Elizabeth V. Eikey
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Elizabeth V. Eikey, PhD

"Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders."
-World Health Organization (WHO)

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science as well as The Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). I'm the Director of the Mental Health in Design (MiD) Lab, which brings together a diverse group of individuals interested in understanding and advocating for mental health in and beyond digital spaces.

I am also the Assistant Director of the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), a leadership and development program for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups. Students of all majors and backgrounds come together to learn how they can make a positive impact in the world through Information Science and Computing research. I am also the Co-Director of the Inclusion Lab, a research lab aimed at addressing the needs of i3 scholars and affiliates after the formal i3 program.

My research broadly focuses on promoting social justice through the lens of human-centered design in the mental health context. In my work, social justice means addressing marginalized communities' health needs through an intersectional lens. The communities I work with are comprised of individuals with mental health concerns who hold multiple identities and have lived expertise across multiple areas (e.g., the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, women with eating disorders, mental health care clients, isolated older adults) and are often overlooked in the design and evaluation of technologies. Thus, they may be more susceptible to negative effects of engaging with these technologies due to the way these tools reproduce defaults, norms, and historical inequities. 

I also have experience in making and designing technologies for therapeutic interventions, diet and fitness, and sustainability (see this document for an overview). These projects span various domains but highlight my design process experience, which I aim to continue in my future work but focusing on emotions, thought processes, and mental health broadly.

Primary research areas: Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Human-Centered Design, Public Health, Information Science, Informatics, Psychology

Being a first generation college graduate, I know the challenges of pursuing higher education. Technology touches all of our lives in some way. I want to help people see the value of having different people of varying backgrounds and skills work towards understanding and designing technology. Additionally, I would like to inspire others to study technology and encourage them to get involved in research early. 

​Before becoming an Assistant Professor, I completed a postdoctoral fellow with the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) and the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). I earned my PhD from the College of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). Prior to starting graduate school in 2012, I received my bachelor's degree in Psychology from Penn State in Fall 2010.

Honors and Awards​
  • UROP Funding as Research Advisory at UCI (2019)
  • ICTS TL1 Training Award (NIH-funded) (2017)
  • Best Poster Award at ACM GROUP conference  (2016)
  • Travel Grant Awarded by IST at Penn State (2016)
  • Graduate Teaching Fellow at Penn State (2016)
  • Scholarship to attend the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems Research Institute (2016)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow (2014)
  • Grace Hopper Scholarship to attend Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference  (2014)
  • CRA-W Scholarship to attend CRA-W Graduate Cohort Workshop (2014)
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention (2013)
  • Dean's List (2008-2014)
  • Rein Trustee Scholarship (2010)
  • Ralph W. Young Scholarship (2008-2010)
  • Academic Competitiveness Grant (2008-2010)
  • The University Trustee Scholarship (2008-2010)
News & Updates
February 2023: Became the Faculty Lead of the Technology and Precision Health Teaching Division

October 2022: Presented user evaluations of mental health apps at the . Technology in Psychiatry Summit

​Fall 2022: Launched DSGN 201 course with Eric Hekler 

August 2022: Article picked up by NPR "The Space Force is scrapping the annual fitness test in favor of wearable trackers"

July 2022: Interview with St. Louis Public Radio featured in "The Space Force will track troops' fitness with wearable devices. Will it keep them healthier?"

June-July 2022: i3 held at UT Austin!

May 2022: Interview with Protocol featured in "Carrot vs. stick: Can you hack your productivity with punishment?"

Spring 2022: Launched first ever Critical Digital Health course

February 2022: Interview with Cosmopolitan featured in "Fitness trackers are improving our physical health, but what about our mental wellbeing?"

Winter 2022: Soft-launched first ever DSGN 201 course with Eric Hekler

Fall 2021: Served as AC for Health track for CHI 2022

Fall 2021: Poster paper accepted to iConference 2022

Fall 2021: Single author paper accepted to BJPsych Open

Fall 2021: Coauthored paper accepted to Journal of Medical Internet Research

Fall 2021: Coauthored paper accepted to Stigma & Health

August 2021: MiD Lab Social App Design Workshop findings presented at URC (TRELS)

Summer 2021: You And app promoted at Angels game

Summer 2021: Participated as a Design Lab panelist

Summer 2021: Codeveloped and cofacilitated three Design Lab panels

Summer 2021: Codeveloped and cohosted first ever i3 Alumni Institute

May 2021: First author paper accepted to Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

May 2021: MiD Lab CAPS Redesign Project presented at URC

Spring 2021: Featured on The Anomalous Mind podcast

Spring 2021: Awarded seed grant to investigate factors that influence compassion cultivation in telemental health

Spring 2021: Presented work at Penn State IST

Spring 2021: Awarded funding for postdoc through CIFellows

Winter 2021: Interviewed for featured article in The Swaddle about the role of diet and fitness apps in eating disorders

Winter 2021-Spring 2021: Co-hosting Design@Large weekly on racism in design

Winter 2021: Published Barriers and facilitators to user engagement with digital mental health interventions: A systematic review in JMIR

Winter 2021: Published Curating the digital mental health landscape with a guide to behavioral health apps: A county-driven resource in Psychiatric Services

Winter 2021: Attended A Conversation on Creating a More Racially Just Campus Environment at UC San Diego; HWSPH Community Restorative Justice Event; and Health Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Community Fair

Winter 2021: Participating in the Building a Respectful and Inclusive Culture course

February 2021: Guest lectured for Dr. Cinnamon Bloss' Technology & Precision Health for Public Good course

Fall 2020: Invited to submit book chapter on textual methods to understanding eating disorders

Fall 2020: Invited to consult with Lose It! about app changes for individuals with eating disorders

Fall 2020: Served as CHI 2021 AC in Health Track

Fall 2020: Served as faculty node for HWSPH strategic planning workgroup, Career Development Academic Lead 

Fall 2020: ASIST panel organizer and speaker: Opportunities and challenges of self-tracking technologies

Fall 2020: Published a scoping review of qualitative work in JAMIA

Fall 2020: Published a paper reviewing personal informatics literature over the last decade in IMWUT

Fall 2020: Awarded small grant with PI Byron Fergerson and team for SMS monitoring of stress in physicians

Fall 2020: Featured in Design Lab article

Fall 2020: Temporarily appointed to the Norman Design Fund review committee

December 2020: Poster accepted to iConference 2021

December 2020: Gave talk at digital mental health advisory board meeting

November 2020: Guest lectured for Dr. Wael Al-Delaimy's Mental Health Epidemiology course on Considerations for Digital Technologies for Mental Health: Data Use and People’s Needs

November 2020: 3 collaborative posters accepted to Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

October 2020: Interviewed by Vice for featured article on the Noom app

October: Gave invited talk at UCSD's Bioengineering (~70 people)

October 2020: Participated in HWSPH's strategic planning for our vision and mission 

October 2020: Attended Diet and Technology Workshop

October 2020: Invited to attend Health of People, Health of Planet, and Our Responsibility: Community Engagement Event

September 2020: Began serving on PH MPH Curriculum Committee

September 2020: Attended Beyond the Visible: Space, Place, and Power in Mental Health's The Hospital Panel—Deconstructing ‘Otherness' 

Summer-Fall 2020: Attended 6-week training course on Racial Resilience

Summer 2020: Consulted with OneMind PsyberGuide and Phoenix House to develop a resilience app

Summer 2020: Hosted our first ever virtual i3 Concluding Institute!

July 2020: Invited as panel speaker for UCI's Trainee Brown Bag Series

July 2020: Gave talk at digital mental health advisory board meeting

June 2020: Gave invited talk to OC MHSA INN Community Planning Meeting

May 2020: Guest lectured in Dr. Suzi Hong's Public Mental Health Course

May 2020: Gave invited talk to OC MHSA INN Community Planning Meeting

April 2020: Served as PC member for ICHI 2020

April 2020: Gave talk at digital mental health advisory board meeting

March 2020: Attended iConference virtually; 3 papers published: Depression Management as Lifestyle Management, Perceived Use and Effects of Social Media for 1-2.5 Generation Immigrant College Students with Depression, Expanding the REU Model in an iSchool Context
​
January 2020: Became Assistant Professor at UCSD!

January 2020: Abstract accepted to SBM 2020!

December 2019: Paper accepted to SITE: Design, Implementation, and Reflections on the Teaching of Computer Programming Modules to Underrepresented Students
​
November 2019: Multiple papers accepted to iConference!

June & July 2019: First Introductory and Concluding Institute as the i3 Assistant Director

June 2019: Awarded grant through IMLS!

June 2019: Awarded grant for i3 through the Mellon Foundation!

April & May 2019: Gave multiple job talks!

March 2019: Presented at iConference!

March 2019: Attended the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) conference!

January 2019: Papers accepted to iConference 2019!

January 2019: Poster accepted to SBM!
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