Alicia Nicki Washington
Personal Information
Born: Unknown
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
Jonson C. Smith University 2000 BS Computer Science/Mathematics; North Carolina State University 2002 MS Computer Science, 2005 PhD computer Science
Professional Life
Field of Study: Computer Science; Educator
Institution/Corporation: Duke University; Winthrop University; Howard University; IBM; Aerospace Corporation
Degrees & Memberships: Member Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2019, Computer Science Hall of Fame
Achievements: 1st Black woman to earn a PhD in Computer Science from North Carolina State University (2005(; led the creation & implementation of 1st Google-in-Residence program at Howard University; lead writer for K-12 Computer Science Framework (code.org) & SC Computer Science & Digital Literacy Standards; owner Washington Integrated Consulting, LLC (2017); at Duke, was the co-creator (with Dr. Shaundra Daily & Cecile Sadder) of the Cultural Competence in Computing (3C) Fellows Program; 2021, with Daily received NSF grant to establish Duke University's Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (AIICE); 1st African-American Computer Science faculty member at Howard University
Author of Unapologetically Dope: Lessons for Black Women& Girls on Surviving & Thriving in the Tech Field; Learned how to code from her mother who was a programmer at IBM; her mother was her mentor & she decided to write her book after attending a weekend workshop & realizing women new to the field of Computer Science were experiencing the same problems as she & her mother had, making it a 3-generation problem; at age 12 a teacher told her she "gave Blacks a bad rep" ; 1 of the reasons she pursued a PhD was she had seen a statistic noting only 6% of STEM PhDs were Black men/women; Cultural competence & DEI (diversity, equity, & inclusion) are main focuses of her research