Pass-It-On Awards Program: Pass-It-On Awards Review Committee

Kristi Potter, Research Scientist, University of Utah

Kristi is a research scientist at the University of Utah, working in the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute. Her current research is focused on methods for improving visualization techniques by adding qualitative information. This work includes researching statistical measures of uncertainty, error, and confidence levels, and translating the semantic meaning of these measures into visual metaphors. She received her PhD in 2010 and MS in 2003 from Utah, and her BS in 2000 from the University of Oregon in computer science and fine art. She joined Systers in 2005 and the awards review committee in 2008. She is the PIO Committee Chair for 2011.

Christine Marton, Instructor, University of Toronto

Christine is a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information (Toronto, Canada) where she teaches online information retrieval. Christine has degrees in health sciences, science education, and information science. She has worked extensively in the health care, academic (university) and education (secondary school) sectors, in several roles – teacher, administrator, and researcher. She completed her doctorate. Her thesis topic was, “How women seek health information on the Web.” Christine joined the awards review committee in 2008 and served as the PIO Committee Chair for 2010.

Jennifer Redman, Founder/CEO, Buunabet

Jennifer runs the technology-consulting company Buunabet, which helps businesses and organizations use and deploy Open Source software. She is a long-time advocate of, contributor to and user of Open Source Technology, and was on the core planning team for Open Source Bridge 2010. Jennifer is also the Associate Systers Keeper for the Systers community. She participated as a mentor and organization administrator for the 2009 and 2010 Systers’ Google Summer of Code projects.

Winifred Menezes, Software Engineer

Winifred grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, started her professional career in Information Technology in Sweden where she lived for 24 years, and now lives in Ontario, Canada but works all over the world. As a software engineer, Winifred has worked with software design and development, systems analysis, and project management. Currently she works with process improvement based on models like the CMMI, ISO 9000, and Six Sigma concepts. With over 30 years experience in software engineering, software process improvement and training, Winifred feels that there are many opportunities for women in the IT field. She joined Systers in 1995 and the awards review committee in 2008.

Priscilla Oppenheimer, Architecture Consulting Engineer

Priscilla Oppenheimer is a full-time contractor for Cisco Systems where she works as an Architecture Consulting Engineer, helping systems engineers design and implement large-scale computer networks. Priscilla earned her master’s degree in Information Science from the University of Michigan in 1980. After many years as a software developer, she became a technical instructor and course developer and traveled around the United States, Asia, and Europe to teach more than 3000 network engineers from Fortune 500 companies. Priscilla is the author or co-author of five books on computer networking, including the best-selling “Top-Down Network Design, 3rd ed.,” Cisco Press, 2010. Priscilla has been an active member of Systers since 2007.

Esther Schindler, Computer Industry Journalist

A long-time technology evangelist and community instigator, Esther Schindler has been in the computer press since 1992, writing for magazines ranging from CIO to Computerworld to InformIT to her latest endeavor, editor in chief of ITExpertVoice.com. She’s written market research analyst reports, computer books, and white papers, and usually managed to sneak in a reference to chocolate in each of them. Esther owned a computer store, optimized compilers, taught corporate classes about operating system internals, and designed QA tests for Lotus Development (back when 1-2-3 ruled the earth). She joined Systers sometime in the 1990s; this is her first year on the awards committee.

M. Rita Thissen, Research Computing Division, RTI International

Rita has extensive experience with social science and clinical data management and currently works in development and management of survey research computing systems. With a MS in CS from the University of Kansas, she designs, develops, and maintains databases, interactive applications and unattended processes. She manages a department of about 30 computing professionals, directs data processing projects for federal clients and serves as a senior system administrator for RTI’s call center. She has been with RTI since 1995. Rita joined Systers in 1997 and the awards review committee in 2006.