CONGRATULATIONS TO FLORENCE APPEL

SIGCAS SERVICE AWARD 2009

Florence Appel is Professor of Computer Science at Saint Xavier University.   She is honored with the 2009 SIGCAS Outstanding Service Award for her two-term tenure as SIGCAS chair.  Since her initial election in June 2005, Flo has overseen the production of the Computers & Society online newsletter and the formation of its six-member editorial board; forged new and continued collaborations with ACM SIGCSE (including annual Birds-Of-A-Feather sessions at SIGCSE symposia), the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT), IEEE Society for the Social Implications of Technology (SSIT), and the Consortium for Computer Sciences in Colleges (CCSC); promoted SIGCAS representation in and service to USACM, the ACM Education Council, and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee on Computers and Society.  She has also redesigned the SIGCAS website, and continues to develop opportunities for new SIGCAS membership involvement.

In 2009, Flo organized a special session at the SIGCSE Symposium to celebrate and commemorate SIGCAS’ 40^th anniversary.  The session involves both veteran and newer members, and drew a crowd of fifty interested participants.   She also worked closely with the Computers & Society editorial board to produce a special issue featuring updated interviews with SIGCAS award recipients, thus providing an opportunity to honor SIGCAS’ history and the perspectives of those whose work and commitment have contributed to SIGCAS’ ongoing existence and success.

Flo is a Professor of Computer Science at Saint Xavier University in Chicago; she has held a faculty position at this institution for 23 years.  Early in her career at Saint Xavier, she had expressed an interest in developing a computer ethics course, and was eventually approached by her very supportive department chair to follow up on this idea.  What ensued was the start of an over twenty-year involvement, continuing to this day, in a professional, scholarly and pedagogical pursuit that has enriched her in every possible way.  Her course, entitled Issues In Computing, has been a requirement for all computing students at Saint Xavier, and has evolved from coverage of social impact issues to a more formal treatment of applied ethics in the area of computing practices and policies.  In the area of computer ethics pedagogy, she has published several articles, made numerous conference presentations, and received National Science Foundation support for her work.   Her database privacy website (csmaster.sxu.edu/privacy), funded by an NSF grant, provides teaching and learning resources for faculty and students in introductory database courses.  Her other interests include encouraging under-represented populations to enter the computing field, and to that end, she has received substantial NSF support for student scholarships, and has also been integrally involved in efforts to attract women into the field, most recently organizing a highly successful Midwest Women In Computing (MidWIC) conference at Saint Xavier in Fall 2009.

Flo originally joined SIGCAS in order to gain access to teaching resources that would support her efforts in curriculum development in the computer ethics area, but explains that an added bonus to her SIGCAS involvement was the discovery of many wonderful colleagues with whom she has developed strong professional relationships and friendships over these many years.   She appreciates the opportunity to serve SIGCAS and give back something to an organization that has meant so much to her.