2026 - William R. Riter Distinguished IT Education Service Award
Dr. Paul M. Leidig served as a Professor and the founding Director of the School of Computing at Grand Valley State University from 1991 until his retirement in 2024 — a 33-year career during which he built GVSU's computing programs from a single computer science major into a nationally recognized, interdisciplinary school with multiple undergraduate and graduate degrees, more than 50 full-time faculty, over 1,000 undergraduate students, and 400 graduate students.
Leidig holds a Ph.D. in Business (Information Systems) from Virginia Commonwealth University (1992), an MBA from James Madison University (1983), and a B.S. in Business Administration from Eastern Mennonite University (1977). He is a recognized Fellow of both the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) and ISCAP-EDSIG, and has served in leadership roles across ABET, the ACM Education Board, the NCAA Division II Management Council, and numerous national computing curriculum task forces — including co-chairing the ACM/AIS IS2020 Information Systems Curriculum Task Force and the ACM Data Science Task Force.
His connection to MWC3 is foundational: in 2018, Dr. Leidig — in partnership with the Grand Rapids Chapter of AITP — underwrote the inaugural MWC3 conference, providing the institutional and financial foundation that made the event possible. His decades of leadership in computing accreditation, curriculum development, and student success made him a fitting recipient of the award in 2025.