Catherine Ashcraft

Catherine Ashcraft is a Senior Research Scientist with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on issues related to gender, diversity, and technology; organizational change and curriculum reform; and popular culture, media representations, and youth identity (especially as it relates to race-ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality). She also has taught and presented at national and international venues on these topics for the past 15 years and has worked with a variety of government entities, advocating for CS/IT/ICT education and workplace policy.

In her role at NCWIT, she employs a unique blend of research and practice, overseeing primary research projects and translating that research into practical resources that organizations can use for diversifying their technology workforce and for creating more inclusive technology workplaces. She also directs reform initiatives for NCWIT’s Workforce Alliance, a consortium of leading, global technology companies and departments, and works with senior executives to implement these initiatives.

Catherine has published widely in top education and interdisciplinary journals, nationally and internationally, including the American Educational Research Journal, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Men & Masculinities, Curriculum Inquiry, Teachers College Record, Anthropology & Education Journal, Youth & Society, among others. Her most recent NCWIT publications include Girls in IT: The Facts and Male Advocates and Allies: Promoting Gender Diversity in Technology Workplaces. She also is responsible for securing funding for CS/IT/ICT research initiatives and has served as a principal investigator on several research grants.

Before coming to NCWIT, Catherine was an assistant professor of multicultural education and director of Diversity Learning at Western Washington University. She also has worked as a middle/high school public school teacher and as the community education director for a battered women’s shelter, where she implemented programs to address a variety of gender inequities, including workplace and dating violence. She obtained her MA in organizational communication and her PhD in education from the University of Colorado.