I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto working on crisis informatics, human-centered computing (HCC), and science and technology studies (STS). My research uses a range of ethnographic, participatory, and design research methods to evaluate and improve the technologies we use to understand and respond to environmental challenges like disasters and climate change.
I have a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Master's Degree in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from American University and Bachelors Degrees in History and Political Science from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Prior to starting my PhD, I was was a researcher at the The Center for Neighborhood Technology and the World Resources Institute, a software developer at Development Seed, and a consultant to the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). At GFDRR I launched the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, a worldwide effort to harness open data, open source software, and civic technology to improve disaster and climate risk management. I am also a co-founder and member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, an international organization working towards creating a free and open map of the world for humanitarian and development purposes.
While a PhD student at CU Boulder, I was visiting student researcher with University of California, Berkeley's Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society, and a visiting researcher and lecturer with the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative.
Research Areas:
Crisis Informatics, human-computer interaction (HCI), computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), infrastructure studies, critical design, participatory sensing, civic technology, environmental justice
Teaching Areas:
Introductory computer science and programming, HCI, social computing, user-centered design, qualitative research methods, ethics of technology and computing, science and technology studies (STS), information communication technology for development (ICTD)
Online:
Contact:
Recent News
- January 2022 - I wrote a short piece for ACM Interactions on Reimagining Environmental Data.
- November 2021 - The Toronto Climate Observatory is hiring 2 post-doctoral researchers. Applications due January 10th. Learn more here.
- September 2021 - Our paper on the need for historicism in CSCW has been awarded Best Paper (top 1% of submissions) in CSCW.
- August 2021 - Our research on informal sheltering practices in Puerto Rico has been published by the Natural Hazards Center. Read it here.
- August 2021 - Our paper on the the mutual aid response to COVID-19 and its lessons for crisis informatics has been accepted to CSCW.
- July 2021 - Our ACM COMPASS paper, 'What we speculate about when we speculate about sustainable HCI', has been published.
- February 2021 - Our paper on the Understanding Risk Field Lab has been accepted to CSCW. Read it here.