About
Hi there! I'm currently a third-year Computer & Information Science PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, advised by Lyle Ungar and Sharath Chandra Guntuku. I also consult for the World Bank's Development Impact Edutainment Program.
My research spans computational social science and public health. Lately, I've been interested in human–AI interaction, with a focus on designing systems that support health behavior change.
More than anything, I'm excited by research that can help inform public policy. My work has appeared in the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, and has been cited by the Ohio governor, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren.
Currently, I am a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
Previously
I earned a Master's of Engineering in Computational Science & Engineering at Harvard University, where I worked part-time on the HealthMap Computational Epidemiology team at Boston Children's Hospital and was advised by John Brownstein and Benjamin Rader. Before that, I received an AB magna cum laude in Computer Science at Brown University, and spent summers at Reddit, Microsoft, and Case Western's Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics.
CV
Curriculum Vitae (PDF) — updated Spring 2026.
Selected Publications
A full list is on Google Scholar or available on my CV.
- Large Language Model Chatbot Conversations vs Public Health Materials and Parental HPV Vaccination Intentions: A Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA Network Open, June 2026
- Self-reported Side Effects of Semaglutide and Tirzepatide in Online Communities Nature Health, April 2026
- PAL: Designing Conversational Agents as Scalable, Cooperative Patient Simulators for Palliative-Care Training CSCW Companion, October 2025
- Exploring Socio-Cultural Challenges and Opportunities in Designing Mental Health Chatbots for Adolescents in India CHI Extended Abstracts, April 2025
- Slaveholder Ancestry and Current Net Worth of Members of the United States Congress PLOS ONE, August 2024
- Dobbs' Impact on Military Abortion Access and Estimation of Associated Travel Reimbursement Costs JAMA, November 2023
- US COVID-19 Clinical Trial Leadership Gender Disparities Lancet Digital Health, March 2023
- Estimated Travel Time and Spatial Access to Abortion Facilities in the US Before and After the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Decision JAMA, November 2022
- Impact of Vax-a-Million Lottery on COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Ohio The American Journal of Medicine, November 2021
Writing
- The Enduring Legacy of Slavery in Congress — The Conversation Reprinted by 30+ outlets including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, and Albany Times Union.
Selected News/Policy Coverage
Vaccine Lotteries. Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio Governor News Release, Sky News.
Abortion Access. Kamala Harris (Twitter), Senator Elizabeth Warren's letter to the President, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, ABC, FiveThirtyEight, People Magazine, and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA amicus briefs from Pro-Choice States, NAACP, and 263 members of Congress.
Military Abortion Travel Policy. ABC, Military.com, Houston Chronicle, KFF Health News.
Legacy of Slavery. Scientific American, The Boston Globe, The Hill, Superinteressante (Brazil), Slate (France), Il Fatto Quotidiano (Rome), and Black Lives Matter on Twitter and Threads.
Yelp Healthcare Reviews. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Healthcare Brew.
Chatbots for Health. El País (English Version).
GLP-1 Side Effects. ABC Philadelphia, NBC Rhode Island, CNN Brasil, Fox News, CTV News, The Daily Mail, TV 2 (Denmark), Philadelphia Inquirer.
Podcast & Radio. Behind the News with Doug Henwood on KPFA and Jacobin Radio; Montreal Now with Aaron Rand on CJAD 800.