Lucinda "Lucy" Sanders (born 1954) is the current CEO and a co-founder of the

National Center for Women & Information Technology 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, a ...

. 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.

Early age and education

At an early age, Sanders displayed an interest in the

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

fields. Sanders had three main influences that led her to pursue an education in computer science: her father, her high school math teacher, and her sister. Her father was an

early adopter An early adopter or lighthouse customer is an early customer of a given company, product, or technology. The term originates from Everett M. Rogers' ''Diffusion of Innovations'' (1962). History Typically, early adopters are customers who, in a ...

of computer science when it first began to develop as a large scale field, her high school teacher taught Sanders skills required for computer programming, and her sister became successful after receiving one of the early degrees in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

. Upon graduating from high school, Sanders attended

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

and received her bachelor's degree in computer science. Sanders then attended the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

where she attained a master's degree in computer science.

Professional career

In her early career, Sanders worked as a

Research and Development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

(R&D) Manager at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

. She later became an executive vice president and worked as the CTO of Lucent Customer Care Solutions until 1999. She moved on from Bell Labs to work at Inc CRM Solutions at Avaya Labs for two years, until she founded the National Center for Women and Information Technology in 2004, where she currently works as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. She also previously held a position in the board of the Alliance for Technology, Learning, and Society (Atlas), the

Denver Public Schools The School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado, more commonly known as Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. History In 1859, Owen ...

Computer Magnet Advisory Board, the MSRI, the Engineering Advisory Council at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is a Trustee for the Center for American Entrepreneurship and the International Computer Science Institute.

NCWIT

Sanders initially co-founded the National Center for Women & Information Technology in 2004, when she was given a grant from the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. Along with

Telle Whitney 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 ...

and Robert Schnabel, Sanders hoped to use NCWIT to increase the number of women in computer fields. Sanders is currently working as the day to day CEO of the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Publications

*Improving Gender Composition in Computing, Jill Ross, Liz Litzler, Joanne Cohoon and Lucy Sanders, Communications of the ACM, April 2012 *Strategy Trumps Money: Recruiting Undergraduate Women into Computing, Lecia J. Barker, J. McGrath Cohoon, and Lucy Sanders, IEEE Computer Magazine, 2010. *Committee on Assessing the Impacts of Changes in the Information Technology Research and Development Ecosystem: Retaining Leadership in an Increasingly Global Environment, National Research Council of the National Academies, January 2009. *IT Innovation and the Role of Diversity, Lucinda Sanders, Black IT Professional Magazine, Summer 2006. *Ahuja, Sid and Sanders, Lucinda M., “Multimedia Collaboration”, AT&T Technical Journal, October 1995. *Katz, Bryan and Sanders, Lucinda M., “MMCX Server Delivers Multimedia Here and Now”, AT&T Technology, Winter 1995 – 1996. *Glass, Kathleen K. and Sanders, Lucinda M. (1992). “Managing Organizational Handoffs with Empowered Teams”. AT&T Technical Journal (22) Volume 71 Number 3, pp. 22 – 29.

Awards and recognition

*Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award, Colorado Technology Association, 2016 *

US News ''U.S. News & World Report'' (''USNWR'', ''US NEWS'') is an American media company publishing news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. The company was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper ''U.S. News'' and ...

STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, 2013 *

A. Nico Habermann Award The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

, 2012 *George Norlin Distinguished Service Award, 2011 *Boulder County Business Review Outstanding Women, 2010 *Community Partner,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, 2009 *Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction, 2008 * WITI Hall of Fame, 2007 *Soroptimist International of Los Angeles Women of Vision Award, 2006 *

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

Executive Seminar Academic Scholarship, 2005 *

CU Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award for "Industry and Commerce", 2004 *Silicon Valley Tribute to Women in Industry Award for business excellence and community outreach, 2000 *

Fellow Award, 1996

Interviews

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Lucy American women computer scientists American computer scientists Living people American women nonprofit executives University of Colorado Boulder alumni Louisiana State University alumni 1954 births 21st-century American women