The Center for STEM Education is pleased to announce that Ruthe Farmer will be the keynote speaker for the 2017 WeTeach_CS Summit being held in Austin, TX from June 5-7. “Ruthe Farmer’s dedication to opening up CS education to all students has been an inspiration to everyone working towards CS for All,” said Amy Werst, Manager of Programatic Operations for the Center for STEM Education. “We’re really excited that she’ll be keynoting this year’s WeTeach_CS Summit and sharing that passion with Texas CS teachers.”
Those familiar with the national call for Computer Science for All (CS for All) will recognize Ruthe Farmer as a driving force behind the movement, having served as Senior Policy Advisor for Tech Inclusion at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy during the Obama administration. While working to implement the CS for All initiative, Farmer held the first Summit on Computer Science for All and routinely engaged with community partners around the nation in support of the CS for All initiative.
This engagement with community partners around the country brought Ruthe Farmer to Texas last fall for the CS4TX Statewide Meeting. The event, held in Houston, brought together education leaders, teachers, business leaders, policy makers, parents, and CS professionals to address the challenges facing K-12 CS education in Texas. Farmer spoke at the event along with representatives of Google, Code.org, and Dr. Richard Tapia of Rice University. During the event, Farmer stressed the All in CS for All, calling for a greater emphasis on diversity and including in the CS classroom.
After leaving the White House, Ruthe Farmer has continued advocating for CS for All. This is no surprise as diversity and inclusion in technology and engineering have been Farmer’s passion since 2001. Over the years Ruthe Farmer has worked with groups as diverse as the National Center for Women & IT (NCWIT) and PBS’ SciGirls. Farmer has also been named a White House Champion of Change for Technology Inclusion in 2013, received the Anita Borg Institute Award for Social Impact in 2014, and the Education UK Alumni Award for Social Impact in 2015.
View Ruthe Farmer’s full bio here. (PDF)
More information about the 2017 WeTeach_CS Summit