Meet Kyla McMullen: The 1st Black Woman to Graduate With a PhD In CS at U-Michigan
January 17, 2013 at 10:57 am 1 comment
I just learned this fact at the NSF BPC/CE21 meeting from Jane Margolis’s talk. This last Fall 2012, the first female African-American CS PhD graduated from the University of Michigan. Michigan is 14% African-American. University of Michigan is a state institution. Really? 2012? I guess it’s not too surprising, when we know from the AP CS data that I talked about last year that few African-Americans get access to computer science in Michigan.
Dr. Kyla McMullen is the first African American woman to graduate with a PhD in computer science at the University of Michigan. When asked how she feels about her new title, the scholar replied “Bittersweet.” She explained that it’s gratifying to have the distinction of being the university’s first African American female to acquire a PhD in computer science, it reminds her of a sad reality: There aren’t enough men and women of color pursuing advanced degrees in computer science.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: APCS, BPC, NSF.
Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take 
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Black Enrollment Falls at UMich as Michigan Voters Reject Affirmative Action | Computing Education Blog | October 15, 2013 at 1:34 am
[…] amendment. Let me put the below statistic in a bit of CS Ed context. As mentioned previously, UMich just graduated last year the first Black female CS PhD. Barb’s analysis of AP CS stats includes Michigan. Michigan has 9.8 million residents. It […]