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BIO

Sarah hates getting her picture taken

Applied and academic researcher with experience in both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Curious about HCI and human-centered AI, especially in relation to creativity and the future of work. Praised for my customer-centric approach to requirements development and ability to find and present key insights to senior leadership. Conversant in several research methodologies, including survey methodology, contextual inquiry, and ethnographic research. Adept at recognizing effective methods that are appropriate to approach various questions.

Experience

Education

Research Skills

Scientific Communication

2020-present

Human-Agent Teaming on Intelligence Tasks

Research Assistant

2014-present

Department of Defense

Workforce Analyst; Applied Research

Organizational Development Specialist

Ph.D. candidate

 

2020-2024 (anticipated)

University of Maryland, College Park

 

Master's

2015

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

2009

St. Mary's University, TX

International Relations

Bachelor's

2006

University of South Florida

International Studies and Advertising

 

  • Apply research design and development skills to the development and implementation of a study focused on the use of AI in shift handovers between intelligence analysts working in a 24/7 environment.

  • Develop interview protocol and conduct virtual interviews with working and retired intelligence analysts to inform the development of a new research platform that is integrated with Qualtrics and Mechanical Turk.

  • Prepare and run pilot testing to ensure the experiment design is appropriate for the research question and the platform is usable by participants.

  • Collect and analyze data from pilot sessions and iterations of the full experiment.

  • Collaborate in world building to develop an appropriate world for the experiment that approaches but does not exactly mimic the real world and influence participants.

  • Lead graduate and undergraduate research assistants, including developing projects, managing their time, answering questions, and other supervisory duties.

  • Conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis of human capital data and present recommendations to senior leadership.

  • Meet with internal customers to understand their program direction and their evolving data needs.

  • Created Covid-19 case tracking dashboard for senior leadership decision-making, and then adapted it for agency-wide launch.

  • Shape human capital data requirements and identify solutions to provide regular reporting.

  • Present information to help customer teams understand how data was derived, why it is important to have good data fidelity, and ways in which data is commonly used incorrectly.

  • Use SQL to create and pull queries to help interpret human capital data.

  • Use Tableau to create dashboards and other visuals to enhance customer understanding of data.

  • Enable human capital programs to provide stronger and more tailored data-drive products to support both their internal work and the work of their customers.

  • Translate program strategies, requests, and challenges into data solutions.

  • Ensure continuity across programs, and create a more proactive customer relationship through customer-centered interaction.

  • Provided change management support to the program review of an agency-wide employee program by developing a comprehensive strategy to complete the review on a tight deadline, creating a data collection and analysis plan, and interviewing stakeholders across various agency levels.

  • Identified improvements to existing processes and programs, and provided recommendations for program changes to more effectively address the professional development needs of agency employees in support of the evolving mission.

  • Participated in change interventions, organizational assessments and change strategies that focused employees toward organizational goals.

  • Led the effort to streamline organizational development processes, resulting in more effective use of contractor resources, and enabling human capital functions to support more change management initiatives with fewer numbers of contractors.

  • Managed contract resources to ensure timely completion of projects based on customer demand.

Research focus: AI, problem creation/definition, and creativity. Lab work focused on AI and shift handover, ML to propel knowledge management sharing, team cognition demands like shared mental models, inaccuracy blindness, and transitive memory systems. Previous research experience in broader AI and teaming.

Advised by Dr. Wayne Lutters and Dr. Susannah Paletz

Completed I/O coursework including descriptive and inferential statistics, analysis of variance, multiple regression, analysis of covariance, factor analysis, reliability analysis, instructional systems design, and survey assessment methodologies. Used SPSS and Excel for data analysis.

Qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools, including:

Content Analysis

Ethnographic Research

Contextual Inquiry

Structured and Semi-Structured Interviews

Survey Design and Methodology

Focus Group Preparation/Facilitation

Applied Behavior Analysis

Customer Requirements

Linear and Multiple Regression

Proficient: Tableau, Qualtrics, SQL, MTurk, R, data visualization, StackOverflow

Intermediate: Excel, Python, ATLAS.ti, Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, especially Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Audition, Overleaf, SPSS

Integrative Paper: Independent research focused on human-centered AI, creativity, and work.

HCIL Symposium (2022, May 26)

Author and presenter: Considering Creativity in Artificial Intelligence and Work [Conference presentation]

Co-author and presenter: Paletz, S. et al 

The Invasion of Vorgaria: A Task and a Platform for Studying AI Supports of Team Cognition in Intelligence Shift Handovers. [Conference presentation]

INGRoup (2021, Oct. 27)

Co-author: Carter-Browne, B.M., et al

There is No "AI" in Teams: A Multi-Disciplinary Framework for HIs to Work in Human Teams  [Conference presentation] 

Various presentations of human capital data and strategy to internal and external audiences comprised of a mix of experts and non-experts, often incorporating my own data visualizations, including dashboards.

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