Dr. Leslie Leonard is one of over 50,000 scientists and engineers dedicated to addressing complex defense challenges.

She is a computer scientist at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), an organization that provides engineering and environmental science expertise to support the U.S. military and the nation.

Leonard has served as a program manager for the Department of Defense's High-Performance Computing Modernization Program for more than 25 years.

In this role, she advances high-performance computing by identifying challenges in research, cybersecurity, supercomputer applications, and cloud computing.

Leonard earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.

She also holds both a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Jackson State University.

According to Computer Science.org, women earn only 18% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science in the United States.

The majority of computer science jobs are pursued and filled by men, leading to a significant underrepresentation of women in the field.

This trend begins before students even enter the job market: while girls make up more than half of all Advanced Placement (AP) test-takers, they are outnumbered by boys in computer science exams at a rate of 4:1.

In 2014, no girls took the AP Computer Science examination in Mississippi, Montana, and Wyoming.

A study titled Trends in the State of Computer Science in U.S. K-12 Schools reveals that 93% of parents in America believe computer science education is a valuable resource in schools.

Earlier research from the study Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in K-12 Education found that 91% of parents wanted their children to learn computer science, and 90% wanted computer science taught at their child’s school.

Despite computer science being the second highest-paid college degree, most schools in the United States do not offer it.

Only 40% of schools teach computer programming, and just 35 states allow students to take computer science courses toward high school graduation.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 71% of new jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are in computing, yet only 8% of STEM graduates specialize in computer science.

This highlights a significant issue within the STEM field itself.

As stated by Computer Science Education Week, every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.

The annual event, organized by Code.org, aims to inspire K-12 students to explore computer science.

Initially launched by the Computing in the Core coalition, Code.org® runs Computer Science Education Week as a grassroots campaign supported by 350 partners and 100,000 educators.

The week is held in honor of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, whose birthday is December 9, 1906.

Launched in 2013, the Hour of Code program by Code.org provides a one-hour introduction to coding and computer science, reaching millions of students.