Marie-Claire Jenkins, Graduate Student, University of East-Anglia

Marie-Claire graduated from the University of East-Anglia (UK) with a BA in translating-interpreting French and German and a MS in computer science. After this, she worked in search engine optimization and online marketing while studying for a PhD in computer science at UEA, specializing in natural language generation and understanding. She is now finishing her thesis in Sydney, Australia while also running her blog http://www.scienceforseo.com. She joined Systers in 2008 and the awards review committee in 2009.

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 is presently completing her doctorate. Her thesis topic is, “How women seek health information on the Web.” Christine joined the awards review committee in 2008.

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.

Kristin Potter, Graduate Student, University of Utah

Kristin is currently a PhD candidate 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 an MS from Utah in 2003 with work in non-photorealistic rendering, and her BS from the University of Oregon in computer science and fine art. She joined Systers in 2005 and the awards review committee in 2008.

Elizabeth Ross, Program Manager, Oracle Corporation

Elizabeth is currently the Program Manager for the Analytic Applications organization in Oracle Corporation’s Retail Global Business Unit. She has extensive experience in project management, evaluation, implementation, and support of exterprise applications. She has been a member of Systers since 1997 and a member of the Systers Pass-It-On Awards review committee since 2006. Elizabeth lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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.

Shana Watters, Assistant Professor, Augsburg College

Shana is an assistant professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She obtained an MS in computer science and an MA in linguistics from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Minnesota. She is ABD and is writing her dissertation on reference resolution. Shana joined the awards review committee in 2006.