Three new assistant professors and 16 lecturers will join the University of Michigan School of Information faculty this academic year, including five 2021 graduates of UMSI degree programs.

Sabina Tomkins joins UMSI as assistant professor fall 2021. A computational scientist who develops machine learning to advance public policy, she comes most recently from the Stanford Computational Policy Lab (SCPL). She received her PhD in technology management from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her bachelor’s in computer science from New York University. She has held teaching assistant and postdoctoral researcher positions at Harvard University focused on sequential decision making in mobile health. Sabina Tomkins is teaching SI 330: Data Manipulation in the fall semester.  

Jeff Sheng begins at UMSI as assistant professor and research fellow fall 2021. Focusing on the role that online technologies have on interpersonal interactions — particularly how social media and online connectivity shape social movements, culture, organizations and individual outcomes — he recently earned his PhD in sociology from Stanford University. Before enrolling in his doctoral program, he was a professional artist and photographer. 

Dallas Card joins the faculty winter 2022 as assistant professor. Before UMSI, he was a postdoctoral scholar in Stanford University’s computer science department. His research interests are at the intersection of machine learning, natural language processing and computational social science, with a particular focus on text data. He received his PhD in machine learning from Carnegie Mellon University and has since focused on issues such as framing in the media, racial bias in hate speech detection, methods for low-resource text classification and reproducibility in machine learning. 

UMSI also welcomes 16 new lecturers to the faculty, including one lecturer III, three adjunct lecturers and 12 intermittent lecturers. 

Elle O’Brien, lecturer III, is teaching  SIADS 697: Capstone and SI 544: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis in the fall semester. Get to know O’Brien and the Master of Applied Data Science capstone course she led this summer. See separate story.

Neha Bhomia, adjunct lecturer, is teaching SI 624: Healthcare Data Application, Analysis, Consulting and Communication (Health Data Analysis). 

Jennifer Chizek, adjunct lecturer. Jennifer Chizek is also academic program manager for UMSI’s Engaged Learning Office. 

Kirtana Choragudi, adjunct lecturer, is teaching SIADS 697: Capstone. 

Winston Featherly-Bean, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 697: Capstone.

Noha Ghannam, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 592: Milestone IB and SIADS 655: Applied Natural Language Processing. Ghannam, 2021 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Health Informatics program, was honored at graduation with the Edmon Low award. See separate story.

Anthony Giove, intermittent lecturer, will be teaching several classes this fall in the Master of Applied Data Science program, including Data Manipulation and Visual Exploration of Data. Giove, 2021 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Applied Data Science program, was honored at graduation with the Margaret Mann award. See separate story. Learn about how Giove went above and beyond as a student in the MADS program before joining its faculty in his Faces of UMSI profile.

Merve Hickok, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 503: Data Science Ethics and SIADS 523: Communicating Data Science Results.  

Graham Hukill, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 511: SQL & Databases and SIADS 611: Database Architectures and Technologies. Graham Hukill is a 2012 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Science in Information program, where he focused on digital preservation and archives. 

Katherine Krumme, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 630: Causal Inference, SIADS 694: Milestone IIA and SIADS 695: Milestone IIB. 

Deepti Pandey, intermittent lecturer, will be teaching several classes this fall in the Master of Applied Data Science program, including Presenting Uncertainty and Learning Analytics and Educational Data Science. 

Pandey is a 2021 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Science in Information program, where she focused on human-computer interaction.  

Jennifer Pierre, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SI 311: Special Topics in Information - Games and UX.

James Rampton, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SI 311: Special Topics in Information - Laws of UX. James Rampton is a 2014 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Science in Information program, where he focused on human-computer interaction. 

Rachael Tatman, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 694: Milestone IIA. 

Sean Wu, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 516: Big Data: Scalable Data Processing, SIADS 591: Milestone IA and SIADS 591: Milestone IB. Sean Wu is a 2021 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Science in Information program. 

Greg Myers, intermittent lecturer, is teaching SIADS 505: Data Manipulation, SIADS 521: Visual Exploration of Data and SIADS 522: Information Visualization I. Greg Myers is a 2021 graduate of UMSI’s Master of Applied Data Science program, where he served as an instructional aide and graduate student instructor.