I am a scholar in human-computer interaction and incoming assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of Software and Information Systems (August 2022).
I work in usable privacy and security. My focus is on understanding how people's security attitudes and social environments weigh in their decision to adopt - or not adopt - secure behaviors (such as sharing passwords securely or ignoring UX cues to scams and "fake news"). I employ a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods from social science, computer science, and design. My work also is informed by prior experiences as a journalist, IT/UX specialist, and social media manager.
In 2018-19, I created the SA-6 security attitude scale. SA-6 is a six-item, self-report measure of a person's engagement with and attentiveness to cybersecurity measures. You are free to use it with attribution. Also, see my SA-13 inventory and the associated working paper for items measuring resistance and concernedness.
For Fall 2022, I will teach the course on Usable Security and Privacy, in place of its originator, Heather Richter Lipford. The course numbers are ITIS 6420 (undergraduate) and ITIS 8420 (graduate).
Would you like to be an advisee of mine at UNC Charlotte? Please get in touch! I have mentored more than 20 students, many from outside computer science. My research examines the experiences of people who differ from the "ideal user" a system was designed for. This statement adds details about my philosophy and plans to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia.
Recent news:
- I received my doctorate this summer from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. Many thanks go to my committee members: Jason I. Hong (Co-Chair), Laura Dabbish (Co-Chair), Geoff Kaufman, Sauvik Das (Georgia Tech), and Michelle Mazurek (University of Maryland, College Park). [document] [slides]
- A version of my short paper Open Laptop - Already a Mistake: An American Zen Buddhist's Reflections on HCI Research and Design for Faith-Based Communities. will appear this summer in a special issue of ACM Interactions magazine.