UMSI Award for Impact in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 2024

Student Recipient

Pa Lor (Master of Science in Information)

Pa Lor’s multiple nominations emphasized their academic and interpersonal outreach, research supporting accessibility and disabled communities, use of UX to explore DEI-related topics, refugee work and mentorship. 

One nominator wrote, “Pa assisted me in conducting a mixed-method study on the experiences of Blind individuals with AI technologies, as well as their aspirations for equitable and just futures. Given the sensitive nature of this study, I typically assign research assistants with minimal tasks and avoid direct interaction with participants. However, Pa deviated from this norm. In addition to their assigned duties, Pa took the initiative to delve into resources on ableism and how it harms disabled people. Despite my extensive experience of over ten years working with disabled individuals in both professional and personal capacities, Pa taught me invaluable lessons in kindness, care, diversity and equity.”

Staff Recipient

James Reitz (Marketing & Communications)

When the Marketing & Communications team discovered that PDFs of the UMSI employment reports and internships reports, which appear on the UMSI website, were not accessible to people who use screen readers, graphic designer James Reitz was integral to solving the problem. He took a course on creating accessible PDFs and met with members of the U-M Information and Technology Services accessibility team multiple times. He also learned how to use the built-in screen reader on MacBooks, something that the accessibility team said was very challenging for sighted people to learn to do. After a few weeks, Reitz successfully redesigned the PDFs to be accessible. 

A U-M screen reader specialist commented, “We took a look at this PDF and found that it worked very well with screen readers. The document was marked up well with headings which provided an excellent navigation experience. It was also very good to see text descriptions for information in the charts/graphs. Thanks for doing this excellent work.” UMSI wouldn’t have been able to make this important change without Reitz and the hard work he put into learning and implementing these new skills.

Faculty Recipient

Gabriela Marcu (Assistant Professor of Information)

Gabriela Marcu’s sustained commitment to DEI has resulted in several observable outcomes in her scholarship and teaching. In a project initiated by a community partner, Marcu is studying the partner’s efforts to address how youth in their community are being affected by issues of gun violence, socioeconomic distress and systemic racism. Her first-authored paper on this project received a Best Paper Award at DIS 2023. Marcu was awarded an ADVANCE Crosby Faculty Grant to support the next steps of this project. 

In another community-engaged project, Marcu and collaborators created an app that enables bystander response to opioid overdoses. In a one-year pilot, the app helped volunteers revive 74 people who were overdosing. This year, with NIH R01 funding, she is leading a UX team in evaluating the app design in preparation for a citywide deployment in Philadelphia for four years starting this fall. In the domain of teaching, despite SI 422’s rapid growth to 200 students, Marcu succeeded in making this large course feel small. Having carefully attended to flexibility and equity in course policies over the years, this is the first semester in which anxiety among students about workload, deadlines or attendance was largely absent.

UMSI Award for Impact in Gender Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Information and Technology 2023

Student Recipients 

Latitude Brown (Master of Science in Information)

Latitude “Lat” Brown created and moderates the "UMSI grad students" Discord server. This resource is used by over 300 members, including nearly all of one year's cohort. It is a space that promotes inclusion for women and transgender students through its respectful community norms and the capability to display pronouns on profiles. In the spirit of librarianship, Brown regularly connects women and trans students to campus resources when they vocalize their needs online. They also contribute enthusiastically to discussions about industry trends, advocating against the risks that generative AI presents, including the perpetuation of inequity through gender and sexuallity-based bias.

Denny Starks (PhD in Information)

Denny Starks is an advocate for women and gender minorities, who works especially hard to advance causes and create space in academia to support Black trans women and gender-diverse people of color. Starks' research examines using technology to improve safety for transgender and nonbinary people of color, with a particular focus on Black trans women. This is a group that is particularly at risk of gender-based violence. Starks works directly with community members, and their work has potential to substantially increase safety for this community. Further, Starks has worked for years on supporting fellow nonbinary, trans, and Black students and prospective students at UMSI. They have advocated for pronoun usage in classroom settings and gender-inclusive approaches to teaching and research. They have also supported prospective UMSI students by providing feedback on their applications to the program. Finally, Starks has informally mentored many trans and nonbinary students at UMSI. 

Staff Recipient

Krista Dunger (UMSI Computing)

As a manager, Krista Dunger has implemented policies and practices that ensure interns from diverse backgrounds receive equal access to resources, mentorship and career development opportunities. Each summer, she takes on 20 summer interns who she personally manages and mentors. Dunger has championed a culture of continuous feedback throughout the employment cycle. She is involved in mentoring not only her direct reports at UMSI but also in the U-M ITS mentorship program. Dunger has been a transformative force in the careers of women and trans and nonbinary people within IT, empowering individuals to flourish and realize their utmost potential within their chosen IT and non-IT career pathways. Dunger’s leadership roles, including as the co-facilitator of U-M’s ITS Project/Product Management Community of Practice and the revivor of the Women+IT Community of Practice, have expanded knowledge, opportunities and professional networks for underrepresented groups in the field. In her role as a co-chair for the Staff Activities Committee, she helps ensure all voices are heard and raises concerns voiced by staff at UMSI.