Kathy Kleiman discovered the ENIAC Programmers as a Harvard undergraduate and a female programmer in search of role models and inspiration. Most recently, Ms. Kleiman published Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer (Grand Central Publishing, July 2022) based on her longtime research and interviews of the six ENIAC Programmers. These six women programmed ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer, as part of a secret US Army project during and after WWII and their work is a fascinating military, home front, mathematical, technical and women’s history.
The ENIAC Programmers were her mentors and remain a constant inspiration in her work. To seek recognition for these programming pioneers and to share their inspiring stories, Ms. Kleiman founded the ENIAC Programmers Project. “It is my great hope that the ENIAC Programmers story will throw open the doors of computing to all—for it was women and men who created this wonderful field and changed our world together!”
Ms. Kleiman currently teaches Internet Technology & Governance for Lawyers at the Washington College of Law at American University (AUWCL). She is also a Senior Policy Fellow with AUWCL’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and a longtime Fellow with AU’s cross-community Internet Governance Lab.
After having completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, Ms. Kleiman attended Law school at Boston University School of Law and joined the telecommunications firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth in Arlington, Virginia. In 1996, Kathy co-founded her firm’s Internet Law & Policy Group and in 1999 became part of the group that founded ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to manage the global domain name system.
The ENIAC Programmers were her mentors and remain a constant inspiration in her work. To seek recognition for these programming pioneers and to share their inspiring stories, Ms. Kleiman founded the ENIAC Programmers Project. “It is my great hope that the ENIAC Programmers story will throw open the doors of computing to all—for it was women and men who created this wonderful field and changed our world together!”
Ms. Kleiman currently teaches Internet Technology & Governance for Lawyers at the Washington College of Law at American University (AUWCL). She is also a Senior Policy Fellow with AUWCL’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and a longtime Fellow with AU’s cross-community Internet Governance Lab.
After having completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, Ms. Kleiman attended Law school at Boston University School of Law and joined the telecommunications firm of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth in Arlington, Virginia. In 1996, Kathy co-founded her firm’s Internet Law & Policy Group and in 1999 became part of the group that founded ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to manage the global domain name system.
