I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Human Centered Computing program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. My advisor is Dr. Rebecca Grinter and I am a part of the Work2Play lab. I received a B.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University in April, 2005.

My research lies within the field of Human-Computer Interaction, and I am specifically interested in exploring how technologies can be designed to fit within specific sociocultural contexts. For example, I am interested in how technology can be used to empower urban, low-income communities. To this end, my research involves studying aspects of human life in an effort to create technology that resonates with the existing sociocultural landscape.

• My book chapter, "Sharing Personal Reflections on Health Locally" is forthcoming in 2009. It will be a part of the book, Shared Encounters: Content Sharing as Social Glue in Public Places in the Springer CSCW book series.
• Our paper, "Technological Support for Family Reflections on Health" (with Desney S. Tan and Dan Morris from Microsoft Research) was accepted to GROUP 2009.
• In February 2009 I gave a talk at the Office of Minority Health's Summit on Health Disparities. The talk was entitled,"Addressing Health Disparities through Partnerships Between Community Health Organizations & Technology Researchers".
• In February 2009 I attended HCIC (Human-Computer Interaction Consortium).
• CSCW 2008 Best Paper Nomination: For our paper, EatWell: Sharing Nutrition-Related Memories in a Low-Income Community.
• CHI 2008 Best Paper Nomination: For our paper, Celebratory Technology: New Directions for Food Research in HCI.
• Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship: In February 2008, I was awared an MSR Fellowship in recognition of my 'contribution to technology in the area of social impact'.
• In January 2008 I was awarded a Yahoo! Key Technical Challenge Grant: for my research on designing culturally-relevant health technology.