Dr. Karen Panetta is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tufts University. She received the B.S. in Computer Engineering from Boston University, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. She created Nerd Girls as an extra-curricular project at Tufts University and brought in grant funding and corporate sponsors to take it through five years. Dr. Panetta will create the series projects and work with a project manager to oversee their functioning and will work with the series producers in casting the series and structuring it to accomplish the series goals. She will also be the primary contact with the industry advisors.

Before joining the faculty at Tufts, Dr. Panetta was employed as a computer engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation. Her research in Simulation and Modeling has won her research team five awards from NASA for "Outstanding Contributions to NASA Research" and "Excellence in Research". She is a NASA Langley Research Scientist "JOVE" Fellow, is a recipient of the NSF Career Award and won the 2003 Madeline and Henry Fischer Best Engineering Teacher Award. In 2003, she was the only educator in Massachusetts to be recognized by MASS High Tech Magazine as an "All-Star" for her work in technology and education. Dr. Panetta is a Senior Member of the IEEE and director of its Women in Engineering section and is the Chair for the IEEE Educational Society, Central New England Council. She is also on the Boston University Engineering Alumni Board and is a member of the Society for Computer Simulation.

Dr. Panetta has outstanding technical and scholarly achievements, but what distinguishes her from other educators are her innovative approaches to engineering education. She brings a unique combination of pedagogical methods, which includes teaching, mentoring, curriculum development and serving as a role model for new generations of engineers. She has linked educational outreach efforts with the undergraduate curriculum that has created synergic activities for both k-12 and undergraduate engineering students. She was selected by the Tufts University President to help develop the roadmap for the future of undergraduate education for the University. She has brought national attention and awareness to the role of engineers in our society through her unique projects. During Tufts University's 2005 review of the School of Engineering by national accreditation organization ABET, the ABET evaluation team cited the Nerd Girls project as the most innovative program in the country for attracting and retaining women in engineering. Dr. Panetta's work has been publicized in the IEEE Institute newspaper, Newsweek Magazine, The Boston Globe, the Mass High Tech Journal, Boston University magazine, and the American Society for Engineering Education, among others.

Executive Producer Karen Johnson

Karen Johnson is a documentary film producer and former lawyer whose most recent project "Double Dare" about Hollywood stuntwomen, won many awards and was theatrically released Spring 2005 followed by broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens, home video/DVD release, and worldwide foreign distribution by NBC/Universal. "Double Dare" was originated and produced by Ms. Johnson because of her interest in creating media images of women who break gender stereotypes and define their own identity. Like the NERD GIRLS the women of "Double Dare" offer positive role models to young women facing too many media-maintained, negative stereotypes. She uncovered Dr. Karen Panetta's program at Tufts University. Impressed with the concept she thought it should be combined with a reality television model and an educational mission and targeted specifically at young teen and tween girls before they lose interest in STEM studies. Ms. Johnson's experience in the documentary and fiction feature filmmaking arena also includes: Imagen award-winning fiction feature "Twice Upon A Yesterday" starring Penelope Cruz; and the fiction feature film "Prospect." She has an upcoming documentary feature "KUSAMA: Princess of Polka Dots" about the avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama and an upcoming fiction feature "Charlotte" about the German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon. She has also produced a series of documentaries about young environmentalists for the Earth Island Institute.

Executive Producer - Paola di Florio

Award-winning documentary filmmaker and television producer Paola di Florio's work has been featured on HBO, PBS, CBS, NBC, FOX, Sundance Channel, Court TV and A&E. She has traveled extensively, filming a variety of subjects. Di Florio's first feature documentary, "Speaking In Strings," had its debut in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999. It was purchased by HBO, after theatrical distribution throughout the US, which garnered an Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2000. Speaking In Strings spotlights one of the world's most controversial and charismatic violinists, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. It focuses on a momentous year, in which Sonnenberg rebuilds her life after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Di Florio's follow-up documentary, "Home of the Brave," centered on the murder of Viola Liuzzo - the only white woman killed in the civil rights movement. Like Di Floiro's first film, it premiered at Sundance in 2004 and was a semi-finalist for the 2005 Academy Awards. It received Best Documentary, Social Justice, and Audience Choice awards, among other prizes on the U.S. festival circuit. In addition, the film got a WGA nomination for Best Documentary Screenplay and 2 nominations from the International Documentary Association.

In 2006, di Florio served as Series Director and show-runner for 13 episodes of TLC's "The Adam Carolla Project". She recently directed several reality pilots: "Almost Ray" (a spin-off of The Adam Carolla Project) and "Generation 911," about Americorps volunteers assisting in the reconstruction of New Orleans. Earlier in her career, di Florio produced a documentary TV series for Canal Plus entitled "Directors on Directors," which featured unique portraits of Hollywood auteurs - including Sydney Pollack, Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, Michael Mann, and others. The critically acclaimed series was given a special screening at the Locarno Film Festival's 50th Anniversary in 1998. A graduate of NYU, Di Florio lives in Los Angeles with her husband, screenwriter Peter Rader, and their two sons. She is currently an equity partner in a streaming video Internet startup.