Askren receives Chancellor’s Outstanding Contributions to Women Award
Mark Askren, Vice Chancellor, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer recently received the Chancellor’s Outstanding Contributions to Women Award for work in creating a positive climate for women at UNL. The award was conferred jointly by the Office of the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women at ceremonies on March 17.
The award, presented by Susan Foster, Director of Institutional Equity and Compliance noted that Askren, is “committed to encouraging and enabling women to reach for the stars and attain their full potential. He’s not afraid of real conversations. This manner allows for people who are usually under-represented to be heard and valued”.
Askren spearheaded UNL’s first ever IT Leadership Conference with the theme “Opportunities that Scale: Women Advancing the Future of Information Technology and Computer Science.” The event drew female leaders from across the state and speakers from across the country. The conference was so successful that the 2016 conference is already being planned with a theme that will also focus on under-represented populations in IT.
The award includes a $1,000 funding stipend through the Chancellor’s office. Askren has been elected to direct this funding to Computing for All, a UNL student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing.
Photo by Brad Severa
