When Daron Green managed operations and academic relations for Facebook Research in 2018, he saw an issue in its hiring pool: a nominal proportion of women and groups historically underrepresented in tech, especially those with advanced degrees in computer science. So when Carla Brodley, dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at the time, introduced Green to Northeastern’s Align master’s in computer science —which accepted students from any undergraduate degree — Green saw tremendous potential for systemic change.

“Facebook’s intent was to try and move the needle at a national level by investing in a program that demonstrably provided an on-ramp for a more diverse pool into computer science,” Green says.

So, to support the program in building on its initial efforts, Facebook made a $4.16 million, four-year investment. The grant provided funding for scholarships — which Khoury College managed independently without any ties to an internal Facebook talent pipeline — and grew Northeastern’s marketing and recruitment efforts. Additionally, the funding supported the development of the MS Pathways to Computing Consortium, a networked learning community of colleges and universities across North America that are investing in their own “Align-like” programs on their campuses.

Green and his team were experts in the computer science industry, but they trusted Khoury College to define the curriculum students needed to bridge their undergraduate studies to computer science. It was a working relationship that relied on expertise and guidance on both sides. Mary Trimarco, director of strategic partnerships for the Align Program, says that working with Green meant “having a true partner who helps you improve your program and understands where you’re going, and isn’t just looking for those benchmarks.”

Green feels that Khoury College is a thought leader in preparing students for the industry. The potential of the program was evident in the feedback he heard from students, and in the way it reflected his own transition from his initial field of study in physical chemistry and simulation to computer science.

I think that every single computer science department should have an Align-equivalent program. They should all be able to onboard non-computer science graduates into a master’s program. The value to the university, to the student, and to the industry is clear

“Actually meeting the students was probably the most influential thing,” Green says. “The commentary that I heard from the students was, ‘I really enjoyed my first degree. My passion for that topic is now satisfied. I want to get a job and have a skill set that’s marketable. And this is the magic.’ I know exactly what that feels like. This is exactly what I went through.”

Although the intent of the funding was to support the broader industry, not to expand Facebook’s field of applicants, hiring data has shown that Align graduates have done quite well in their independent pursuit of jobs at Facebook (now Meta) upon graduation.

After Green left Facebook in 2021, he was hired to do an analysis of Northeastern’s corporate engagement strategy, including a series of recommendations to enhance the university’s ability to effectively engage industry at scale. In July 2021, Green became the chief scientist for Autodesk. Although Meta’s four-year partnership with Align concluded in 2022, the program and the Pathways to Computing Consortium have continued to grow thanks to the tremendous boost provided by this early funding. And Green believes that this is only the beginning.

“I think that every single computer science department should have an Align-equivalent program,” Green says. “They should all be able to onboard non-computer science graduates into a master’s program. The value to the university, to the student, and to the industry is clear.”

In 1982, the cohort of mathematics professors who founded the College of Computer Science (now Khoury College) included three women and three men, a unique balance in an emerging field that was male dominated. Harriet Fell, a professor at Northeastern since 1971, was one of the professors who chose to take on the challenge of creating this new college, despite having no formal training in computer science. Fell saw an emerging need…and a big opportunity.

Fell worked tirelessly to educate herself in the field while simultaneously collaborating with colleagues to develop courses for first-year students. “When we started the college, we had zero courses,” she said. “We had to create everything as we went.” The curriculum that the group developed went on to become the foundation for the Khoury first-year program and subsequently won national curriculum awards.

One of Fell’s biggest collaborations in her time at Khoury was her work with Linda Ferrier, a professor of speech-language pathology and audiology, to design software for users with disabilities. Over the years, Fell’s students, both undergraduate and graduate, helped to develop the software as part of their coursework. The students’ work on designing solutions to these real-world problems was expanded when Fell and Ferrier were funded by a National Institute of Health grant to develop a technology to identify infants with speech difficulties and then build tools to support them in their communication. Fell received an excellence in teaching award for leading senior projects classes in doing this work.

Bringing her passion for drawing and painting to her computer science work, Fell also developed graphics courses and built up the graphics program at Khoury. The courses were popular with students who were also looking for an opportunity to unite their artistic and computer science interests.

Although Fell retired in 2015, she found that her work was not yet done. Just a week after her retirement, the textbook she had co-written was published, and she began work on developing videos to support the text. Then, three weeks after her retirement, she received an NSF grant jointly with Tim Bickmore that helped support one of her graduate students in his doctoral work. She returned to Khoury to support her student in this four-year project.

Of course returning to support her student is not unexpected from a professor who always gave so much of her time to multiple committees and organizations, including serving for six years as secretary/treasurer of SIGCAPH, now sigACCESS, a special interest group of the national ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) supporting work to help people with disabilities.

When we started the college, we had zero courses. We had to create everything as we went

Ultimately, Fell spent more than 30 years at Khoury, and in that time, she witnessed how it has changed and grown. “[It has] become an outstanding place over the years,” she said. “It was tiny, and we were struggling hard just to exist. It’s very impressive to see what’s happened.”

During her seven-year tenure as Dean of Khoury College from 2014 to 2021, Carla Brodley achieved a string of accomplishments. There was a record 43% growth in enrollment for first-year women students and a 50% increase in enrollment of groups historically marginalized in tech. Brodley focused on building the faculty of the college, hiring 46 tenure/tenure-track faculty, 5 professors of the practice and 50 teaching faculty; facilitating the creation of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute; and doubling the size of the PhD program. As a result, the College moved up to number 12 in in csrankings.org, which is the research ranking publication for Computer Science in the U.S.

Brodley also proved herself to be a prolific fundraiser, raising tens of millions of dollars for student scholarships and to fund the Center for Inclusive Computing, which currently works with 57 universities to increase access for women of all races to the field of computing. In addition, she worked with the faculty to raise money from corporations for research—increasing the industry research engagement from 12 to more than 30 tech companies.

Early in her tenure as Dean at Khoury, Brodley and her team made several strategic moves to increase the number of women and students from historically marginalized races and ethnicities. First off, the College created regular and accelerated versions of its two introductory courses for first-year students, ensuring that students without prior experience in computer science could take the first two classes without feeling like they were starting the program behind other students.  The College also centralized undergraduate TA recruitment and training. “TAs are critical to the culture of computer science,” explains Brodley. “We made sure they understood how to be inclusive and create a sense of belonging for each and every student.” These two changes reduced the College’s drop/fail/withdraw rate from 25 percent to five percent, and when students met up again in the third course in the introductory sequence, the College observed no difference in performance between the two groups.

Next, to attract students, the College dramatically increased its combined majors from 12 to 43—leading to a significant increase in women students.

“In the first year we created our mission of ‘CS for everyone,’” said Brodley. “We made sure all our websites and marketing materials reflected all intersectional identities, and that all students feel welcome at Khoury. We also created one of the most interdisciplinary colleges of computer science in the country because the second meaning of our CS for Everyone is that CS touches all fields.” Indeed, 30% of the faculty that Brodley hired have interdisciplinary appointments with other colleges in the University.

One accomplishment that Brodley takes great pride in is the Align Master’s program, designed for students who come from non-technical backgrounds. When Brodley arrived at Khoury College, there were 11 students enrolled in an earlier version of the program on the Seattle campus. Since then, the program has dramatically expanded to seven campuses, including Boston, and currently has 1,721 students enrolled.

In the first year we created our mission of CS for everyone. We made sure all our websites and marketing materials reflected all intersectional identities, and that all students feel welcome at Khoury. We also created one of the most interdisciplinary colleges of computer science in the country because the second meaning of our CS for Everyone is that CS touches all fields

As Brodley puts it, the program creates a “new pathway of talent” that benefits students and regional economies. The program’s success led to scholarship investments from industry and the ability to draw faculty to apply to Khoury College who are motivated by the Align mission.

Since completing her tenure as Dean of Khoury College, Brodley has remained on the Northeastern campus as Dean and Executive Director for the Center for Inclusive Computing, a position that allows her to amplify her mission of making CS available and accessible to everyone.

If you introduce a problem to six people from roughly the same background, you often receive six variants of roughly the same solution, says Wayne Duso, former vice president of engineering and product at Amazon Web Services (AWS). But if you give the same problem to six people with wildly different backgrounds, the interplay between their varied perspectives will create ideas you’ve never dreamed of, and you get something much better. And the students that make up Khoury College’s Align program, which provides a pathway to an MS in computer science to students from all undergraduate backgrounds, bring perspectives drawn from everything from psychology to environmental science to English literature. This means they bring exactly what Duso seeks at AWS: diversity of experience and ideas to drive global innovation.

That’s why Duso and Brecka Fetzer, senior program manager, created the Align Career Prep Program. The partnership provides mentorship and support to Align students from all of Northeastern’s network campuses to prepare them to apply for AWS’ Software Development Engineering Internship; it also guarantees them the opportunity to complete the technical screening that is the first step in the hiring process. Align interns who are offered and accept a post-graduation position with AWS will have their final semester paid for by their future employer.

READ: Unique opportunities for Align students bring new CS perspectives to Amazon Web Services

“There’s a lot we offer in terms of how people learn to become an engineer, how to become a team member, owner, and leader,” Duso said. “I had the privilege of doing that years ago in a company that was amazing in terms of its strong culture grounded in pride-of-ownership and quality results as measured by its customers. I wouldn’t have become the engineer I became if I didn’t have a great place to start, with great people who really wanted me to succeed. Our objective is to provide the same opportunity and experience to the Align students.”

The program is the brainchild of Duso, who first began talking about the idea with former dean Carla Brodley after the two reconnected at a University of Massachusetts Amherst dean’s advisory board meeting. Both were struck by how tightly AWS and Khoury College’s cultures meshed, and they each kept an eye out for ways to collaborate. Several years later, the Align Career Prep Program presented itself.

Fetzer manages the program daily — answering student questions, interfacing with her Khoury counterpart Mary Trimarco, and identifying ways to develop the program further.

”I love coming in and getting different perspectives, hearing stories from people and learning from them. You learn so much from folks who come from different walks of life, and I think that’s super important to bring into the workplace,” Fetzer said. “Align interns are very driven and excited … It takes a lot of courage to leave an industry that you’re in and transition into computer science. I’m glad we can help them pursue a career they’re passionate in.”

After starting with just a handful of students three years ago, the program has exploded in popularity since, and AWS is significantly scaling it up this summer. The Align Career Prep Program is also serving as a model for other partnerships, like the one Fetzer and Duso recently launched with Hack Diversity, a nonprofit that breaks down barriers for Black and Latinx tech professionals. Most of Duso’s intern class now arrives through nontraditional pathways like the Align Career Prep Program and Hack Diversity.

Align interns are very driven and excited … It takes a lot of courage to leave an industry that you’re in and transition into computer science. I’m glad we can help them pursue a career they’re passionate in

Brecka Fetzer, Creator of the Align Career Prep Program

The next step, Duso says, is to think about how to scale sustainably.

“Successful relationships like this take commitment from both parties. They take time,” he said. Duso wants to provide opportunities to as many students as possible — and welcome as much diverse talent and their ideas into AWS as possible — without creating a strain that would do harm to the program itself. “For anybody who decides to engage Align, engage it as a relationship, because you are engaging people. If you want to be effective with those people, the algorithm isn’t one of efficiency. It’s one of understanding and completeness.”

Fetzer is excited to watch the program grow further. She’s also thrilled to meet her newest colleagues when they arrive this summer, and grow meaningful relationships with them as they continue to grow their careers.

After struggling with a lack of support as a middle school English teacher, Jen Gordon felt burnt out. In need of a change, Jen found the Align Online program, and is now pursuing computer science as a way to make other teachers’ lives more manageable.

This program is absolutely giving me the technical skills to be able to really understand computer
frameworks and understand these problems, and to really be able to tackle them at a meaningful level

Jen Gordon, Align MSCS ’25

Before coming to the Roux Institute, Alan Jamieson was a theater hand, a small business manager, and a jazz DJ. Now the Director of Computing Programs in Portland, he is passionate about helping Khoury College students discover new disciplines that match their own interests.

I really enjoyed building that experience for students to capture that lightbulb moment … That was the thing that I became passionate about, and it’s what I’ve made my career around

Alan Jamieson, Director of Computing Programs – Portland

After becoming a father, Navy helicopter pilot Benji Northrop needed a career change. The Align Online program helped him transition into computer science at his own pace, giving him the flexibility to care for his family while pursuing a new degree.

Working full-time while doing grad school is a challenge. It’s a big exercise in time management, and you get to throw an extra wrench into the middle where you’re also a full-time parent. … I needed to be 100% asynchronous and I needed to have commitment from the school … Northeastern had that from day one

Benji Northrop, Align MSCS ’25

Natalie Grillo knows it’s never too late to switch careers. After working in health care for 15 years, she attended a Break Into Tech event that introduced her to the Align Online program — empowering her to shift toward computer science and new career opportunities. Now she’s trading ambulances for office work, making connections at large tech companies she never imagined she’d have access to.

Having done my undergrad as an adult as well, there were moments I was like, ‘Oh no, is this for me? Am I too late?’ But with Northeastern and Khoury College’s Align Online, it’s right on time

Natalie Grillo, MSCS ’26

After receiving her BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Samantha Olinsky found herself working on apps and websites, and wanting to understand how to build them herself. After graduating from the Align program, she has flourished in a new career chapter via her software engineering work at Atalssian.

The Align program really helped prepare me for the real world in a way that you only can hope a
program will do. I felt like the skills and the programs and the languages that I was being exposed to in classes are things … I’m already using

Samantha Olinksy, Align MSCS ’24

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