Lucinda (Lucy) M. Sanders

Bell Labs Fellow and CEO and Co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, Sanders has worked to expand the talent pool in the computing field while building on a distinguished research career.

She had an extensive industry background, having worked in R&D and executive positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs, and Avaya Labs for over 20 years, where she specialized in systems-level software and solutions (multi-media communication and customer relationship management). In 1996, Sanders was awarded the Bell Labs Fellow Award, the highest technical accomplishment bestowed at the company, and she held six patents in the communications technology area.

Sanders has served on several boards, including the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) Board of Trustees at the University of California at Berkeley; the Engineering Advisory Council at the University of Colorado at Boulder; the National Girls Collaborative Project Advisory Board; the Advisory Board for the Women's College Applied Computing Program at the University of Denver; the ATLAS Advisory Board; and several corporate boards. She has been a member of the ACM nominating committee and the ACM-W Advisory Board.

In 2004 Sanders was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Engineering at CU, and in 2007 she was inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame. Lucy has served as Conference Chair and Program Chair for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, as well as the Information Technology Research and Development Ecosystem Commission for the National Academies. In 2009 she was recognized as a Microsoft Community Partner.

Sanders received her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Louisiana State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, respectively.