Soraya Cardenas, Ph.D. received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 2002. She is a former recipient of the UNL Presidential Fellowship and the Garcia Robles Fulbright Scholarship. She received a Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Kansas in 2001. She won the Trustee Professorship in 2009 and Researcher of the Year in 2010 at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. In 2020, Cascadia College awarded her the Excellence in Teaching Award. She also has presented at various IEEE conferences in the United States, Canada, and the UK on digital inequalities and in technology and education. During her free time, she volunteers, trains for a triathlon, hikes, kayaks, skis (alpine and Nordic), and is editing her first major novel.