Six University of Michigan School of Information faculty promotions were approved at the May 16, 2024 meeting of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and will go into effect on September 1. 

Barbara J. Ericson and Patricia Garcia were promoted to associate professors with tenure, and Eric Gilbert, Erin Krupka and Sarita Schoenebeck were promoted to professors with tenure. Additionally, Sile O’Modhrain was promoted to professor, without tenure, at UMSI. 

Barbara J. Ericson joined the UMSI faculty in 2018. She holds a joint appointment with UMSI and the College of Engineering. Ericson’s teaching philosophy is rooted in the idea that everyone can learn to program. She is a leading scholar in computing education and her research is focused on developing new or improved pedagogies and pedagogical tools for computer science. In 2022, Ericson was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER grant for her work “Improving Undergraduate Computing Education by Scaffolding Write Code Problems with Automatically Generated, Personalized, and Adaptive Parsons Problems.” Before joining UMSI, Ericson earned her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Patricia Garcia joined UMSI in 2016 as a research fellow. In 2017, she became an assistant professor, and holds joint appointments at the Digital Studies Institute at the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Institute of Research on Women and Gender. Garcia’s research is focused on advancing the social and critical study of data, feminist human-computer interaction (HCI), critical archival studies, computing education and youth studies. Throughout her work, Garcia pays close attention to how computational technologies can enable racial justice. In 2021, Garcia earned a prestigious NSF CAREER grant for her research “Developing Agentic Computing Identities Through Computational Justice Programs.” Before joining UMSI, Garcia earned her PhD at the University of California. 

Eric Gilbert joined UMSI in 2017. Gilbert holds joint appointments at the College of Engineering and UMSI. Gilbert is devoted to educating the next generation of computer and information scientists. His educational philosophy emphasizes the inclusion of diverse voices and fosters critical thinking and active engagement in both undergraduate and graduate courses. His research uses computationally-intensive methods to study social media usage and behavior, as well as to develop and evaluate interventions that address problems that arise within social media contexts. In 2018, Gilbert earned a Best Paper award at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).  In addition, his expertise has been recognized outside academia. He has been asked to testify before Congress, participate in open-source software communities and work with social media companies to incorporate his research findings into their platforms. Before joining UMSI, Gilbert earned his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Erin Krupka joined the UMSI faculty in 2009. Krupka is currently the Associate Dean for Faculty at UMSI. Her research is in the field of behavioral and experimental economics. As a professor, Krupka's teaching philosophy emphasizes a student-centered approach with a focus on fostering independence, curiosity and inclusivity in the classroom. Before joining UMSI, Krupka earned her PhD at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Sile O’ Modhrain joined the University of Michigan in 2011. She holds joint appointments at UMSI and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Modhrain was recommended for promotion to professor of music, with tenure, at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and professor of information, without tenure, at UMSI. Modhrain’s research focuses on accessibility in the field of human-computer interaction. Since 2014, Modhrain has published 13 peer-reviewed articles, presented 16 peer-reviewed conference papers and authored five book chapters. Her work on refreshable braille displays is poised to change the ways in which the blind/visually impaired (BVI) community interacts with technology, especially electronic interfaces. Before joining U-M, Modhrain earned her PhD at Stanford University. 

Sarita Yardi Schoenebeck joined UMSI in 2012. Schoenebeck’s research is focused on human-computer interaction and looks at the ways transformative and restorative justice models can be applied to the experience, governance and design of online platforms. As a professor, Schoenebeck uses both individual and collaborative approaches to learning in her pedagogy and offers a wide repertoire of learning experiences and frameworks in multiple disciplines. Since 2018, Schoenebeck’s papers have been selected for honorable mention three times at the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing conference (CSCW) and once at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Before joining UMSI, Schoenebeck earned her PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

RELATED

Learn more about UMSI faculty research by subscribing to our free research roundup newsletter today!