we are recognizing Dr. Clarence "Skip" Ellis, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in computer science.  Skip earned his doctoral degree from University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign in 1969; his advisor was David Muller.  He was also the first African-American to be elected Fellow of the ACM (1998) and very active in the ACM Special Interest Group on Office Information Systems (SIGOIS).  Dr.  Ellis was a pioneer in the field of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and groupware.  Skip also participated in the early Tapia Conferences, providing his insights about the promotion and tenure process.
 
After completing his Ph.D., Skip worked at  Bell Labs  from 1969 to 1972 in applied probability. In 1972, Skip became an assistant professor, and a founding member of the computer science department, at the University of Colorado Boulder to work on operating systems research. He also held faculty positions in EECS at MIT to work on research related to the ARPANET and Stanford University and Xerox PARC to work  on the icon-based GUI, object-oriented programming languages, and groupware systems. He left Xerox PARC and Stanford University in the mid-1980s to lead the Groupware Research Group at the  Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation  (MCC). 

In the early 1990s, Dr. Ellis left MCC to become the Chief Architect of the FlowPath workflow product of Bull S.A. in  France . In 1992, Dr. Ellis returned to the University of Colorado Boulder as a full professor in the computer science department and continued his work on groupware . In 2009, he became an emeritus professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.  Dr. Clarence "Skip" Ellis passed away in 2014, having made significant contributions to the field of computing.
Education Corner 
CMD-IT Supporters
In This Issue
Tapia 2016 Conference Deadlines
Program Submission Notifications:
March 14, 2016

Scholarship Notifications: 
April 25, 2016

Sponsorship Deadline:
June 1, 2016
Meet the Board of Directors
Telle Whitney
CMD-IT Board Member
 
Dr. Telle Whitney joined the Anita Borg Institute in 2002. As the President and CEO of the organization, she has led it's substantial growth and impact. The Anita Borg Institute brings women technologists together to learn, celebrate, and thrive through events such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, the Women of Vision awards, and the Top Company awards.  In addition, the Anita Borg Institute conducts research on recommendations to retain women in computing.  Dr. Whitney has held senior technical management positions with Malleable Technologies and Actel Corporation, and co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference.  She serves on the advisory boards of Caltech's Information Science and Technology, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and Illuminate Ventures.  

Dr. Whitney has received numerous awards including the ACM Distinguished Service award, CRA's A Nico Habermann Award for her role in founding and sustaining NCWIT, and an honorary degree from CMU. Telle received her Ph.D. from Caltech, and her bachelor's degree at the University of Utah, both in Computer Science. 
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Community Calendar
29 February
2-4 March 
3-6 March 

5 March 

7 March 

8 March
14- 15 March

23 March

23-27 March
24-27 March

31 March
31 March - 2 April

31 March - 3 April

2 April 
4 April
7-8 April
7-10 April


12 April

14-16 April
14- 17 April

15 April

15-16 April
18 April

21-24 April

25 April

2 May

5 May 
11-13 May

16-18 May
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