Women’s History Month

Annu Prabhakar is a Professor in the School of Information Technology. Throughout her 22 years of teaching at UC, she has been a strong advocate for women. In her chosen field of Computing, women faculty and students are a minority. Sensing the need for support and networking opportunities for women students in the program, she started the Women in IT (WIT)  student organization in her first year at UC. As the only female faculty member in the unit for a long time, she continued to serve as the WIT faculty adviser for over a decade. Through WIT, she organized workshops and networking activities for students. She served as the inaugural organizing committee member of Cincinnati's Women in Technology (WIT)  conference. In collaboration with women leaders from regional universities and businesses, the WIT conference provided leadership, networking, and scholarship opportunities for women students pursuing computing-related degrees in the region, including students in the IT program. She continues to help IT students attend the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing (OCWiC) conferences, where they can present their scholarly work and connect with students from other Ohio universities.  Dr. Prabhakar integrates her advocacy for women into her scholarly work with her research on designing socio-technical support interventions for new mothers to help prevent post-partum depression.  Her commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is evident through her leadership roles at UC and other organizations. She serves as the Co-Chair of the Faculty Senate ad-hoc committee on Race & Equity. She is a recipient of the George Barbour Award, a University-wide award for excellence in Faculty- Student relations. Dr. Prabhakar is a Commissioner of the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET,  the premier accreditation organization for computing and engineering.

Submission comments:

“Very dedicated to her students and her attention to detail is very fascinating.” -Student

“Her contributions during the past two decades to the school, college, university, and to our community are remarkable!”- Student

“She is a strong example of female leadership and success in her own right, but she devotes her time to studying and sharing about others.”- Student

Dr. Nelly Elsayed is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Technology. She is the Leader and Founder of the Applied Machine Learning and Intelligence Lab. She received a BS. and MS. degree in Computer Science from Alexandria University, and She received her MS. Eng. And Ph.D. degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is an IEEE Computational Intelligence Society active member. She has served as a principal investigator and co-co-principal investigator in different federal, educational, and industrial level-funded research projects. She received the Faculty Incentive Award for Research and Scholarship from the CECH, UC, recognizing her research contributions, journal and conference peer-reviewed publications, and professional presentations in 2020-2021. She received the Love of Learning Award from the Honor Society Phi Kappa Phi in 2019 and 2021. She received the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (Graduate Level), CECH. She received the UCAADA Sarah Grant Barber Outstanding Advising Faculty Award for the academic year 2021-2022 University of Cincinnati. She has been an Ambassador for Goodwill of Lafayette, Louisiana, since 2017.

Submission comments:

“Great instructor”- Student

“One of the greatest challenges of international students is getting an advisor to work with and finding a faculty they can communicate with. Dr. Nelly has a great cultural blend with a unique ability to decompose difficult tasks and help students navigate through roadblocks.”- Student

“I am personally enthralled by her courage and mentorship, especially during my graduate program journey. She was instrumental to my research success, and I have been able to transfer some of the skills she taught me to other students within the CECH community”

Josette Riep is the Assistant Vice President of Integrated Development, Engineering & Application Services (IDEAS) in Digital Technology Solutions (DTS) and is currently pursuing a PhD in IT. Josette has worked in the field of Development for over 20 years and her current responsibilities include: Leadership over custom development initiatives spanning education, research, patient care & administration; Equity & Inclusion sponsorship activities with an emphasis on increasing STEM representation for African Americans and other underrepresented groups, customer relationship management; budget planning, and resource allocation; project planning, the establishment of methods to share lessons learned; implementation of best practices among DTS developers; hands-on coordination of projects and other strategic initiatives; process improvement to evolve the efficiency and effectiveness of DTS operations; team building; revenue generation. Josette is committed to creating a more inclusive environment within STEM and strongly believes that an individual must have a willingness to break through barriers, clear obstacles, and pave new paths where needed. Through participation in UC’s Diversity initiatives including the UC Equity & Inclusion Liaison Committee, the DTS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program, ShareIT (training and mentoring program), AI-driven research related to the expansion of African Americans in STEM, and other initiatives Josette continues to serve a role in ensuring UC creates an environment that does not tolerate but embraces our differences and thus empowers individuals and organizations to excel.

Submission comments:

“She truly believes in all students succeeding. She gives each student a opportunity as well to showcase their talent and skillsets. Aside from that she does a phenomenal job being head of the IT department.” - Employee

“She is constantly putting out fires, making sure everything goes as it needs to and that the department is never lacking. I’ve personally seen how hard she has worked and it’s always paid off. She has moved up in multiple rankings because she truly deserves it.”- Employee

Name: Keyona Schill (She/her)

CECH Affiliation: 2^nd year Student, Criminal Justice

How do you celebrate Women’s History Month? I celebrate Women’s History month with self care, whether this includes getting my hair done or going out to eat and enjoying time to myself. As the strong independent women we are, we work really hard to accomplish our goals and support others around us.

Our campaign is entitled, “Be Historic.” How does your work inspire future women leaders? As a young female minority, it is essential to set a path of vision to inspire future women leaders. As a young lady in student government, I’ve learned to take the time to iniatives that you are passionate about. Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself, never say never, and don’t give up on the things you truly care about.

What are some personal achievements or activities you are involved in that you would like to share? Within the past year, 2022, I’ve been on the Dean’s List, recieved an Award of Distinction and a Superior Achievement 4.0 GPA. I’m currently a Bearcat Academy mentor and I enjoy meeting with my mentees at Taft, Hughes, and Aiken high school. I’m a member of Camp Kesem where we fundraise for kids whose parents have been impacted by cancer and use the money to send them to camp for free.