The Northern Virginia Girl Geek Dinner Group is pleased to announce our speaker and presentation information for the inaugural dinner on September 12, 2008. Please visit http://novagirlgeekdinner.eventbrite.com to sign up for this event!

Presentation: It’s Not My Job
The creators of computing technology are mostly white men, and that is a problem. Women in computing and out of computing, and society as a whole, suffer because of this problem. Even as growing numbers of people and organizations work toward a solution, too many continue to abdicate responsibility. What will it take to bring gender balance to computing?

Presented by: Dr. Joanne McGrath Cohoon
Dr. Joanne McGrath Cohoon holds positions as Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and as Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the Computing Research Association, NCWIT, and the Sloan Foundation, Cohoon uses perspectives and methods from sociology to conduct nationwide studies of recruitment and retention in computing. Her results are reported in scholarly journals and an award-winning book, co-edited with William Aspray, from MIT Press – Women and Information Technology, Research on Underrepresentation.