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Biography

Gail Carmichael is a computer scientist who has influence in the computer field by her work within computer science. She is currently working as a Computing Education Technical Program Manager at Shopify and living in Ottawa, Canada. married to her husband with two children. Shopify is an online platform set up to help businesses sell product, create websites, and promote their business. Carmichael’s qualifications for this job is a result of her education and work experience. Her love for working with computers came from the fact that she had access to a computer at a young age. Her father gave her the opportunity to work on a home computer while she was young. In an interview by GEreports, Carmichael describes her love for the computer was founded in the fact that she loved to create things on the computer. However, it was not till high school that she learned what was happening behind the screen while she created different things on the computer and discovered programming. Carmichael says that her inspiration for computer technology came from her boyfriend, in high school, who is now her husband, who was interested in computer sciences as well.

Education

Undergraduate

Carmichael’s education after high school started at Carleton University where she received her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. During her undergraduate program she was recognized for her outstanding work with many awards and scholarships, certificates, and work experience. In the years 2002-2007 she was given the Nortel Networks Entrance Scholarship. In 2004 and 2006 she was given the NSERC Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Award. In 2003 and 2005 she was given the CIPS Ottawa Section Scholarship and in 2004 she was given the David A. Thomas Scholarship in Computer Science. She also received the Certificate of Mindtrust Leadership Development Program in April 2007 from Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business. While in her undergraduate program Carmichael was a part of the software developer projects for, Software Developer (Co-op) – Ross Video (May 2004 – December 2004, May 2006 – September 2006) and Software Developer (Co-op) – Corel Corporation (May 2005 – September 2005, January 2006 – April 2006). Her work in undergraduate consisted of being a Peer Facilitator within the School of Computer Science at Carleton University during September 2006 through April 2007.

Masters

Carmichael continued her education and developing her resume by getting her Master’s degree from Carleton University in Computer Science. During this time as a Masters student she obtained many scholarships. In 2007 through 2009 she received the Carleton University Departmental Scholarship and the Carleton University Domestic Tuition Masters. In the years 2008-2009 she received the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship M Extensions and in the year 2008 she received the Google Anita Borg Canada Scholar Finalist. During May of 2007 through August 2007 Carmichael’s work experience continued to grow as she participated in Google’s Summer of Code. Her work in her Master’s program continued as she worked as a Computer Science Teaching Assistant Mentor at the School of Computer Science in Carleton University September 2009-April 2010 and September 2010- April 2011. In addition to this work she also worked as a Teaching Assistant in the School of Computer Science in Carlton University September 2007- April 2009, September 2011-December 2011, and September 2012- April 2013. As a result of her Teaching skills in April 2009 she received a Certificate in Teach Assistant Skills from Carleton University’s Educational Development Centre and in 2010 she received the Certificate of Graduate University Teach Skills from Carleton University’s Educational Development Center.

PhD

Carmichael’s final formal education was completed at Carleton University where she received her PhD in Computer Science. During her PhD program she recived honor and recognition through many different scholarships. In 2009 she was given the Google Anita Borg Canada Scholar Finalist scholarship. During the years 2009 through 2013 she received two scholarships from Carleton University, the Carleton University Departmental Scholarship and the Carleton University Domestic Tuition Doctoral. In the years 2009-2011 she received the NSERC Post Graduate Scholarship Doctoral. Her work experience and software programming continued to grow as she became a Mobile Web Developer at Heritage Passages Live Virtual Museum at Carleton University during September 2011 through December 2011 and became a Software Developer at Shopify during July 2015 through December 2016. During this PhD Program Carmichael also worked in many different avenues of computer science. In the School of Computer Schience at Carlton University she worked as a Computer Science Teaching Assistant Mentor, Contract Instructor, Teaching Assistant and Faculty Instructor throughout her various years of her program. She also worked as a Mini-Course Creator and Instructor at Carleton University through their Enrichment Mini-Course Program and as a Summer Camp Curriculum Developer at Canadian Science and Technology Museum.

Career and Work

After finishing her PhD Carmichael continued to work as a leader in the field of computer science. In September 2011 she started working as an instructor and Chapter Leader (chapter on hold) for (Girl Develop It!) and continues to this day. She also started working as a Technical Program Manager within Computing Education at the company Shopify in January 2016. Carmichael is an educator and a computer scientists that manages external educational programs at Shopify. In addition to her work she has co-founded, CU-WISE, Carleton University’s Women in Science and Engineering. Carmichael contributes to the women’s work force in STEM by breaking barriers in the industry and achieving a learning environment for computer science to everyone. Carmichael has had many years of teaching and educational experience throughout her years in her technical career. In September 2006, through April 2007 Carmichael worked as a Peer Facilitator at Carleton University in their School of Computer Science. At two different times Carmichael worked as a Computer Science Teaching Assistant Mentor at Carleton University within their School of Computer Science between the years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 from September through April. As Carmichael continued to grow in her technical experience she became a Contract Instructor at Carleton University from May 2010 to June 2010 and May 2011 to June 2011. During the Summer of 2013 Carmichael worked as a Summer Camp Curriculum Developer at Canadian Science and Technology Museum. Throughout her years of schooling Carmichael worked as a Teaching Assistant within Carleton University’s School of Computer Science through September 2007 till April 2009 and September 2011 till December 2011 and yet again in September 2012 till April 2013. In addition to working as a Teaching Assistant every May from 2008-2015 Carmichael worked as a Mini-Course Creator and Instructor at Carleton University within their Enrichment Mini-Course Program. During June, the years 2013-2015 Carmichael also worked as a Faculty Instructor within the School of Computer Science at Carleton University. Now, Carmichael continues her work as a Instructor and Chapter Leader for Girl Develop It! since September 2011 as well as her work with Shopify as a Technical Program Manager with a concentration in Computing Education since January 2016.

Major Contributions

From the beginning of her career within STEM she was known as one of the best female developers at Carleton University. Based off an article by Financial Post, Carmichael worked to create a game called Gram’s House in order to inspire young girls to become competitive and find potential in STEM. Carmichael continues to work within the STEM field to encourage girls of all ages to study computer science. Carmichael contributes to women working in STEM by inspiring women to network and grow in their computing power. She spoke at Women of Silicon Valley Conference, in March of 2018, which is the largest Women in Technology Event Series. Carmichael is a part of the most inspiring group of men and women with the goal of shattering the glass ceiling for women.

Throughout Carmichael’s career she worked as a teacher to instruct the next generation how important it is to study computer science. While working with other colleagues from Northeastern University, Carleton University, Arizona State university, and Kean University Carmichael designed an analysis for creating games that teach computer science to the young audience. In this analysis the Computer Scientists studied the participation, gender diversity, and patterns of participants that helped create a broad amount of options for computer gaming to train and encourage school age children to learn from computer science.

Carmichael’s work at Shopify continues with her work within the program Dev Degree. Carmichael was the lead in the design and launch of the program. Dev Degree is a program geared to jumpstart careers and help individuals learn computer science by integrating an accredited university degree with a traditional co-op. The students in this program are given the chance to learn computer science hands-on. This program integrates classes on campus while working with Shopify teams. Carmichael is passionate about teaching computer science to others and her work at Shopify allows her to continue that regularly.