Internet2 Announces Winners of 2017 Gender Diversity Award and 2017 Network Startup Resource Center-Internet2 Fellowship

By Sara Aly, Senior Communications Manager

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Women IT professionals in research and education receive funding to attend the 2017 Internet2 Global Summit event in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 24, 2017 — Internet2 today announced six recipients of the Gender Diversity Award and two recipients of the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)-Internet2 Fellowship ahead of its annual meeting, the Internet2 Global Summit, taking place this week in Washington, D.C. from April 23-26. The Global Summit meeting hosts nearly 1,000 C-level information technology decision-makers and high-level influencers from higher education, government and scientific research organizations. This year’s winners and fellows are:

• Zeynep Ondin, Virginia Tech, gender diversity award winner
• Meloney Linder, University of Wisconsin, gender diversity award winner
• Courtney Fell, University of Colorado Boulder, gender diversity award winner
• Kerry Havens, University of Colorado Boulder, gender diversity award winner
• Claire Stirm, Purdue University, gender diversity award winner
• Jieyu Gao, Purdue University, gender diversity award winner
• Sarah Kiden, Uganda Christian University, NSRC-Internet2 fellow
• Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut, Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, NSRC-Internet2 fellow

According to a recent report by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, while women have reached parity with men among science and engineering degree recipients overall, they constitute disproportionally smaller percentages of employed scientists and engineers than they do of the U.S. population.

The Gender Diversity Award was established in 2014 by the Internet2 community as part of a larger Gender Diversity Initiative, with the aim of improving gender diversity in the information technology field within research and education. It provides awardees the opportunity to engage in discussions around the latest applied innovations and best-practices for their campuses, as well as access to mentors and a network of women IT and technology professionals. The Gender Diversity Award is offered twice a year, once at the Internet2 Global Summit meeting and once at the Internet2 Technology Exchange meeting.

Since 2011, the NSRC and Internet2 have worked with universities, network service providers, and industry and government agencies in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific Islands, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean to provide support to research and education communities in countries underserved by the current research and education networking infrastructure.

“We continue to see a growing number of talented nominees each year and I’m so grateful for our community’s continued efforts to promote diversity and support our colleagues who are just starting their career or thinking about growing their career in the IT and technology field,” said Ana Hunsinger, Internet2’s vice president of community engagement. “These awards and fellowships are significant because they remove financial barriers from women’s participation in timely discussions around applied innovations and best-practices in their profession, and gives them access to a new experience of professional growth and development for their career. It’s also an opportunity for our community to engage with talented individuals from both the U.S. and abroad, and help mentor the next generation of community leadership.”

Both the award and fellowship cover travel expenses, hotel accommodation, and conference registration for the 2017 Global Summit. Funding for two of this year’s award is made possible by the Internet2 Gender Diversity Initiative, while Cisco Systems and ServiceNow, in their capacity as industry sponsors of the 2017 Global Summit, are funding one award each. The University of Colorado Boulder and Purdue University are providing travel support for one of their respective award winners. Funding for the two fellowships is provided by NSRC and Internet2.

Ondin, Linder, Fell, Havens, Stirm, Jieyu, Kiden, and Dr. Kanchanasut will be recognized during the 2017 Global Summit General Session on Wednesday, April 26 at 10:30 a.m. EST.