Congratulations to Dr. Jessica Young Schmidt, associate teaching professor, Dr. William Enck, professor, and Donna Richards, an administrative staff member in the Research Administration Office, on being named “the Carla Savage Award” winners for Fall 2022!

Dr. Jessica Young Schmidt is an associate teaching professor in the NC State Department of Computer Science and has served as the department’s Accreditation Manager since 2017. Schmidt is a two-time graduate of the NC State Department of Computer Science; she earned her M.S. in 2009 and her Ph.D. in 2012. 

This year, Schmidt earned a Carla Savage Award for her outstanding work on the Department’s ABET accreditation process. ABET is an external body that visits the department every six years and accredits college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology. Schmidt coordinates the extensive preparation effort for the accreditation visits, which includes working with faculty for continuous improvement, producing a self-study report and answering questions of the ABET evaluation team. 

Per her nomination: “Jessica did a fantastic job with accreditation and preparing for the ABET visit!” and “Jessica has done an outstanding job on the ABET report and preparations! The level of detail is amazing!”

Dr. William Enck is a professor in the NC State Department of Computer Science, where he is co-director of the Secure Computing Institute (SCI) and director of the Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research (WSPR) laboratory. Enck earned his Ph.D. (2011), M.S. (2006) and B.S. (2004) from the Pennsylvania State University, and he studies the security of a wide range of systems, including mobile platforms, Internet of Things (IoT), networks, cloud and 5G infrastructure and most recently the software supply chain. 

Enck has earned a second Carla Savage Award for his outstanding, inspiring work as a teacher and researcher. In 2021, he won a Carla Savage Award for his part in the establishment of the highly successful SCI and the associated Cybersecurity Initiative at NC State. Per his nomination, “He oozes enthusiasm in class (CSC574) and is really passionate while explaining security concepts which automatically makes one pay more attention in class and develop interest in the subject.”

Donna Richards coordinates the pre-award and post-award services for the CSC Research Administration office, and she is a member of the Research Support Council. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Richards said her group processed approximately $80 million in pre-award work, and CSC received $19.5 million in new awards for research.

Individuals who nominated Richards noted her adeptness at understanding the complicated pre-award and post-award process. Per her nomination, “She’s always friendly, calm in a crisis and often catches mistakes deep in the request for proposals that I might have missed.”

Named after the incomparable department icon Dr. Carla Savage, the Carla Savage Awards are an intra-departmental initiative to recognize outstanding achievement and special people within the department. 

For a complete list of winners, please click here.