The purpose of my research is to help people collaboratively build insights around civic concerns, policy issues, and ethical questions. I conduct my system design and public policy research as a cycle that begins with investigations into the opportunities and barriers to informed discussion on collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack) and at news websites (e.g., New York Times). I then use this research about existing systems to develop and evaluate new ways to promote informed discussion through controlled experiments and field studies. As a theoretical lens to inform my research, I apply modern concepts from crowdsourcing to advance century-old practices in public deliberation, because I see great promise in the capability of computing systems to coordinate groups of people to problem-solve a civic issue through informed discussion.

Currently I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego. In 2019, I earned my PhD in Information Science from Cornell University, where I was advised by Gilly Leshed, Dan Cosley (DanCo), and Poppy McLeod. Prior to my PhD, I worked as a project associate at the RAND Corporation, where I reported on a range of topics—from youth summer learning programs to the use and misuse of predictive policing techniques. Additionally, I earned a master’s degree in Education Policy at Vanderbilt University Peabody College and studied Economics and History at the University of California, Davis.