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