I am an associate professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. I co-direct the Technology for Social Good | Research and Design Lab with Dr. Denise Nacu.

As for my research, I explore and design technologies used by geographically-bound communities to address social issues by considering social, cultural, and economic contexts as well as socio-technical infrastructures. The goal of my work is to co-design sustainable technologies, practices, and policies with community organizations that aim to counter structural oppression using equity-centered, justice-oriented, assets-based approaches to research and design. My current projects focus on issues such as violence, education, political efficacy, and economic development in Chicago communities that have been historically oppressed and resourced-constrained due to unfair policies and State violence.

I received my Ph.D. from the Technology and Social Behavior program at Northwestern University, which is a joint degree in Computer Science and Communication. I received my Masters in Computer Science focusing on Human Computer Interaction from the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before attending Georgia Tech, I received two Bachelors of Science degrees from Spelman College in Computer Science and Mathematics. Prior to returning for my Ph.D., I was an User Experience Engineer at IBM.

Recent News

  • March 2021: Our paper (with Caitlin Martin), “Impact and Resilience: A Survey of Youth-serving Organizations During the Pandemic” was accepted to the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting and Conference.
  • March 2021: Our paper “Sustaining Community and Relationships with Black and Latina Girls in an Out-of-School STEAM Learning Program During a Global Crisis” was accepted to the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting and Conference. This paper is co-authored with several graduate students in my lab, Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab, my post-doc, Naomi Thompson, and my co-PIs, Denise Nacu and Nichole Pinkard.
  • Feb 2021: Our paper “Amplifying Community-led Violence Prevention as a Counter to Structural Oppression” was accepted to CSCW 2021. Delighted to co-author this paper with some of my amazing graduate research assistants (Jessa Dickinson, Maddie Shiparski, and Alejandra Gonzalez) and community partners (Jalon Arthur and Angalia Bianca).
  • Nov 2020 - Jan 2021: Honored to give talks at University of California Irvine, University of Colorado Boulder, and University of Maryland College Park during their speaker series. My talk was titled, “Countering Structural Oppression through Co-Design with Residents in Resource-Constrained Communities.” I gave a similar talk at DePaul University for their Design Histories Series, where I discussed history, power, and structural oppression and how we as designers can counter injustice and inequity by taking a community-driven, co-design approach.
  • Nov 2020: Our paper (with Jakita Thomas and Yolanda Rankin) "Real Talk: Saturated Sites of Violence in CS Education" was accepted to SIGCSE 2021. ***This paper won a #1 Best Paper Award for the Computing Education Research Track.***
  • Oct 2020: Our paper (with Yolanda Rankin and Jakita Thomas) "I Can’t Breathe: Reflections from Black Women in CSCW and HCI" was accepted and presented at CSCW 2020. ***This paper also won a Diversity and Inclusion award.***
  • Oct 2020: Delighted to co-organize a CSCW 2020 workshop on assets-based design with collaborators from across the country.
  • July 2020: Our paper (with Nichole Pinkard and Caitlin Martin) "Equitable approaches: opportunities for computational thinking with emphasis on creative production and connections to community" was published in Interactive Learning Environments.
  • June 2020: Our paper (with Jessa Dickinson, Caitlin Martin, and Nichole Pinkard) "Community Conversations: A Model for Community-Driven Design of Learning Ecosystems with Geospatial Technologies" was accepted at ICLS 2020.
  • May 2020: Our project (in collaboration with the Chicago Mayor's Office and Northwestern University) launched, which focuses on working with youth-serving organizations to provide meaningful opportunities to Chicago youth. My advisory role on the mayoral initiative is to create an equity-focused framework for data-informed, community conversations about local informal learning infrastructures. I have the pleasure of partnering with Natasha Smith-Walker at Project Exploration on this community-based work in the Austin community.
  • April 2020: I was awarded a Smart and Connected Communities NSF grant to design data-driven tools and social practices to support a city-wide equitable out-of-school time learning ecosystem in Chicago.
  • ​more news...

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