Six UMSI faculty promotions were approved at the May 2020 meeting of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and went into effect on July 1. 

Lorraine R. Buis was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor of information. Tawanna R. Dillahunt, Predrag Klasnja, Silvia Lindtner and Daniel M. Romero were promoted from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure. Tiffany Veinot was promoted from associate professor to full professor with tenure.

Lorraine Buis joined U-M in 2013. She has a joint appointment in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she was promoted to associate professor of family medicine, with tenure. Her research focuses on the use of communication technologies for health promotion and chronic disease self-management. Lorraine received her MSI from UMSI and has a PhD in Mass Media from Michigan State University. 

Tawanna Dillahunt joined UMSI as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in 2013, and was promoted to assistant professor in 2014. Her research interests are in the areas of human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, and social computing.  Dillahunt’s research investigates how theories from the social sciences can be used to design technologies that have a positive impact on individual behavior, especially in understudied communities. She earned her PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, and began her career as a software engineer with Intel Corporation.

Predrag “Pedja” Klasnja joined UMSI in 2012. His research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and Health Informatics, where he studies how technology can help people to better manage their health and to more effectively communicate with their healthcare providers. Klasnja earned his PhD in Information Science from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he completed a National Library of Medicine Fellowship in Biomedical and Health Informatics.

Silvia Lindtner joined UMSI as an assistant professor in 2014. She is also the associate director of the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) and has a courtesy appointment in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. She researches, writes and teaches about DIY (do-it-yourself) maker culture, with a particular focus on its intersections with manufacturing and industry development in China. Lindtner earned her PhD in Information and Communication Studies from University of California, Irvine. 

Daniel Romero joined UMSI as a research fellow in 2014 and became an assistant professor in 2015. He has a joint appointment with the College of Engineering and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Romero’s main research interest is the empirical and theoretical analysis of Social and Information Networks and understanding the mechanisms involved in network evolution, information diffusion, and user interactions on the Web. Romero received his PhD in applied mathematics from Cornell University. 

Tiffany Veinot joined UMSI as an Assistant Professor of Information and of Health Behavior and Health Education in 2008. She has a joint appointment with the School of Public Health, and served as the director of the Master of Health Informatics program for two years. In 2019, Veinot was appointed Associate Dean for Faculty at UMSI. Her research in community health informatics aims to improve the reach and impact of health information among marginalized groups, particularly those that experience health disparities. Veinot received her PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario.