Meet our 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner, Nettrice Gaskins!

Posted April 8, 2022

Nettrice R. Gaskins, Ph.D. DM 2014, teaches, writes, “fabs,” and makes art using algorithms and machine learning. During her time as a doctoral candidate in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, she and her thesis advisor Celia Pearce received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to look at advancing STEM through culturally situated arts-based learning.

In our recent feature story about Gaskins, we shared some of the incredible things she has achieved since graduating, including being named a 2021 Ford Global Fellow, releasing her first full-length book, helping to launch a performance-based artificial intelligence (AI) app, and creating a series of “featured futurist” portraits on display in the FUTURES exhibition at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building in Washington D.C. through July 2022 — and that’s just from the past year.

Gaskins has taught multimedia, visual art, and computer science to high school and college students. She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. Gaskins earned a Ph.D. in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014. She is the assistant director of the Lesley STEAM Learning Lab at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an advisory board member for the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.  

Gaskins was honored at the Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony on April 7, 2022. The eighth annual celebration honors exceptional alumni from each of the six academic schools and three Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) units in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Selected by the school from which they earned their degree or their respective ROTC unit, alumni are recognized for their significant contributions to the College, Institute, and the public welfare.

Congratulations, Nettrice, on this well-deserved award!