Participants


2023


Ola Gamal

I am an Associate Core Engineer at CENIC. I was promoted to this
position last year. I am part of the network design and automation team. I worked as Network operation Engineer at CENIC for the past 5 years
during that time I was responsible of troubleshooting and maintaining
L1/L2/L3 infrastructure of CENIC backbone network. Evaluating and
executing network maintenance activities to upgrade or troubleshoot
network issues. I am originally from Sudan. I have lived all my life in Sudan and migrated to the US in 2017. I attended University of Khartoum to obtain my bachelor’s degree in Electrical engineering. My passion to networking started after being an intern in a local service provider in Sudan. I realized how fascinating network is and how it is changing our world. From 2011 until 2016 I worked in several service providers in Sudan and Ethiopia as Network Engineer and Packed Core Engineer. I was lucky to participate in designing and deploying new networks for several companies. I am mother of 4 year old boy, who I wish to grow curious and kind. In my spare time I love doing outside activities with my family and friends, travel and read books.


Britt Huff

Senior Network Engineer at Purdue University with a focus in enterprise and datacenter networking, I am also a member of the teams that maintain the university firewall instances, DNS/DHCP services, and monitoring systems. A Bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Technology and a Master’s degree in Project Management from Purdue, I have been a student or employee of the university since 2007. 2022 was my first year with SCinet on the Edge team, and for 2023, I will be part of the Network Security team. A lifelong student, I am always looking for a challenge. In my spare time, you will either find me hiking with my dog or gravel riding through the countryside.


Shannen McKenna

Shannen McKenna is a Senior Information Security Analyst at University of California, Davis. Originally from Indiana, she graduated from Purdue University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Technology. She began her journey in cybersecurity as a Security Analyst with the Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center while attending Purdue. After graduation, she moved to Sacramento to work as a Digital Forensics Examiner with a private firm, analyzing devices for evidence to be used in litigation. With a passion for investigation and problem solving, she now uses her digital forensics skills to conduct incident response for UC Davis, helping to determine root cause of incidents and offering recommendations for remediation. She regularly acts as a liaison between the Information Security Office and other units on campus, working collaboratively to improve incident response and security practices across the University. In her free time, she is just as creative as she is technical, enjoying making art, swing dancing, reading, playing video games, and dabbling in guitar. She currently resides in sunny Sacramento with her fiancé Brian and their three cats and one dog.


Hallie Mull

Hallie Mull is a network engineer at Bucknell University. She’s been with Bucknell for almost two years focusing on firewall technologies and cloud networking while maintaining other aspects of the network. Before working at Bucknell, Hallie spent some time in the local county government and six and a half years with a corporation specializing in building materials. She started her career in IT while in the US Army Reserves. She spent eight years as an IT Specialist and decided to pursue it as a career. In her spare time, she enjoys crafting and crocheting. She resides in Central Pennsylvania with her fiancé Josh and two cats, Rory, and Patches.


Suzanne Prentice

Suzanne is a software engineer with experience in the high-performance computing field. She currently works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she develops custom management software for the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. She is committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative work environment, progressing open science. Beyond her technical expertise, she is passionate about mentoring students and contributing to organizations that work towards increasing diversity in computing. She has co-organized workshops for internship programs at the lab and served on the PEARC conference Student Volunteer Committee for the past two years. Outside of her technical pursuits, Suzanne enjoys practicing capoeira, rock climbing, and completing crosswords.


Pauline Sawadogo

Pauline is originally from Burkina Faso, West Africa. She worked as an elementary school teacher and a program coordinator before moving to the US. Since her childhood, she was always curious about what is inside computers and by which mechanism they perform communication. In 2014, she returned to college and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in information
technology from Kennesaw State University.
She’s currently working as a Network Technician II at Clemson University with diverse daily tasks such as monitoring network devices, troubleshooting wired and wireless network connection issues, creating DNS records, firewall rules and Network security.
Additionally, as a former elementary teacher, I am passionate about creating fun learning material for k12 students and volunteering for STEM shows in elementary schools. She moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Anderson, South Carolina where she now resides with her husband Mathurin, her son Vincent de Paul, and their dog Merlin.


Alysha Toya

Alysha Toya is from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. She was brought up on the reservation and speaks the tribe’s native language, Towa. She went onto completing her Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico (UNM). During her career at UNM, she had the opportunity of working with a variety of subjects from fluid dynamics to coding and held leadership positions in the UNM American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). She now works for her tribe in IT for the Jemez Health and Human Services where she has been able to contribute her knowledge, customer service skills, and problem solving skills as a help desk technician. In her spare time, Alysha is raising her son, enjoys the outdoors, as well as helps in the family business of sewing traditional clothes.