World’s Largest Computing Association Elects New Leadership
Purdue University’s Elisa Bertino Will Lead ACM During the Field’s “Defining Moment”
New York, NY, May 28, 2026 – Members of ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, have elected new officers who will lead the organization for two-year terms beginning July 1. Heading the new team will be incoming President Elisa Bertino. Bertino is the Samuel Conte Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. Over her 40-year career, she has made pioneering contributions to information and systems security and privacy. She is known for broadening participation in computing through professional leadership and mentoring.
Joining Bertino will be incoming Vice President Rashmi Mohan, Sr. Director of Engineering at Cisco (Splunk) Inc.,and Tom Crick, Professor of Digital Society and Policy at the University of Bristol, who will serve as Secretary/Treasurer. In addition, two new Members-at-Large have been elected to four-year terms: Lydia Tapia, Professor, University of New Mexico; and Holly Yanco, Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts.
President-elect Bertino explained that her overarching goal will be to strengthen ACM’s role as a trusted global voice to ensure that technological advances are aligned with societal values and the public good. She plans to support early-career researchers and educators through enhanced mentorship, to promote open sustainable and equitable access to ACM publications and research infrastructure, and to expand ACM’s reach across regions and cultures.
“Computing now stands at a defining moment,” says Bertino. “Transformative advances are reshaping research, industry, and society at unprecedented speed and scale. At the same time, they raise profound challenges. Meeting these challenges requires not only continued excellence in foundational research, but also strong professional leadership and sustained dialogue across disciplines, sectors, and regions. ACM has a unique responsibility—and a unique capacity—to provide that leadership.”
Bertino is currently ACM Vice President and previously served as ACM Secretary/Treasurer as well as Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC). Bertino co-founded the ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (CODASPY), which has become the main forum for high-quality research on data privacy and security.
Bertino is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE and AAAS. Among her honors, she has received the ACM Athena Lecturer Award, the SIGSAC Outstanding Contribution Award, the IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, and the IEEE Computer Society Tsutomo Kanai Award.
Incoming Vice President Rashmi Mohan has spent 25+ years in various technical and management positions. At Cisco she leads the Enterprise Security SIEM Investigations and Foundations engineering teams. Earlier in her career, she co-founded EnTrio Partners, where she worked with startups and larger companies on their digital transformation. Prior to that she was a Senior Engineering Manager at Yahoo Labs. Mohan currently serves as ACM Secretary/Treasurer and prior to that served as a Member at Large of the ACM Council. She has also served on the ACM Practitioners Board and the ACM India Council.
Tom Crick, ACM's newly elected Secretary/Treasurer, has worked in areas spanning computing, data, and artificial intelligence. He has published extensively on the societal, cultural, and economic impacts of digital technologies. In addition to his position at the University of Bristol, Crick is the Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. He has also chaired major national curriculum reviews in computing and STEM education. Crick is a long-standing elected Member-at-Large of the ACM Council and a member of the ACM Presidential Taskforce on Financial Models.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
