The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee announced that Sunita Lodwig, Ph.D., has won the university's Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Faculty Research Award. The award recognizes USF faculty whose research and creative efforts focus on women, women’s issues and women’s initiatives. 

Dr. Lodwig, an information technology instructor in USFSM's College of Business, has focused on bringing computer hardware, software and instructional support to schools in Iringa, a city of 151,000 in central Tanzania. In addition, she developed an instructional program and has twice traveled there to instruct teachers about computers and the Internet. Her efforts have focused on helping children, particularly girls and young women. Her work in the East African nation began in 2008, when she was introduced to Stan Muessle, a former IBM executive and the founder of Sarasota-based Global Outreach, which supports educational efforts in Tanzania.

Lodwig said she’ll use the award grant to purchase hardware and software to assist more school children, including girls and young women, in Tanzania. “This award will go a long way toward opening up the riches of the Information Age to young children, and enhance their thinking, goals and future,” she says.

“To see their faces when you help them, these children are so very grateful,” says Lodwig. “Many of these schools lack the most basic of educational materials, items that we take for granted in the west.”