SARAH + SERVICE
Sarah is committed to serving her department, college, and university in addition to the broader community. Her commitment to service has been recognized by the following awards:
Heart of Gold Faculty Service Award, University of Southern Mississippi Enrollment Services, 2021
Top in Tech Award, Mississippi Business Journal, 2019
President’s Commission on the Status of Women Outstanding Faculty Woman, MSU, 2016.
Inspiring Women in Stem, Insight into Diversity Magazine, selected as 1 of 100 nationwide, 2015
Bagley College of Engineering Service Award, 2014.
In 2013, she co-founded Bulldog Bytes, an outreach program at Mississippi State University providing education in computing and cybersecurity throughout the state of Mississippi. She was the Program Director for the National Security Agency GenCyber student summer programs at MSU from 2017 until 2020. With funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, she is working to provide equitable access to cybersecurity education to persons in Mississippi from K-12 to workforce through the Mississippi Coding Academies.
In 2019, Sarah co-founded the Last Mile Education Fund to provide financial support to college students in computing majors when they find themselves faced with challenges beyond their control.
As a member of the AccessComputing community of practice, she supports the University of Washington’s AccessCSForAll alliance with intentional outreach and activities to increase participation of persons with disabilities on computing education and career pathways.
Professional community
Board Member, The Bean Path, May 2020 - present.
Technical Trainer, Cybersecurity 101 (2 sessions), Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, December 12 2019.
Panelist, STEAM - Why Not? A Year Later, Panel Discussion @ (ISC)2 Security Congress, Orlando FL, October 2019
Panelist, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Education, 2019 Rural RISE Summit, September 18 2019, Pine Bluff AR.
Invited Speaker, Personal Journey as a Woman in a Tech Field, Women of Design and Tech Meetup Group, August 8 2019, Flowood MS.
Invited Speaker, Cybersecurity is Everyone’s Responsibility, Rotary International, May 2 2019, Louisville MS.
Invited Speaker, Cybersecurity: It’s Everyone’s Responsibility, Golden Triangle Human Resource Association, March 12 2019, Columbus MS.
Speaker, P-5 Coding Initiative, Mississippi School Boards Association Annual Conference, Feb 19 2019, Jackson MS.
Invited Speaker, Workforce of the Future, Mississippi Digital Government Summit, September 12 2018, Jackson MS.
Invited Speaker, Social Engineering and Why Cybersecurity is Everyone’s Responsibility, BankTEL User Conference, Memphis TN, October 2018
Panelist, STEAM - Why Not?, Panel Discussion @ (ISC)2 Security Congress, New Orleans LA, October 2018
Invited Speaker, Cybersecurity: It’s Everyone’s Responsibility, Webinar for BankTel, Feb 27 2018.
Invited Speaker, Birds of a Feather, Best Practices and Experiences with AspireIT, 2018 National Center for Women and Information Technology Annual Summit, Grapevine, TX, May 15 – 17, 2018.
Invited Speaker, “Women in STEM,” 17th Annual Conference on Technology Innovation, October 17, 2017, Jackson MS.
Co-founder of Silicon South, a collaborative effort between Mississippi State University's Computer Science and Engineering Department and other stakeholders in the state. Goals include promoting job growth in and bringing digital literacy and computational thinking to the children and workforce to the southern region of the United States.
Charter member and on the Leadership Team for CodeMS, a project founded by numerous individuals and organizations brought together by Innovate Mississippi.
MSU University community
Voted by BCoE faculty to represent the College on the MSU President and Provost’s Clinical/Instructional Faculty Task Force, 2019 - 2020
Voted by BCoE faculty to represent the College on the University Community Engagement Committee, 2019-2020
President's Commission on the Status of Women, member 2016-2018, Awards Committee 2016-2017, Vice President 2017-2018
Invited speaker, "Computing Study and Careers", LeaderSTATE camp, MSU, June 19, 2017
Invited speaker, "Women and Leadership", WE Lead (leadership conference for high school girls), MSU, July 23 2015.
Co-led student advising session at Academic Administrators Training hosted by the Provost’s Office, audience included new Academic department heads and other administrators, 2012.
Invited speaker, “Careers in computing and time management”, MSU Broadening Participation in Computing, 2012.
Bagley College of Engineering Promotion & Tenure Committee, 2019- 2020.
DOW Diversity Fellowship: Selected to provide mentoring to minority MSU Bagley College of Engineering students, 2015-2017. Met with the students one-on-one and as a group at least one time each semester, facilitate contact and mentoring between student learners and industry representatives, including site visits and conference attendance.
Invited speaker, I Am Girl workshop, Bagley College of Engineering (BCOE), February 13 2016.
Invited panelist, “Engineering majors and careers”, BCOE Summer Bridge, summers 2012-15.
Invited speaker, “Computing majors/careers”, BCOE Summer Engineering Academy, 2014.
Search Committee, BCOE associate dean for academic affairs, 2014.
Academic Advisor to Undergraduates (advisees each semester since 2011 have ranged from 60 to 160 total)
Faculty Advisor, CSE Ambassadors, 2011-2020
Faculty Advisor, Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honors Society, 2016-2018
Search Committee, CSE clinical faculty, 2016
Search Committee, CSE Department Head, 2016 and 2017
Initiated and led an ad-hoc Advising Committee in CSE to design (and implement) an improved methodology for assigning students to academic advisors.
Coordinator, Institutional Effectiveness reports for CSE, 2011-2018.
Chair, CSE Software Engineering and Computer Undergraduate Studies Committee, 2011-2016, 2018- 2020.
Coordinator for ABET in CSE, 2011-2018. Facilitated the collection of ABET assessment data, review of those assessments, and quality improvement review of the ABET process
Research community
Invited Panelist, "CSforALL Community Call: How are CS
Educators Innovating for Virtual Summer Programs,” May 27 2020 (virtual).
Invited speaker, Illuminating the Computing Pathway for Women, Computer Science colloquium, University of Memphis, April 7, 2017.
Aspirations Advisory Council, National Center for Women and Information Technology, 2018 - present.
Review Panelist, WeTech Qualcomm Global Scholars
NSF Review Panelist, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
American Society for Engineering Education-Southeast: Publications and Promotions Committee Chair, 2016-2017, Secretary, 2015-2016; Software Engineering Division Chair, 2014-2015; Scholarship Review Panelist, 2017
Invited speaker, Computer Science colloquium, University of Memphis, Recruiting and Retaining Women in Computing, February 22 2013.
K12 community
Bulldog Bytes Outreach Program, Director, 2013-2020. Offered computing camps for elementary girls, middle school and high school girls and boys. Co-developed the curriculum for these camps that teach computer programming and principles of cybersecurity and the applicability of cybersecurity to everyday life.
Collaborated with the MSU College of Education to offer summer professional development for teachers, 2014-2020. The workshops, offered under the Bulldog Bytes program, introduce teachers to computer programming and cybersecurity and assists them with developing plans for integrating those topics into their classrooms. This research-based work will inform the development of a computer science education major and licensing for CS teachers in the state of Mississippi.
NCWIT Academic Affiliate Core Member, Aspirations in Computing Award Coordinator, 2012-present.
Curriculum Review Committee, Mississippi School for Math & Science (MSMS), 2014.
Related Professional Development:
Legal Issues Conference, April 2016
Career Development workshop “Mentoring”, Jan 29-30 2015
QPR Gatekeeper training (suicide prevention), 4/21/2015
LGBTQ Safe Zone Ally training, September 2014