Bendz earned a bachelor's degree in 1968, jointly from the
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and from
Syracuse University. She was the first woman to graduate from the SUNY ESF program in
polymer chemistry. She came to work for
IBM as an electronics packaging engineer, and continued there for 39 years, finishing her career as senior location executive for IBM's research facility in
Endicott, New York. As director of environmentally conscious products for IBM, she led the incorporation of recycled materials into IBM personal computers; she also worked on a program to recycle old computers, led an IBM taskforce on environmental leadership, and pushed IBM to donate land to environmental organizations and to participate in
eco-industrial parks. She also founded the
IEEE Technical Committee on Electronics and the Environment, the IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, and the Electronics Recycling Summit. While still at IBM, Bendz worked with
Joan L. Mitchell and others in an IBM program aimed at promoting engineering to middle school girls. After retiring, she founded and ran Girls Balance the Equation, a nonprofit organization with similar goals. ==Recognition==