I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Iowa. I recently received my Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My dissertation research focused on the adoption of mobile and Internet platforms by groups in Kenya's non-profit sector.

My research focuses on mobile and web technologies, particularly looking at platforms that combine both. As such, the crowdsourcing and mapping platform, Ushahidi, has been a major part of my research for the past three years. Through volunteering with Ushahidi, I have gained invaluable insight for my research. Working with Kenyan users of the software has been a major focus of my work. I've written case studies of deployments and other materials that can be found on Ushahidi's Community Resources page. I've also run workshops designed to introduce Ushahidi to interested users as well as other technology sessions, which teach participants about free technology solutions that they can incorporate into their work.