Other News

CHI 2019

December 2018

Our paper, "Social Reflections on Fitness Tracking Data: A Study with Families in Low-SES Neighborhoods" was accepted to CHI 2019.

NSF Award

Fall 2018

I was awarded an $2 million, 4-year NSF Smart & Connected Communities grant, together with Drs. Tim Bickmore, Michael Paasche-Orlow, Stephen Intille, and Jessica Hoffman.

NSF Award

August 2018

I was awarded a 3-year, $469k NSF grant to study how social network visualization tools can help support youth activism. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Brooke Foucault Welles and Catherine D'Ignazio.

Health Equity Pilot Grant Award

Spring 2018

I was awarded a Health Equity Pilot Grant from the Institute for Health Equity & Social Justice. With this grant, I will examine how "reminiscence technology" can support coping and resilience in low-SES populations.

2018-19 IUHR Health Equity Scholar

Spring 2018

I was named a 2018-2019 Institute for Health Equity & Social Justice Faculty Scholar.

CHI 2018

Spring 2018

Our three full papers were accepted to CHI 2018.

Best Paper Honorable Mention Award

Spring 2018

Our CHI 2018 mHealth systematic review paper received a Best Paper Honorable Mention Award (awarded to the top 5% of submissions).

CSCW 2018

Our paper, entitled "A Sociotechnical Study of a Community-based Rewards Program: Insights on Building Social, Financial and Human Capital", was accepted to CSCW 2018.

  • In Spring 2017, I was an invited member of the Smart & Connected Health (SCH) steering committee for a NSF SCH Visioning Workshop.
  • In Spring 2017, I was an invited member of the Smart & Connected Health (SCH) steering committee for a NSF SCH Visioning Workshop.
  • In Fall 2016 I gave talks at Johns Hopkins University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Wellesley College, and Northeastern University.
  • 9/2016: Together with Profs. Margie Lachman (Brandeis) and Carmen Sceppa (NEU), I was awarded a grant from the NIH National Institute on Aging that will focus on caregivers of adults with Alzheimer's Disease. This project will involve the design and evaluation of a social game that encourages physical activity and connectedness in caregivers.
  • I was co-chair of the Technical Program Committee for the 2017 Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare.
  • In July 2016, I was awarded a National Science Foundation Cyber-Human Systems Grant to build and study experiential learning games for health promotion in low-SES families. This grant is in collaboration with co-investigators Dr. Jessica Hoffman (Applied Psychology), Dr. Carmen Sceppa (Health Sciences), and Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr (Game Design). We are excited to be partnering with two community-based organizations: the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, and the Mattapan Food & Fitness Coalition.
  • In March 2016, I was awarded a $50k Seed Grant from Northeastern University to study how interactive social network visualizations can catalyze youth advocacy efforts. This grant is in collaboration with Profs. Brooke Foucault Welles and Dietmar Offenhuber.
  • In April 2016, I gave an invited talk on our health technology research at Northeastern University's The Future of Public Health Conference.
  • In April 2016, I gave an invited talk on the role of HCI research in assessing civic technology at Boston Civic Media's April workshop.
  • In March 2016, I was invited to participate in Massachusetts General Hospital's Disparities Research Unit Training Program, funded through the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  • In December 2015, Our CHI note entitled, "Youth Advocacy in SNAs: Challenges for Addressing Health Disparities" was accepted for publication (23.4% acceptance rate).
  • I joined the program committee for CSCW 2017.
  • In December 2015, I gave an invited talk at Indiana University, in the School of Informaics and Computing Colloquium Series.
  • Our CSCW 2016 paper entitled, "Confidence & Control: Examining Adolescent Preferences for Technologies that Promote Wellness" was accepted for publication (25% acceptance rate).
  • In 2015, our book chapter entitled, "The Role of Human Computer Interaction in Consumer Health Applications: Current State, Challenges and the Future" was published in Cognitive Informatics for Biomedicine.
  • In August 2015, I gave an invited talk in a Grantmakers in Health Webinar on Using Digital Technology to Promote Healthy Food Access.
  • I am a Late-Breaking Work Co-Chair (formerly Works-in-Progress) for CHI 2016.
  • In Spring 2015, I joined the program committee for CSCW 2016.
  • In Spring 2015, I joined the poster committee for Grace Hopper 2015.
  • In Fall 2014, Our CSCW paper entitled, "Spaceship Launch: Designing a Collaborative Exergame for Families" was accepted for publication.
  • In Fall 2014, my abstract APHA abstract entitled, "Spaceship Launch: A community-driven technology intervention promoting physical activity in a low-income neighborhood" with my PhD student, Herman Saksono, was named a finalist for the APHA Physical Activity Section Student poster Presentation Award.
  • In Spring 2014, we received a grant from the Aetna Foundation to conduct the National Evaluation of the Community Empowerment Through Technological Innovations Initiative.
  • In May 2014, I gave the opening talk at the Grantmakers in Health event "Harnessing 21st Century Technological Innovation to Promote Health".
  • In April 2014, my Personal & Ubiquitous Computing Journal article was accepted, entitled "Reflection-Through-Performance: Personal Implications of Documenting Health Behaviors for the Collective".
  • In April 2014, I gave a talk at the 38th Annual Spring Conference for the New England Regional Black Nurses Association, Inc.
  • In March 2014, I gave a talk in a Grantmakers in Health< Webinar entitled "Using Technological Innovation to Promote Community Wellness: A Strategy for Equity"
  • In March 2014, I gave a talk at the Aetna Foundation entitled, "Using Technical Innovation to Reduce Health Disparities in the United States."
  • We hosted a workshop at CHI 2014 entitled, "Enabling Empathy in Health and Care: Design Methods and Challenges".
  • I was selection co-chair for the Ubicomp 2014 Broadening Participation Workshop.
  • In January 2014, our article, "Collectivistic Health Promotion Tools: Accounting for the Relationship Between Culture, Food and Nutrition" was published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
  • In November 2013, I gave a talk at the Brown University School of Public Health entitled, "Health Promotion through Digital Innovation."
  • I was invited to join the Steering Committee for the 2013 Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH).
  • In May 2013, I gave an invited talk to the Boston-area Electronic Media and Behavioral Change Interest Group (BEM).
  • At CHI 2013 I presented our paper, "I am What I Eat: Identity & Critical Thinking in an Online Health Forum for Kids" and participated in an activism-in-HCI panel.
  • In March 2013, together with colleagues at NEU, I received 2 grants from Northeastern U. to conduct research on community-based physical activity promotion (w/ Drs. Jessica Hoffman and Carmen Sceppa) and "network thinking" for adolescent wellness (w/ Dr. Brooke Welles).
  • In March 2013, my ACM Interactions article, "Designing for Health Activism", was published.
  • I joined the Program Committee for CSCW 2014.
  • In January 2013, an article on my research was in the NEU News.
  • Our paper, "I am What I Eat: Identity & Critical Thinking in an Online Health Forum for Kids" was accepted to CHI 2013.
  • We had 2 symposium submissions accepted to the SBM Annual Meeting: "There's a Whole World Out There! Exemplars from Human Computer Interactions for Creating Health Behavior Change Technologies" and "The Use of Emergent Technology to Assess and Intervene with Multiple Health Behaviors in Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations".
  • In October 2012, I participated in the Computing Community Consortium's (CCC) Computing & Healthcare Symposium
  • I was on the program committees for the CHI 2013 and Pervasive Health 2013 conferences.
  • In August 2012, I gave an invited talk at the 5th African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network Invited Workshop entitled, "Telling Stories & Playing Games: Health Promotion Through Digital Media".
  • In May 2012, I received a Career Initiation Grant from the (NSF-Sponsored) Georgia Tech FACES program! This grant will support the development of my research group at Northeastern University, where I will start as an Assistant Professor in January 2013.
  • In April 2012, our CHI 2012 paper, "Health Promotion as Activism: Building Community Capacity to Effect Social Change," received a best paper nomination (awarded to the top 5% of submissions)! [PDF]
  • In January 2013 I will join Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor in the areas of Personal Health Informatics and Human-Computer Interaction! I will be jointly appointed in the College of Computer & Information Science and the Bouve College of Health Sciences.
  • In December 2011, our CHI 2012 paper, "Health Promotion as Activism: Building Community Capacity to Effect Social Change," was accepted for publication.
  • In November 2011 I was invited to judge the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators App Challenge, a competition sponsored by the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion & the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
  • I am on the Program Commitee for UBICOMP 2012.
  • I co-organized the 2011 Workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) , which was co-located with the AMIA Annual Symposium.
  • I am an Associate Chair on the Understanding Users Subcommittee for CHI 2012.
  • In October 2011, I gave an invited talk on community-based research at the Ford Foundation Conference of Fellows in Irvine, CA.
  • In May 2011, I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation entitled, "A Cultural, Community-Based Approach to Health Technology Design".
  • In May 2011, I was awarded the 2011 Georgia Tech FACES Postdoctoral Fellowship grant.
  • The NIH call for proposals based upon a workshop I presented at last year has been announced.
  • In April 2011, the Emory University + Children's Healthcare Pediatric Research Center grant proposal that I wrote with Drs. Beth Mynatt (Georgia Tech) and Veda Johnson (Emory University School of Medicine) was awarded.
  • In April 2011 I gave an invited talk at the Emory University + Children's Healthcare Pediatric Research Center entitled, "Leveraging Personal Health Data & Social Media: Implications for the Design of Digital Pediatric & Family Health Interventions".
  • In April 2011 I gave an invited talk at the AACORN Youth Action Summit on how youth advocates can leverage technology to promote healthy living.
  • I was interviewed about the power of using the Internet to address childhood obesity for the book, "Too Small to Be Big" by Ricki Lake & Dr. John Monaco. The interview transcript appears in the latest edition of the book, which is part of the authors' larger endeavor to use online communiites to help kids overcome obesity.
  • In March 2011 our paper, "Celebratory Health Technology," was published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.
  • Our research on mobile health games was featured in the March 2011 issue of Women's Health Magazine.