PRISCILLA JANE HUSTON

 

HOME ADDRESS:

8818 Link Court

Houston, Texas 77025

Home phone: (713) 668-5216

Cellular Phone and Pager: 832-651-5684

Network address: pjh@rice.edu

 

BORN: March 18, 1942 - Attleboro, Massachusetts

 

HUSBAND: Sam H. Davis, Jr.

 

CHILDREN: Katherine Jane Lambert (daughter)

Penn Christopher Huston (son)

Merrill Leigh Davis (step-daughter)

Allison Ashley Davis (step-daughter)

Lindell Lane Kottcamp (step-daughter)

 

EDUCATION: BA Mount Holyoke College 1964

Phi Beta Kappa

Magna Cum Laude in Mathematics

 

CURRENT POSITION:

Retired

 

 

EXPERIENCE:

 

Rice University -- July 1996 to present

July 1996 Assistant to the Provost for Special Projects (70%)

• ad hoc Curriculum Review Committee: participate in and provide staff support for the study and preparation of a new curriculum for General Education at Rice University.

• Faculty Handbook Committee: participate in and provide staff support for the first Rice University Faculty Handbook.

• Advisory Board to Project STAR, an HISD program funded by NSF (1997 to present).

• Advisory Board to Houston Urban Systemic Initiative: among lead roles in preparing the HU-LINC proprosal from HISD to NSF for ~$15M to involve the Houston Community in providing exemplary Math and Science education for all its citizens.

• Provide staff support for the Environmental Programs Steering Committee.

• Assist with preparation of a successful Minority Graduate Education Proposal to NSF.

• Chair the Executive Seminar of the Seminars on Academic Computing.

 

 

National Science Foundation--March 1993 to July 1996

Program Director for the NSFNET Program in the CISE Directorate

• Direct NSFNET Program with budget of over $40 million in 1995.

  • • Responsible for processing, reviewing, and recommending for action proposals submitted to the Foundation offering to design, develop, install, operate, manage, and/or maintain components of the emerging national network infrastructure especially in support of education communities.

    • Provided expert knowledge of computing resources, as required in the Foundation's program activities, and worked closely with the Director, NCRI, and other NSF officials as appropriate in formulating policies and procedures and represented them as required in a wide variety of functional and liaison activities relating to network infrastructure.

  •  

    Rice University -- 1969 until July 1996

     

    October 1994 Director, Information Systems Outreach

    July 1989 Director, CIS (Computing Information Services)

    September 1977 Director, ICSA (Institute for Computing Services & Applications)

    December 1976 Acting Director, ICSA

    January 1974 Manager, Computer Services, ICSA

    July 1970 Manager, Systems Support, ICSA

    November 1969 Systems Programmer, ICSA

  • • Supported staff professional development and active participation in setting goals, planning and carrying out tasks. Worked to establish team environment within and across groups.

    • As Director of ICSA, dealt with mainframes initially. Then I initiated and supported use of new information technologies on campus from micros to supercomputers and from networking to internetworking.

    • Initiated a number of cooperative projects with the campus library.

    • Participated in the planning and reorganization of computing at Rice in 1989, designed and became Director of Computing Information Services (CIS) which is responsible for the collection and dissemination of computing information on campus.

    • Developed concepts with a staff and faculty team for the CRC (Computing Resource Center), which eventually became part of the CIS.

    • A principle in the establishment of Rice University in Apple University Consortium

    • Recommended and coordinated the design of the Seeley G. Mudd Computer Science Laboratory (opened Summer 1983)

    • Acquired and installed Prime 450 for Student Information System, and two VAX 11/750's for Computer Science

    • Proposed, acquired and managed conversion from Burroughs 5500 to IBM 370/155 (1972); Itel AS/6 (1978) and NAS AS/9000 (1982)

  • • Provided systems and user support for all the above

  • • Directed ICSA on a Cost Recovery basis. Primary goals were to provide a wide variety of high quality services to meet educational, research, and administrative computing needs at Rice University. In order to facilitate these services, external services were also provided.

     

  •  

    Yale University -- 1964 to 1969

     

    Began as Junior Programmer and finished as Senior Systems Programmer

  • • Provided user support through short courses, documentation, and consulting

    • Assisted in conversions at Yale from IBM 709 to a DCS (IBM 7094/7040) and from DCS to IBM 360 Systems

    • Developed accounting systems for computer services

    • Assisted in design for and change of location of the Yale Computer Center

    • One member of a six-member Senior Staff which ran the Yale Computer Center while a search was being conducted for a director

    • Active in SHARE

    • Part of design and implementation team for CYTOS, a time-sharing system written at Yale before TSO

    • Modified the IBM APL system to run in an OS environment

     

     

    MEMBERSHIPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES:

     

    Information Technology related:

    EDUCOM (Inter-University Council on Communications, Computing, and Information Technology) Institutional Representative

    Board of Trustees (1987-present) Chair (1990-1992)

    Member Nominating Committee Chairperson (1985-86)

    Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (1985-1993)

    EUIT (Educational Uses of Information Technology) (1989-1993)

    Consulting Group(1983 - 1993)

    EDUNET (International Computing Network for Higher Education and Research) beginning in 1976 until dissolution

    CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) established while during tenure as EDUCOM Board Chair.

    Member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)

    SIGUCCS (ACM Special Interest Group for University and College Computing)

    Board Member (1982-1986), Vice President (1987-1989)

    CHOICE (National Advanced Systems Users Group)

    Vice President (1982), Secretary (1983), President Elect (1984-85)

    Also participated in other vendor user groups such as SHARE for IBM and CUBE for Burroughs.

    SAC (Seminar for Academic Computing) Board Member(1982-86, 1995-96)

    Chair (1984-85)

    Program Chair (1983-84, 1986-87)

    Executive Conference Chair (1996-present)

    IBM APAC (Academic Partners Advisory Committee ) (Charter member 1992)

     

    NeXT Advisory Board (Charter member)

    Apple University Consortium (Active in establishing Rice University as charter member)

    HARC - Computer Advisory Committee (When HARC first established)

     

    Administrative Services Self-Study panel member (Rice 1983-84)

    Swarthmore - Visiting Committee on Computing - Spring, 1985

    Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration - July, 1985 Spoke on Strategic Planning for Information Technology

    Early involvement with BITNET and CREN

     

    Other activities:

    Member of Phi Beta Kappa

    Mount Holyoke Club in Houston -- Club President (1986-88)

    Co-Master Jones College 1988-89 (Rice Residential College)

    Honorary University Associate of Jones College (1989-present)

    University Associate (1997-present)

    Honorary University Associate of Hanszen College (1988-present)

    University Associate of Hanszen College (1982-88)

    Co-Master of Hanszen College 1978-1982 (Rice Residential College)

    University Associate of Baker College (1976-1978)

     

    REFERENCES:

    G. Anthony Gorry Vice President for Research and Information Technology, Rice University

    Brian L. Hawkins President of EDUCAUSE

    Neal F. Lane Science Advisor to the President

    Jane Caviness Former Deputy Director, NCRI at NSF

    Steve Wolff Former Division Director, NCRI