SC22 Brings a strong and diverse cohort of WINS SC22 Participants
(Boulder, CO - June 27, 2022) Three new participants have been chosen to join the Women in IT
Networking at SC (WINS) program for SC22 – the annual International Conference for High
Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis which will take place this year in
Dallas, Texas.
WINS, created in 2015, seeks to address the gender gap within the information technology
industry, particularly in network engineering. Each year WINS funds highly qualified women,
selected through a competitive application process, to join the conference’s SCinet team.
Created each year for the SC Conference, SCinet is a global multi-terabit network built from the
ground-up to support the revolutionary participant demos that are the hallmark of the
high-tech conference.
WINS strives to have diverse representation of organizations and applicant backgrounds in the
cohort each year. WINS continues to receive highly competitive applications and interest and
support of the program remains strong.
The SC22 WINS awardees are:
●Angela Diahkah - Jemez Pueblo Tribal Network, joins the SCinet Fiber Team
●Ola Gamal - The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) -
joins the SCinet Wide Area Networking Team
●Alicia Marques - Virginia Community Colleges System - joins the SCinet Routing Team
The awardees are deeply immersed in a 6-9 month intense engineering experience before the
event begins and during the SC conference while SCinet is operated live. They are integrated
into one of over fifteen SCinet teams and are paired with a mentor to ensure a positive
experience throughout the process.
“The 2022 awardees are continuing the tradition of some of the best and brightest women
participating in the WINS program,” said Nathaniel Mendoza, member of the WINS review
committee, SCinet Finance Chair and Chief Information Security Officer from the Texas
Advanced Computing Center (TACC).
Mendoza added, “This year awardees were selected from a pool of very diverse backgrounds
and skill sets in the history of the program. The WINS program continues to provide excellent
participants to all SCinet teams that enhance the experience for all those that are involved in
SCinet. I am looking forward to seeing this year's awardees bring in their experiences and
knowledge and help shape SCinet this year and in future years to come.”
When WINS was created in 2015, less than 14% of SCinet volunteers were women. Since then
this number has tripled with a significant number of the alumni ascending to SCinet
management roles.
As a testament to this, for SC24, one of the original WINS awardees, Angie Asmus from
Colorado State University, was selected among peers to serve as the Chair of SCinet, the top
position a volunteer can hold on the SCinet committee. “I am very excited, and I know it will be
challenging. I think back about my journey to this point and am so fortunate to have this
opportunity, all because of WINS!”
In addition to the SCinet experience, WINS provides ongoing support and career development
opportunities for the awardees before, during, and after the conference. This includes monthly
calls for the community of WINS alumni participants which now tops 40 women.
WINS is a joint effort between the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the
Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), and the Keystone Initiative for
Network Based Education and Research (KINBER). The multi-year program is funded primarily
by grants from the National Science Foundation and direct funding from ESnet with support
from the Department of Energy and other collaborating organizations from the research
community and industry. Members of the WINS management team include PI Marla Meehl and
Scott Baily of UCAR; co-PI Wendy Huntoon of KINBER; Kate Robinson and Jason Zurawski of
ESnet; Kimball Sekaquaptewa with Santa Fe Indian School, Brenna Meade from Indiana
University, and Lauren Rotman.
