SC12 BOF: Policies and Practices for Building a Diverse Workforce

ABSTRACT: Organizations compete to recruit and retain the best talent to achieve its mission focus, whether in academia, industry or federal agencies. Demographics show an increasingly diverse workforce, but often workplace policies lag behind and can be exclusionary. Not surprisingly, successful policies and practices that encourage diversity are beneficial to all employees, as they convey the organization’s recognition that people are its most valuable asset. Clear policies that are equally applied encourage diversity in the workplace. In this BOF, participants will share management strategies and experiences that have been successful at creating a diverse environment and are productive for all employees.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

TIME: 5:30PM - 7:00PM

SESSION LEADER(S): Fernanda Foertter, Rebecca Hartman-Baker, Hai Ah Nam, Judy Hill

ROOM: 253

We're excited this year to have two influential members of the HPC community talk at our BoF and share policies and practices in their organizations: Lucy Nowell from the Department of Energy and Irene Qualters from the National Science Foundation. Read their bios below:

Lucy Nowell, Program Manager, Data & Visualization

Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), Office of Science,

Department of Energy

Lucy Nowell is a Program Manager in the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) in the U.S. Department of Energy where she manages a broad portfolio of computer science research projects with a particular focus on Data and Visualization programs. Prior to joining ASCR, Dr. Nowell was on IPA assignment from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she was program director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure, in charge of the portfolio on data, data analysis, and visualization. She served as a Chief Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Lab and was a member of the team that designed and developed the award-winning OmniViz bioinformatics software and she contributed to patented user interface designs for ThemeRiver^TM and AniViz (animated visualization). Dr. Nowell began her career as a professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia, where she taught a wide variety of courses in Computer Science and Theatre. She also headed the Theatre program and later chaired the Computer Science Department. Dr. Nowell received her PhD and MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. She also has a Masters of Fine Arts degree in theatrical design from the University of New Orleans and a MA and BA in Theatre from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Irene Qualters, Program Director

Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI), National Science Foundation

Irene M. Qualters has been a Program Director within the Office of Cyberinfrastructure of the National Science Foundation (NSF) since December 2009 where her primary focus is NSF’s Advanced Computing Infrastructure projects, including such initiatives as the Blue Waters, Stampede, and the G8 Exascale Software Project, and a number of NSF-wide investments. From 2008 until 2009, she was a Senior Vice President of Silicon Graphics, Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions. From 2005 until 2008, Ms. Qualters was Vice President, Software Engineering of Ageia Technologies, Inc., a developer of gaming physics technology. From 1999 until 2005, she was Vice President, Research Information Services at Merck & Company, a global pharmaceuticals company. From 1995 until 1999, she held various executive positions with Cray Research, a developer of super computers, lastly as President of Cray Research and Senior Vice President of Silicon Graphics, Inc., then its holding company. She has also been a director of CyberOptics since 1999 and has been Lead Director since 2009. Ms. Qualters received her Bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University, and currently serves on their Board of Directors, and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Detroit. Her areas of expertise include parallelism and system architectures. She is particularly interested in innovative technologies for advancing science and engineering as well as sustainable operating models for HPC.SC12 Link