Jill Denner

Senior Research Scientist

Jill Denner, is a senior research scientist at Education Training Research, a non-profit organization in California. Dr. Jill Denner does applied research and evaluation with a focus on increasing the number of women, girls, and Latino students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Jill has also led the development of several after-school programs designed to increase diversity in computing fields.

Jill Denner Biography

Jill Denner, PhD, is a senior research scientist at ETR. She does applied research and evaluation with a focus on broadening participation in computing and other STEM fields. Dr. Denner also has developed several after-school programs that engage children and their families in computer science. This work is done in partnership with schools, colleges, universities, and community-based organizations. She has been principal investigator on 20 federal grants, written numerous peer-reviewed articles, and co-edited two books. She is nationally recognized as an expert in strategies to engage girls/women and Latinx students in computer science in K–12 and community college, and regularly does peer review of journal articles and federal grant proposals. Starting in 2022, she is on leave as a Program Officer in the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). She is also serving as the Treasurer of the Board for the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group, Computer Science Education (SIGCSE).

Current and Recent Projects

• Can Pair Programming Reduce the Gender Gap in Computing? A Study of Middle School Students Learning to Program
• Career Technical Education: Factors Associated with Enrollment and Persistence in ICT Among Underrepresented Groups
• Extra Innings: Using Serious Gaming and the Science of Baseball to Teach Science and Mathematics
• Computing for the Social Good: A Research-Practice Partnership to Increase Equity among Students and Parents.
• A Coordinated, Cross-Institutional Career and Technical Education Cybersecurity Pathway
• Social Wearables Edu-Larp: A Camp to Enhance Girls’ Computational Learning and Motivation

Publications

Research on Community Colleges

Denner, J. & Werner, L. (2020). The community college experience: Enrollment and persistence of African American and Latina women in computer science. In B. Polnick, B. Irby, & J. Ballenger. (Eds.). Girls and women of color in STEM: Navigating the double bind. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.

Lyon, L. A., & Denner, J. (2019). Chutes and Ladders: Institutional Setbacks on the Computer Science Community College Transfer Pathway. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 19(3), 25.

Lyon, L.A., & Denner, J. (2017). Community colleges: A resource for increasing equity and inclusion in computer science. Communications of the ACM, 60(12), 24-26.

Lyon, L. A. & Denner, J. (2016). Student Perspectives of Community College Pathways to Computer Science Bachelor’s Degrees. Mountain View, CA: Google Inc. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/Q0wJJv.

Denner, J., Ortiz, E., & Werner, L. (2015). Women and men in computer science: The role of gaming in their educational goals. In J. Prescott (Ed.), Gender considerations and influence in the digital media and gaming industry, 18-35. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Denner, J., Werner, L., & O’Connor, L. (2015). Women in community college: Factors related to intentions to pursue computer science. NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education 8 (2): 156-171.

Denner, J., Werner, L., O’Connor, L., & Glassman, J. (2014). Community college men and women: A test of three widely held beliefs about who persists in computer science. Community College Review, 42 (4): 342-362.

Denner, J., & Werner, L. (2013). Increasing diversity in computing: Results of a study of community colleges. Computer Science Teachers Association Voice, 9 (5): 4-5.

Werner, L., Denner, J., & O’Connor, L. (2012). Know your students to increase diversity: Results of a study of community college women and men in computer science courses, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 27 (4): 100-111.

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