CSC News

Congratulations to CSC’s 2020 “Pride of the Wolfpack” Award Winners

Two staff members in the NC State Computer Science Department were recently recognized with "Pride of the Wolfpack" Awards.  Dr. Veronica Cateté, Research Scholar, and Todd Gardner, Director of Operations, are the most recent recipients of the award.

The awards are designed to recognize NC State employees for a special or unique contribution to their college/unit or the University. Criteria for the award include: leadership on the job, customer focus, and quality of service.

Veronica Cateté, who received two nominations, is a two-time graduate of the NC State Computer Science Department (BS (’10), PhD (’18)).  She joined the CSC Department as a research scientist in 2018 working under Dr. Tiffany Barnes in the Game2Learn Lab.  She also leads the Raleigh STARS program.  Cateté has shared her passion for computing through many different outreach efforts.  Per her nomination: “Veronica is a tremendous leader and representative of the CS department. She has mentored both graduate and undergraduate students every semester, collaborated with professors and other PIs on large-scale research projects focused on CS Education, been at large part responsible for the sharp increase in publications coming out of the Game2Learn Lab, and does this while creating and maintaining CS outreach initiatives for K-12 students such as her new High School Internship program and her long-established work with STARS.”

Her second nominator added: “Dr. Cateté has made it her personal mission to help foster a sense of belonging and interest in computing for young women and students of color. Her aim is to help give these students the knowledge and opportunities needed to make informed decisions about potential career pathways they might not be previously exposed to. Her dedication to mentorship, recruitment, and diversity initiatives make her contributions to the CSC department and NC State uniquely her own… Dr. Cateté's contributions to NC State, the College of Engineering, and CSC department go above and beyond what is expected of her position as a research scientist. Her devotion to mentorship, creating opportunities for underrepresented students, and diversity initiatives are unique and critical to the success of the departments she's affiliated with.”  Read more about Cateté here.

The CSC Department’s second winner is Todd Gardner, who joined NC State in 2013 as Director of Operations.  He was previously recognized with a Pride of the Wolfpack Award in 2016, and was the CSC Department’s nominee for the College of Engineering 2016 Awards for Excellence.  Per his nomination, “Todd has done an outstanding job of keeping the department and our building operational during the COVID-19 crisis. While the rest of us have been able to work remotely, Todd's role has required him to go to work in EB2 (almost) every day. With safety being at the forefront, Todd has kept our department, our faculty/staff and our students equipped, prepared and safe. Surely, keeping the department and our building "operational" is the main part of Todd's job. He has done that since the beginning of the pandemic when there were so many unknowns, putting himself at potential risk. I appreciate his dedication to the safety and well-being of our faculty, staff and students.“

For more information about the Pride of the Wolfpack Awards and a complete list of winners, click here.

Join us in congratulating our Pride of the Wolfpack Award winners, and please pass along your thanks for all of their hard work and dedication to the Computer Science Department, the College of Engineering and the University.

~coates~