Dr. Janell Straach has a diverse background including academic and industry experience. She holds a Bachelor of Science in CS degree from Angelo State University, a Master of Computer Science degree from Texas A&M University, an MBA from The University of Dallas and a Masters and PhD from UT Dallas. Her PhD research was in intelligent systems and recent work has focused on CyberSecurity. Prior to her current assignment with Rice University, she was a member of the faculty at UT Dallas in Richardson, TX. Before her academic assignments, she worked in industry for IBM and a large electric/gas utility organization. She has taught at the college, university and corporate level. Janell’s passion is recruiting and retaining females into technology careers. She is chairman of the board of Women In CyberSecurity-WiCyS (www.wicys.org).