PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 12, 2011) - The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology announced today the 2011 A. Richard Newton Educator Award. This new award recognizes teaching practices, techniques or innovative and new education approaches that attract girls and women to math, computing, and engineering. The award recognizes the educators (either individuals or teams) as well as the practices in K-12 or undergraduate education. Nominees may be submitted by educators and activists from colleges, universities, community colleges, K-12 schools and outreach programs. The award is sponsored by Alan Eustace.
The first winner of the A. Richard Newton Educator Award is Lisa Pruitt, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California Berkeley. Lisa Pruitt is deeply committed to ensuring the technological prowess of our society and economy; she works tirelessly and enthusiastically to invite and inspire a full spectrum of participants to pursue engineering endeavors. She is a national role model who exemplifies and embodies the importance and impact of K-12 outreach and mentoring of young women and girls in the realm of engineering. Lisa Pruitt has utilized K-12 outreach as part of her engineering curriculum since 1997. This pioneering work has been in collaboration with the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) and local school systems in Berkeley and Oakland, CA. She has used a "teaching as leadership" philosophy in both her undergraduate and graduate courses in Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering.
She also serves as the faculty mentor to Berkeley Engineers and Mentors and Engineering for Kids clubs. Over the course of her career, her K-12 outreach activities within the realm of her engineering courses and activities have touched nearly 900 undergraduate women, more than 200 graduate women, and nearly 1600 K-12 students, half girls and young women.
The award will be presented on November 11, 2011, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Portland, Oregon. The world's largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a four-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Conference registration is now open. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org.
About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. Our programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, HP, Microsoft, CA Technologies, Cisco, Facebook, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Amazon, Broadcom, Motorola Foundation, Raytheon, Salesforce, and Yahoo! For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.
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