Hello!
I am a HCI researcher and 4th year Phd student at Northwestern University, advised by Maia Jacobs in the Personalized & Adaptive Technology for Health (NU-PATH) Lab.
Curriculum Vitae (CV) | Resume.
I am a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher, NU Tech Ethics Fellow, and Bouchet Honor Society Inductee. I apply participatory and community-based research methods to co-design technologies that support frontline workers / service providers with burnout & promote equitable health outcomes for marginalized communities.
My research interests also include:
💭 the design of digital mental health technologies with, and for, real people
🌱 support tools & interventions for the people who support people (doctors, social workers, etc.)
🌼 socio-technical opportunities to facilitate healing & resilience for survivors of trauma
🧠 ethics and trauma-informed approaches to AI, technology, and design
Email at: [ conniewchau@u.northwestern.edu ] / conniewchau [@] u [dot] northwestern [dot] edu.
Publications
“Burning Out for Others: Trauma-Informed, Collaborative Just-in-Time Support Opportunities for Gender-based Violence Advocates”. [under review]
Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Stefany Cruz, Denise Huang, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.“Enhancing Situational Awareness in Urban Low-Income Communities Through Acoustic Wearable Technology”. [under review]
Stefany Cruz, Xinye Wang, Ananay Gupta, Celeste Mason, Connie W. Chau, Stephen Xia, Josiah Hester, Maia Jacobs.“‘All Day, Every Day, Listening to Trauma’: Investigating Features of Digital Interventions for Empathy-based Stress and Burnout”. [under review]
Connie W. Chau, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.[P1] “Envisioning the future of burnout support: Understanding frontline workers' experiences in nonprofit gender-based violence organizations”. CSCW 2024. [PDF]
Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Denise Huang, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.[P2] “On Hackathons: A Multi disciplinary Literature Review”. CHI 2023. [PDF]
Connie W. Chau and Elizabeth M. Gerber.[P3] “Equityware: Co-designing with and for low-SES communities.” CHI 2023. [PDF]
Stefany Cruz, Alexander Redding, Connie W. Chau, Claire Lu, Josiah Hester, Maia Jacobs.[P4] “Part of the Conversation: Workforce Professionals’ Perspectives on the Roles and Impacts of Workforce Technologies”. CSCW 2022. [PDF]
Connie W. Chau, Kenneth Holstein, and Michael Madaio.“Towards trauma-informed interventions with & for secondary traumatic stress (STS) for advocates in gender-based violence”. Workshop on Trauma-Informed Design: A Collaborative Approach to Building Safer Online Spaces at CSCW ‘23. [Workshop Paper]
Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.“From self to community care: The need for multilevel interventions to address advocate burnout in gender-based violence”. Workgroup on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) at CHI ‘23. [Workshop Paper]
Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Kaylee P. Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.
Updates & News
Dec 2024 - I will be presenting my doctoral work with my community partner at both the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) Economic Justice Summit and the Reclaiming Our Love: 4th Social Justice & Domestic Violence Conference in March 2025!
Oct/Nov 2024 - Wrote a Medium article for ACM CSCW 2024 & presented my first publication related to my multiyear community-based partnership research with addressing burnout among local frontline anti-violence workers!
Sept 2024 - Attended the Tapia Conference in San Diego, CA + moderated an Alumni Panel event for Northwestern’s Center for HCI+D + mentoring students in an Independent Project/Study course on creating educational tech ethics content + provided another training on tech-facilitated abuse for The Network’s 40+ agencies.
July 2024 - Created & led a presentation on digital literacy & safety (including spotting scams & AI-generated images, deceptive or “dark” patterns in UX, and hallucinations in LLMs) and careers in computing to 85+ youth members at YWCA Evanston/North Shore.
June 2024 - Joined the We Deserve Better Project, a grassroots group of anti-violence workers committed to creating better working conditions that mutually benefit advocates and survivors.