Dr. Jan Plane

Dr. Plane was Director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing at UMCP, Associate-Director of ACES (the first undergraduate cybersecurity honors program), and Advisor to the Association for Women in Computing (grad/undergrad student group). Jan holds graduate degrees in both computer science and education; her work focuses on computer science curriculum, pedagogical methods and underrepresented populations in computing. She encourages both quality of content and access to computing for students (middle-school to graduate-school) through teaching, outreach programs and teacher professional development. 

She was a key leader in bringing CS Education to Maryland schools and promoting diversity. She was awarded the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University by the University of Maryland. Plane recently retired as a computer science faculty member from the university where she had worked since 1989.

With graduate degrees in both computer science and education, she focuses on computer science curriculum, pedagogical methods and underrepresented populations in computing.

She previously had worked on State Department-funded projects building computing degree programs at universities in sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan for 15 years and was the founding director of the Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing (I4C) and Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC), both of which emphasize improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the computing fields through K-12 outreach education, current student support and research.