MIAMI, Fla., Sept. 26 — Today, Internet2 announced the recipients of four 2016 Technology Exchange gender diversity scholarships. The scholarships recognize talented individuals seeking opportunities to gain hands-on technical experience by attending the event, and spotlights women in the field of IT and their efforts to use technology to serve the faculty, staff and students of their individual institutions.

“Internet2 is proud of our continuing efforts to promote diversity and specifically to support women in the IT and technology fields in higher education,” said Ana Hunsinger, Internet2, vice president of community engagement. “It is a pleasure working so closely with the Internet2 community to ensure inclusivity and opportunities for these women across our member campuses. I’d like to personally congratulate this year’s award recipients and give a special thank you to Pat Burns, Vice President for Information Technology, Colorado State University, Jean Davis, CEO and President, MCNC, John Kolb, CIO, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Marilyn McMillan, CIO, New York University, for helping to support the recognition of these individuals.”

Gender Diversity Award recipients are:

Colleen Morrissey is a Senior Network Engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and is lead on all network design and implementation projects as well as a member of the security team. For 14 years she also held an Adjunct Lecturer position in the Computer Science department, teaching undergraduate computer network and security classes. Prior to her time at Rensselaer, Colleen worked at a Tier 1 Global ISP in network engineering and operations. Colleen holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Tiny Norris, Network Operations Center Coordinator at MCNC, also known as North Carolina Research and Educational Network.  Tiny has worked at MCNC since 2010, first as Network Administrator then as a NOC Coordinator.  Her duties include monitoring and troubleshooting all local and remote network components and its capabilities to ensure operational integrity and timely restoration of services.  She works closely with Network Management Engineers, Knowledge & Information System Engineers and also NOC Engineers in network optimization to provide tireless support to MCNC customers and partners.

MCNC provides technology tools and services to guarantee equal access to the 21st century.  Tiny expects the Technology Exchange will afford her the opportunity to engage with others within the R&E community and to learn, analyze and apply new and better processes to continue to provide a future-proof technology network that is the foundation of change and innovation in educational systems.

Joanna Zwack has worked for Colorado State University’s Academic Computing and Networking Services department since 2015. While her position continues to develop and change, currently she serves as a communication specialist for the Unix team, informing university staff and faculty of developments, training opportunities, and changes. She is also the manager of the university data center. Joanna’s background in elementary education helps her find new ways to communicate with and train members of the university community. She has worked in the IT field for over six years and continues to expand her knowledge of the subject. By being able to attend the Technology Exchange this year, she’s hoping to bring back information and tips that will benefit her entire department.

Gender Diversity Award in recognition of Carrie Regenstein recipient:

Natalie Hidalgo is the Assistant Director of Service Delivery at New York University’s Information Technology organization. In this role she is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing a comprehensive service delivery function across NYU’s IT organization. This role includes the development of IT Service Management processes and the introduction of a technical account management structure. She provides representation and advocacy for clients of NYU’s IT organization at three degree-granting campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai, and at study-away sites in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. Coordinating with other NYU administrators, she ensures the delivery of IT services to NYU students, faculty and staff around the world. Prior to her current focus on service delivery, Natalie has worked with the university’s IT division to launch global academic centers, implement an enhanced service model to support faculty in their use of technology, led university-wide workshops on customer service best practices, and introduced new service offerings to the NYU community.

The Internet2 Technology Exchange convenes U.S. and global technology leaders and visionaries including pioneers, technologists, architects, scientists, operators, and students in the fields of networking, security, trust and identity, virtualization, high-performance computing, cloud services, and data storage to share expertise in a forum designed to facilitate the cross-pollination of technical ideas and information.

Featured diversity sessions at this year’s Technology Exchange include:

Diversity and Inclusion in the Internet2 Community

A moderated panel will discuss and address key barriers to the gender diversity challenge and provide an open discussion around topics such as pipeline building, changing the internal IT culture at the campus and system level, changing the macro culture and getting more women involved in high stakes/high impact projects, and acknowledging and addressing challenges in hiring practices.

Gender and Diversity in Information Security and IT

This session will include a panel discussion on gender and diversity in higher education information security and IT, how to improve current diversity levels, and will explore what steps audience members can take to further diversity initiatives.

About Internet2

Internet2 is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve shared technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research and community service missions. Internet2 also operates the nation’s largest and fastest, coast-to-coast research and education network, with Internet2 Network Operations Center powered by Indiana University. Internet2 serves more than 90,000 community anchor institutions, 317 U.S. universities, 70 government agencies, 42 regional and state education networks, 80 leading corporations working with our community and more than 65 national research and education networking partners representing more than 100 countries.

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Source: Internet2