Debra J. Richardson is a Professor of Informatics and founding dean of the UCI Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). She has been on the UC Irvine faculty since 1987. Under her leadership as chair, the ICS department was promoted to the first and only computing-focused school in the University of California system in December 2002, after which she was named Dean. Richardson was instrumental in securing a transformational $20 million endowment for the school, resulting in naming the school after philanthropist Donald Bren. In addition, he has served on the leadership team of the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) since its inception; NCWIT’s overarching goal is parity in the professional IT workforce through education, dissemination, advocacy, and a national, multi-year implementation plan that generates tangible progress within 20 years. She leads the NCWIT hub at UC Irvine, a NCWIT PaceSetter focused on developing and evaluating best practices to increase the participation of women at the undergraduate level, and also throughout the academic pipeline. Richardson currently chairs the Computing Research Association (CRA) Deans Group, which was established to provide leadership and community to emerging and established schools and colleges of computing and interdisciplinary "IT" academic organizations.