Prof. Townsend earns lifetime service award for her work

Gloria Townsend

Computer science Prof. Gloria Childress Townsend, who chairs the department at DePauw University, has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) Award for Lifetime Service to the computer science education community.

The award “honors an individual who has a long history of volunteer service to the computer science education community,” the organization notes. “This service, which is not limited to service to SIGCSE, may take many forms, such as professional society leadership, conference organization, outreach efforts, editorial board participation, or any of a number of other types of service to the computer science education community “

Townsend will receive the award at the 50th SIGCSE Technical Symposium conducted Feb 27–March 2 in Minneapolis.

The scope of SIGCSE is to provide a global forum for educators to discuss research and practice related to the learning, and teaching of computing, the development, implementation and evaluation of computing programs, curricula and courses at all education levels.

The organization has 2,716 members representing more than 60 countries.

For more than two decades at DePauw, Townsend has developed programs that help counter negative stereotypes attached to computing and encourage women to see the greater good that can come from a career in computer science.

In 2013, Townsend, the Tenzer Family University Professor in Instructional Technology, won the Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Tucker Jr. Distinguished Career Award which is presented annually to one or more senior members of the faculty. The Tucker Award, instituted in 1988, is designed to recognize achievements of faculty members who have made notable contributions to DePauw by their commitments to students, teaching excellence, their chosen disciplines and service to the university.