I’m the Assistant Director for Graduate Studies in Data Science at Harvard University. I’m also a machine learning researcher in the Data to Actionable Knowledge lab (DtAK). I am interested in building machine learning models with properties that align with task-specific desiderata and human values, such as interpretability, risk-awareness, satisfaction of domain-specific constraints.
In a former life, I did research in pure math (specifically algebraic topology) and was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Saint Mary’s College of California (2009-2015), where I focused on STEM community building, outreach and mentorship for first-generation college students and students from historically minoritized backgrounds. Issues of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging continue to be key pillars of my work, now at Harvard.
My education is the peculiar product of an early-college-entrance program at an historically women’s college (1997-2001), a PhD from a liberal-arts focused research university (2005-2009), a mid-career-change inspired master’s (2015-2017), and post-doctoral tours at young research centers born of old institutions in Germany (2011-2013) and the US (2017-2020).