In Memoriam: Former CRA Board Member and CRA-WP Co-Chair Andrea Danyluk

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DanylukCRA-WP is sad to announce that on March 3, 2022, Andrea Pohoreckyj Danyluk passed away at age 59 after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. The CRA community is deeply saddened by the loss of an amazing mentor, friend, and champion for diversity. She was family to many of her former students, colleagues, and friends.

Andrea was the Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Computer Science at Williams College.  She received her A.B. from Vassar College in 1984 and her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1992, and was a researcher at NYNEX (now Verizon) before joining the faculty at Williams in 1994.

In 2008, she joined the Board of the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), achieving a lasting impact by establishing new funding opportunities and mentoring programs at the national level. From 2008-2016, she led the Collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduates (CREU) program, which provides undergraduates with research experiences at their home institutions to increase their likelihood of continuing to graduate school. Danyluk helped create and establish funding for CRA-WP’s Research Scholars program, which brought ~80 undergraduates to the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing each year from 2016 to 2019. She served as co-Chair of the CRA-WP Committee from 2019-2021 and on the CRA Board of Directors from 2019-2021. During this time, she helped the committee navigate through a major evolution to become the CRA Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP), focused on widening the participation and improving the access, opportunities, and positive experiences of individuals from populations underrepresented in computing research and education. She also helped manage CRA-WP through the COVID-19 global pandemic that forced key programs to move from physical to virtual meetings. Through trying times, Danyluk calmly navigated the group forward, making time and space for people to voice their opinions and concerns. In recognition of her successful and impactful efforts to build inclusive and diverse communities in computing, the Computing Research Association selected Andrea Danyluk as the recipient of the 2022 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award.

Danyluk’s research was dedicated to machine learning, with an emphasis on applications. In 2019, she was recognized as an ACM Distinguished Member for her contributions in computer science education, and in 2021 she was awarded the Williams College Nelson Bushnell Prize, for excellence in teaching and writing. She was a member of the ACM Education Board, the ACM Education Advisory Committee, and co-chair of the ACM Data Science Task Force.

Andrea profoundly impacted the lives of her family, friends, students, and colleagues. She will forever be remembered for her warm spirit, boundless energy, and infectious laughter. The President of Williams College published an in memoriam announcement.