Red Burns

Goldie "Red" Burns (née Gennis; April 9, 1925 – August 23, 2013) was a chair of the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She was known as the "Godmother of Silicon Alley", New York's technology district.

Personal life and education

Goldie Gennis was born in 1925 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the youngest of the three children of two Russian immigrants.

Burns then took work with a television distribution company and seven years after the death of her first husband, married one of her co-workers, Lloyd Burns. Burns emphasized the importance of housing such projects within an art school context, stating that "People who come from other disciplines, not just computer scientists, can now create their own forms of communication. Doctors and architects and educators can use more than words—they can use pictures and sound."

Death At the time of her death, Burns was the Principal Investigator on two Intel and Microsoft-funded major research projects. Although she was no longer the director, she still taught a course at ITP and went there every day.

Awards and memberships Burns won many awards including: Crain's All-Stars Educator's Award (1998) New York Hall of Science Distinguished Leadership Award for achievement in technology (2004) "Crain's" cited her as one of the "Top 100 People Who Will Shape New York" Interactive Week picked her as one of the "Top 25 Influential People on the Net" Newsweek's "50 for the Future" New York Magazine's "New York Cyber Sixty" Silicon Alley's 100 "Crain's New York Business" as one of the 100 top leaders of New York's economy and top 100 most influential women in business Burns also served as: Board member, The Charles Revson Foundation Board member, The Art Director's Club Board member, Creative Capital Advisory Board member,"Seminars on Science," a program of The National Center for Science, Literacy, and Technology, which is part of the American Museum of National History Mentor to the Ross School in East Hampton, New York Education advisor to the New Museum of Contemporary Art Advisory Board member, the New York Times Digital Company Advisory Board, IVREA Institute (Italy) The Visual Media Task Force The Convergent Media Group Electronic Neighborhood ProBono.net Burns was a founding member of the Media Lab Europe Board, the Board of Directors of the New York New Media Association (NYNMA), and she served as a juror for the On-Line Journalism Awards, the National Magazine Awards, and the Webby Awards.

Burns also served on panels for The National Design Awards and The Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellowship, juror for the Creative Capital Grants, and The American Institute of Graphic Arts "365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions."