"Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders."
-World Health Organization (WHO)
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health 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 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. My research is broadly in the area of digital mental health. For me, this means studying the impact of "general purpose" technologies (e.g., social media, diet and fitness app) on users' mental health as well as technologies specifically designed to support mental health. My work is interdisciplinary, human-centered, and problem-driven. I believe the only way to make a real impact is to understand people's experiences, and I value different methodological approaches to provide a more holistic perspective. By studying diverse groups of users and the contextual factors that affect them, I believe we can design better and more effective technologies. 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 more on emotions, thought processes, and mental health broadly. Primary research areas: Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Public Health, Informatics, Information Science, 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
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News & Updates
April 2020: Served as PC member for ICHI 2020 March 2020: Attended iConference virtually January 2020: Became Assistant Professor at UCSD! January 2020: Abstract accepted to SBM 2020! December 2019: Paper accepted to SITE! 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! |
