Dr. MaryAnne Egan

Mary Anne Egan, Professor of Computer Science at Siena College, works on issues of underrepresentation in computer science. She is involved in the research of pedagogical influences on the recruitment and retention of women and minorities in this field. Since focusing her efforts on diversity issues in Computer Science, she has involved undergraduate students in the implementation of various strategies to improve students’ first year computer science sequence, served for two years as director of Siena’s Luce Foundation grant to provide scholarships for female STEM undergraduates, secured funding to allow 25 female undergraduate students to attend the international Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, has developed a course on Diversity in Computer Science, and has created an alternative programming contest for non-programmers (IMPACT) as a way to introduce high school students to computer science. More than 400 students have participated in the IMPACT program and other colleges and universities have implemented similar career exploration days and courses on diversity. Dr. Egan is also interested in the role of technology in improving people’s lives in developing countries. 

Dr. Egan is involved in various organizations and conferences. She is a council member of the international Association of Computing Machinery Committee on Women in Computing, co-founder of the regional New York Celebration of Women in Computing (NYCWiC), and an active member of ACM Special Interest Group for Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). She regularly participates on the conference committees for Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, SIGCSE, ACM’s Conference for Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges — Northeastern Region (CCSCNE) and NYCWiC.