Steven Wolfman 2011/08/05 [anonymized 2016/03/09] Proposed external letter-writers for promotion case of Steven Wolfman (Instructor), [in randomized order]: Dr. [Writer One] [Writer One] is an Associate Professor and Chair of [Liberal Arts College X's] Department of Computer Science. Dr. [One] received his Ph.D. from [Major University] in [the 80's]. His research interests are in graphics, visualization, and programming languages. He has distinguished himself in the Computer Science education community through work on the teaching of discrete mathematics, textbook authorship, and [recent, prominent leadership roles in the community]. Dr. [One] is presently [in a major leadership role in the community]. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. [One] also frequently supervises student research projects. Disclosure of personal connections: [Mostly edited out. I collaborated a fair bit with this person on a service project, with him in a mentorship role. I tried to quantify our connection by making clear how much e-mail and face-to-face contact we'd had and that we had little contact outside of that role at the time.] Dr. [Writer Two] [Writer Two] is [an equivalent of Full Teaching Professor] and the Vice Chair for Student Affairs in the Department of Informatics at [big US Research University A]. His training was originally [outside CS], [degree background given, including years]. His research and teaching interests include [computational aspects of his original training], programming languages, social impact of computing, and human-computer interaction. He has received awards for excellence in teaching from both [big US Research University B] and [big US Research University A]. Disclosure of personal connections: Dr. [Two] and I have met and spoken at several SIGCSE conferences and exchanged e-mail several times, but we have not met outside of business travel. Dr. [Writer Three] [Writer Three] is [an equivalent of Teaching Associate Professor] and Associate Chair for [Undergraduate Programs] at [big Canadian Research University]. Dr. [Three's] background is in [non-CS field], including a Ph.D. from [a big university]. He has been CS faculty at [big Canadian Research University] for more than 10 years. Disclosure of personal connections: None. [Writer Four] [Writer Four] has recently moved from being [an equivalent of Teaching Associate Professor] and [Undergraduate Advisor] at [big US Research University C] to being [an equivalent of Full Teaching Professor] at the Department of Computer Science at [big US Research University A]. Mr. [Four] received his M.S. in Computer Science from [a big university]. He is an influential figure in Computer Science education through a variety of ongoing contributions but particularly his [highly influential pedagogical software and approach]. [His project] encourages students to discover algorithmic ideas through [a concrete metaphor]. Mr. [Four] won [a major international pedagogical award recently]. His award cites: [big quote to show how awesome Writer Four is]. The award is given to one person per year. Other winners include [big deal people my evaluators are likely to know.] Disclosure of personal connections: Mr. [Four] and I have met and spoken at several SIGCSE conferences and exchanged e-mail several times, but we have not met outside of business travel. He also invited me to [join an online community of people interested in CS education, on which both of us have held public discussions of CS education topics]. I do not know the [group's size], but would estimate it is on the order of 100 people. (Drs. [Two] and [Five] and possibly others from among my potential letter-writers are also [in the group].) Note: Although Mr. [Four] does not have a Ph.D., his extensive experience and gravitas in the CS education and teaching-oriented faculty communities would make him an authoritative reference. Dr. [Writer Five] [Writer Five] is [an equivalent of a Teaching Associate Professor] and Vice Chair for [Undergraduate Programs] at [big US Research University D]. He received his Ph.D. from [a big university] in [the 80's]. Dr. [Five] has published in SIGCSE on work from his [upper-level] and introductory CS courses. Disclosure of personal connections: Dr. [Five] was my host during [my job search process]. We have since spoken briefly at SIGCSE conferences and during my occasional visits to [big US Research University D] and his to my institutions. Dr. [Writer Six] [Writer Six] is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at [big Canadian Research University]. Dr. [Six] received her Ph.D. in [an area of CS] in 2003 from [a big university]. Her research focus is in [the same area of CS]. Additionally, she has a strong interest in outreach programs to encourage diversity in Computer Science. Among other efforts, Dr. [Six] co-organized [a bunch of awesome stuff described in some detail]. She has presented on these projects at conferences like [some relevant Canadian conferences]. Disclosure of personal connections: [I mention that we almost but did not overlap at one institution but that I interacted with her briefly on several of her visits to that institution. I also invited her to participate in a small project I put together and participated in a larger project put together by someone else with her, neither time interacting extensively.]