The following is a selection of service activities that I have participated in both in my current appointment at the University of Victoria and in my previous appointment as a tenure-track teaching faculty at UBC.
The content here is is intended to elaborate on a subset of my service contributions to demonstrate how they further the goals of recruitment and retention of a diverse student population at the university.
For a full overview of my service contributions see my Curriculum Vitae.

Service at University of Victoria

• (2019 – present) Chair, Computer Science Curriculum Committee.
  • In this role I currently perform the following duties:
    • Investigate, propose and facilitate curriculum and subsequent Calendar changes
    • Investigate and communicate Calendar changes posed by other units that impact our department
    • Analyze existing course learning outcomes to identify curriculum overlap
  • In this role, some of the larger-scale changes made and that are currently being worked on are:
    • removal of CSC 106 as Computer Science Major, Honours and Combined program requirement
    • reduction of the range of 100 level Computer Science courses to eliminate curriculum overlap and streamline offerings to better accommodate student enrolment demands
    • reinstatement of Computer Science Graphics and Gaming Option due to student demand and support from new research faculty hires
    • negotiation/design of a Data Science program to be shared between Computer Science and Math with course support form Electrical and Computer Engineering
• (Mar – Dec 2020) coordinator, Online-Teaching working group
  With the pandemic came a quick shift to online teaching.  At the request of the Department Chair I organized and facilitated discussion both in the form of online meetings and shared documents to allow instructors to work together.  Instructors were able to share experiences and ideas surrounding how to provide content that fit with their teaching style and pedagogical practices as well as to discuss concerns surrounding academic integrity and brainstorm ways to develop meaningful assessments.
  Additionally, I worked with Engineering’s Associate Dean and the Learning and Teaching Centre to establish common language to be used in course outlines to clearly articulate expectations surrounding academic integrity, connectivity and synchronous/asynchronous participation.
• (2019 – present) Outreach, Recruitment and Retention Coordinator
  • (Mar 2021) faculty interviewee, UVic Bounce – an initiative led by Dr. Rebecca Gagan intended to provide student health and wellness support through the sharing of faculty stories: recording
  • (Jan 2021 – present) mentor, Women in Engineering and Computer Science (WECS) executive.
    WECS is a student-led group that unfortunately did not transition with graduating senior executive during the pandemic.  When I was contacted in December 2020 by a student with concerns of sexism, inclusion and lack of support networks I supported her in the reinstitution of an online version of WECS.  While I met with this student weekly and helped to connect with past-executive, the student drove this initiative on her own.  She gathered concerns from other students through a survey and brought the community back together with regular (online) meetings to share challenges as well as provide support and advice to each other. Group members have even begun collaborating on youth outreach initiatives.
    I subsequently arranged to have the student present an overview of her survey findings to our Computer Science Department, which highlighted common concerns of harassment and a general sense of not feeling included or heard.   While the survey data was preliminary, I felt it important for our faculty to hear what was happening in the online learning environment.
  • (Fall 2019) Initiated a weekly programming-practice event pilot project.
    • Drawing on my experience at UBC as a Prof-in-Res, I wanted to provide additional support to improve first-year experience through some form of a weekly, faculty-led event.  The goal was to bring students together and develop healthy study relationships, but more importantly, increase opportunities for student-faculty interaction with the intent to ease the anxiety surrounding asking a professor for help.
    • This initial pilot project was designed to provide weekly support targeting students taking the first-term programming course (CSC 110).  This target population of approximately 400 students, included Computer Science majors but also included students from other programs taking the course as an elective or as a degree requirement.  With the shift to online learning we were unable to run this project in 2020 but look forward to reintroducing it in Fall 2021.
    • Facilitating this project involved the following:
      • scheduling and booking of space
      • development and printing of weekly worksheets with programming exercises
      • hosting weekly events where students worked through the worksheets at their own pace while myself and volunteers circulated helping where needed
      • coordination with the CSC 110 instructor (Dr. Estey) to promote this opportunity to students
      • collaboration with Dr. Estey, where he attended weekly the sessions helping students with the problem solving and hosting some weeks.
      • recruitment of volunteers from WECS (3-4 per week) to provide problem solving support
    • Participation observations:
      • initial weeks had large attendance (200+ students)
      • later weeks, attendance was lower (~60 students) but we saw a consistent set of students attend with many establishing core-groups they worked through problems with
  • (Oct 2019) presentation, recruiting talk for engineering transfer students at University of Fraser Valley
  • (Sep 2019) panelist, New Student Welcome, Faculty of Engineering.

Service at University of British Columbia

Computer Science Department Service

• (2015-2018) member of the UBC Computer Science Undergraduate Operations Committee (UGO)
  • Hosted advising appointments (2 hr/wk)
  • performed pre-requisite checks, graduation checks, etc. (1 per term)
• (Sep 2017-Apr 2018) Code Parties: A pilot project I initiated inspired by hackathons and coding competitions but with a cooperative flair.  The idea, was to develop students’ skills in a non-competitive, collegial environment to develop their confidence for interview success.  I recruited and met with a group of three students ~2hours/week where they bring problems or projects that they would like to work on.  The students both discussed/worked together and worked individually on projects.
• (2016-2018) member of the ad hoc Computer Science Lecturer Hiring Committee
  • reviewing of online applications
  • interviewing which included question/answer period and a teaching demonstration
  • selection of successful candidate(s)

Vantage College Service

• (2016-2018) Chair of the Vantage Academic Outreach Committee
  • In this committed we had the mandate to share Vantage practices and innovations both internally and externally to UBC. In bi-weekly meetings, we identified and made progress on 3 concrete actions:
    • creation of flexible slide presentations for Vantage staff/faculty to use to describe Vantage College
    • creation of a centralized collection of contributions made by Vantage staff and faculty
    • Faculty spotlights (~2 per term): Faculty interviews published online in text format.  Intended to highlight teaching contributions but also allow students to get to know the faculty.
• (2015-2018) member of the Vantage Applied Science Curriculum Committee
  • contributed to bi-weekly meetings to discuss curriculum changes, student wellness, grades submission and admission and progression policies
  • participated in and helped plan multiple social events for Vantage Applied Science students
• (2015-2018) member of the Vantage Science Curriculum Committee
  • contributed to weekly meetings to discuss curriculum changes, student wellness, grades submission and admission and progression policies.
  • participated in and helped execute social events for Vantage Science students

University Service

• (2016-2018) Prof-in-Res for Orchard Commons
  • In this role I worked with the UBC Residence Life Team as the Prof-in-Res for Orchard Commons to support the goal to provide direct interaction with faculty to first-year student residents. This interaction is intended to provide a setting in which students can gain academic insights and advice as well as to increase student comfort with approaching faculty.
• (Sep 2016-Apr 2017) Mentor, UBC Women in Science (WiS) Mentorship program.
• (Sep2016-Apr 2017) Mentor, UBC Residence Life Mentorship program.
• (Sep 2017) O-Prof, Meet a Prof, Imagine Day, Faculty of Science.
• (Sep 2017) Faculty co-representative, Meet a Prof, Imagine Day, Vantage Applied Science.
• (Aug 2017) Faculty Fellow, JumpStart Student Orientation, UBC First Year Experience.
• (Aug 2017) Panelist, JumpStart Prof Talks, UBC First Year Experience.
• (Aug 2017) Panelist, JumpStart Advising Session, Vantage College.
• (March 2017) Judge, BizHacks: case-competition/hackathon with collaborative teams of business and computer science students, Sauder School of Business, UBC.
• (Oct 2016) Panelist, Lunch and Learn for female CS and prospective CS students, Focus on Women in Computer Science/Committee on Diversity and Equity.
• (Sep 2016) Faculty co-representative, “Meet a Prof”, Imagine Day, Vantage Applied Science.
• (Aug 2016) Panelist, JumpStart Advising Session, Vantage College.
• (Mar 2016) Faculty representative, “Women in Tech Panel”, Focus on Women in Computer Science.
• (Mar 2016) Faculty co-representative, Meet your Major, Faculty of Science.
• (Feb 2016) Faculty co-representative, Vantage TA Orientation/Training.
• (Sep 2015) Faculty co-representative, Vantage TA Orientation/Training.
• (Sep 2015) Faculty co-representative, Meet a Prof, Imagine Day, Vantage Science.

External Outreach Initiatives

• (Feb 2017) Panelist, STEM high-school career fair, Opening the Door, Science World, Vancouver, BC.
• (2007-2010) ACCESS  (Aboriginal Connections with Computing, Engineering and System Software): Canadian Aboriginal communities are growing at six times the national average, yet the percentage of those completing even just a high school education falls well below the national average.  Motivated by the growth of Canada’s First Nations population and the desire to provide them with opportunities to become producers of technology in support of their communities.  I worked on this project with my PhD supervisor Dr Yvonne Coady and we were supported by and collaborated with the University of Victoria’s Office of Indigenous Affairs.  The ACCESS (Aboriginal Connections with Computing, Engineering and System Software) program at UVic promotes educational activities for all ages in largely local Aboriginal communities.
  Provided below is an overview of some of the workshops that we designed and facilitated:

  (Summer 2007) Youth Intro to Computer Science Workshop

  NSERC Pacific supported the ACCESS project’s initial goal to investigate the ways in which Computer Science and Engineering education connections can be better established, maintained and nurtured in the largely remote indigenous communities.  Initial connections were established as is outlined below, but further nurturing of these connections is necessary.  Visits were made to two remote Indigenous communities on Northern Vancouver Island in cooperation with Science Venture.  During these visits essential communication connections were established as well as Indigenous students actively participating in activities taken from Mike Fellow’s Computer Science Unplugged book.

  Through the contacts made with Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi of UVic’s Office of Indigenous Affairs the need for outreach activities in local communities was identified.   Through Fran, communication with local Indigenous communities was established, including Tsecum, Tsawout and the Esquimalt Nation.  With the sponsorship of NSERC, ACCESS was able to contribute to a three week Indigenous youth camp organized by the Tsawout Nation.

  During the three days spent in UVic’s Computer Science department, students were given the opportunity to explore their environmental surroundings using new technology:  Google Maps and Google Earth; CRD camera on Race Rocks; and images from the Venus/Neptune project off of Cordova Spit located on Tsawout land.  They also participated in unplugged activities, a robotics workshop, group problem solving activities, and had an opportunity to write a program to create their own version of the game of Pong using the SCRATCH programming environment.

  (Fall 2007)  Youth Technical Camp

  Funding awarded by BC government grant partially supported the development and deployment of this multi-level technical training program for both youth and adults.  A pilot program for youth was developed and offered in November 2007 within the Tsawout First Nation community.  This twenty-hour workshop was run over ten evenings and covered six core computer science topics with a main focus on core computer knowledge, programming and problem solving skills.  For example, in the hardware and file systems component we hoped to familiarize students with some of the essential pieces of hardware that make up the computer.

  Our goal was to prepare the students to be able to perform basic troubleshooting within the community and feel confident in the purchase of their own computer.  The programming component introduced general concepts of conditionals, looping, and branching using the graphical programming language called Scratch, developed at MIT.  With this component, students were not only introduced to programming concepts that first university students encounter, but they exercised their problem solving and math skills in the process.

  (Spring 2008) Adult Learners Technical Workshop

  This workshop was held in the remote community of Alert Bay on Northern Vancouver Island.  The same material used in the Youth Technical Camp was leveraged in a three-day format for adult learners.  The format of this workshop followed the ACIP steps for learning: 1) connecting, 2) processing, 3) transforming and 4) reflecting on learning activities.

• (2006-2007) School Age Programs:  Motivated by the interests of my, then pre-teen daughters, I was the initial organizer of an after-school, programming group, introducing students ranging from ages 7 to 13 years to computer science concepts.  An activity to be performed individually or in small groups framed each session and was supported by group instruction and individual assistance.  After establishing a model for these sessions, I mentored undergraduate students in the offering of the sessions and the activity development.  The success of this model lead to its growth and expansion to the SPARCS (Solving Problems with Algorithms, Robots and ComputerS) group at the University of Victoria through the mentorship and support of Dr. Ulrike Stege.