I am a Research Fellow in the School of Information at the University of Michigan working with Lada Adamic.  We are examining economic activity, social networks and diffusion in virtual worlds.

I completed my Ph.D. in the Media, Technology and Society program at Northwestern University in 2009.  My dissertation, “Dimensions of Leadership and Social Influence in Online Communities,” examines the language and social networks of users who trigger feedback and diffuse language.

Latest News

• I accepted a position at Google starting in September!
• I was awarded the International Communication Association’s Herbert S. Dordick Award for best dissertation in the field of communication and technology.
• Recent papers have been accepted at First Monday, Human Communication Research, the Journal of Language and Social Psychology, AAAI 2010, and IEEE Social Computing.
• Our paper, “The Social Dynamics of Economic Activity in a Virtual World,” received the best paper award at ICWSM 2010.