Curriculum Vitae (updated April 2021)
Education
University of Southern California, PhD, Computer Science (2016- present)
University of Texas at El Paso, MSc, Computer Science (2015)
University of Texas at El Paso, MA, Linguistics (2013)
University of Missouri - Columbia, BA, International Studies (2010)
University of Missouri - Columbia, BJ, Journalism (2010)
Research Experience
Computer Scientist, NEH funded position with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. 2021 - present
I am designing the website and mobile apps for the MBCI dictionary. This work is funded by NEH grant PD-271355-20.
Graduate Research Assistant, USC Institute for Creative Technologies. 2016 - present
Currently working on bilingual dialogue systems research. Previously, I assisted in the creation of a machine learning system using novel word vector techniques for a question-answering Holocaust survivor system.
Intern, Adobe. 2017
Developed a corpus and annotation scheme for image editing dialogues.
Intern, Inmerssion, University of Texas El Paso. 2015
Assisted in story line development and scene design for a Halloween game using Oculus Rift technology. Inmerssion is a start-up company that aims to improve human-computer interactions through the use of embodied conversational agents.
GRA, Interactive Systems Group, University of Texas El Paso. 2015
Under the supervision of Dr. David Novick, conducted experiments on human-computer interactions involving an embodied conversational agent as part of my thesis work.
GRA, COURI-Provost, University of Texas El Paso. 2014
Under the supervision of Dr. Olac Fuentes, I conducted independent Machine Learning research to create a system that automatically sorted submitted questions by medical field.
NUTES Fellow, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil. 2013
Translated and tagged medical questions using Pubmed. Questions that were submitted to the NUTES system were part of their telemedicine program, and are used to identify health trends and training needs of health professionals. I worked under the supervision of Professors Sriram Iyengar and Magdala de Araújo Novaes.
GRA, University of Texas El Paso. 2012-2013
Assisted Linguistics professor Maria Blume with ongoing research on bilingualism.
RA, UT Health Science Center. 2010
Provided supplemental course content in the Biomedical Informatics department.
Teaching Experience
Computer Science GTA, University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA (August 2019 - Spring 2021)
Served as a Teaching Assistant for the Masters level courses Foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Foundations and Applications of Data Mining.
Instructor, Southwest Petroleum University - Chendgu, China (February - July 2016)
Taught a 64 hour undergraduate programming paradigms course. Topics covered included:object oriented programming, logical programming, procedural programming, and multi-paradigm programming. I also conducted biweekly hour-long conversational English classes with local police officers.
Computer Science GTA, University of Texas at El Paso - El Paso, TX (January 2014 - May 2015)
Conducted two lab sessions twice per week for undergraduate programming students. I taught the introductory course for two semesters, and the second level for one semester.
English as a Second Language GTA, University of Texas at El Paso - El Paso, TX (January 2013 - May 2013)
Conducted weekly hour-long conversation classes, as well as individual writing tutoring to English as a Second Language students.
Foreign Language Assistant, CIEP - Liévin, France (September 2011 - April 2012)
Provided English language teaching and cultural activities at Paul Bert primary school. I taught courses to students from ages 5-10 whose native language was French.
Culture and Language Auxiliary, Ministerio de Educación, Deportes y Cultura - Nerja, Spain (September 2010 - May 2011)
Assisted in English language teaching and cultural activities at I.E.S. Sierra Almijara. I taught courses for ages 11-20 to students whose native language was Spanish.
Editorial Experience
Managing Editor, Native Max. 2015 - 2018
First served as Editor for the Life and Education sections, then as the Managing Editor, where I oversaw the generation of story ideas and proof read article submissions.
Assistant Editor, MedInfo. 2015
Reviewed accepted conference posters and papers for grammar and formatting.
Assistant Editor, AMIA Year in Review. 2015
Reviewed Informatics articles from the past year to select the most interesting and valuable publications in the field. The selected articles are presented at the annual AMIA Symposium.
Intern, European Journalism Centre. 2010
Wrote articles about current events in journalism for the Centre’s blog. I also researched and created materials for journalism seminars.
Intern, HELPARGENTINA. 2009
Translated Spanish documents into English for business files and web content.
Reporter and Editor, Convergence. 2008-2009
Edited students’ work at the Columbia Missourian and assisted in multimedia projects at Newsy.com. I also reported for the Columbia Missourian, the local National Public Radio station; and for the NBC affiliate, KOMU.
Honors
2020 - Chahta Doctorate Scholarship recipient
2018 - USC Graduate Research Enhancement Fellow
2017 - National GEM Fellow
2016 - Outstanding Masters Student in Computer Science recipient
2015 - BRAID recipient to attend the Grace Hopper Conference
2014 - COURI-Provost Summer Research Assistant Program
2013 - NUTES Fellow
2012-2013 - College of Liberal Arts Dean’s List
2010 - Study Abroad Scholar in Belgium
2009 - Study Abroad Scholar in Argentina
2008 - Study Abroad Scholar in Brazil
2008 - International Center Scholarship
Professional Societies and Affiliations
Systers - Native American Women in Computing (NAWiC)
American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
Education
University of Southern California, PhD, Computer Science (2016- present)
University of Texas at El Paso, MSc, Computer Science (2015)
University of Texas at El Paso, MA, Linguistics (2013)
University of Missouri - Columbia, BA, International Studies (2010)
University of Missouri - Columbia, BJ, Journalism (2010)
Research Experience
Computer Scientist, NEH funded position with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. 2021 - present
I am designing the website and mobile apps for the MBCI dictionary. This work is funded by NEH grant PD-271355-20.
Graduate Research Assistant, USC Institute for Creative Technologies. 2016 - present
Currently working on bilingual dialogue systems research. Previously, I assisted in the creation of a machine learning system using novel word vector techniques for a question-answering Holocaust survivor system.
Intern, Adobe. 2017
Developed a corpus and annotation scheme for image editing dialogues.
Intern, Inmerssion, University of Texas El Paso. 2015
Assisted in story line development and scene design for a Halloween game using Oculus Rift technology. Inmerssion is a start-up company that aims to improve human-computer interactions through the use of embodied conversational agents.
GRA, Interactive Systems Group, University of Texas El Paso. 2015
Under the supervision of Dr. David Novick, conducted experiments on human-computer interactions involving an embodied conversational agent as part of my thesis work.
GRA, COURI-Provost, University of Texas El Paso. 2014
Under the supervision of Dr. Olac Fuentes, I conducted independent Machine Learning research to create a system that automatically sorted submitted questions by medical field.
NUTES Fellow, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil. 2013
Translated and tagged medical questions using Pubmed. Questions that were submitted to the NUTES system were part of their telemedicine program, and are used to identify health trends and training needs of health professionals. I worked under the supervision of Professors Sriram Iyengar and Magdala de Araújo Novaes.
GRA, University of Texas El Paso. 2012-2013
Assisted Linguistics professor Maria Blume with ongoing research on bilingualism.
RA, UT Health Science Center. 2010
Provided supplemental course content in the Biomedical Informatics department.
Teaching Experience
Computer Science GTA, University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA (August 2019 - Spring 2021)
Served as a Teaching Assistant for the Masters level courses Foundations of Artificial Intelligence and Foundations and Applications of Data Mining.
Instructor, Southwest Petroleum University - Chendgu, China (February - July 2016)
Taught a 64 hour undergraduate programming paradigms course. Topics covered included:object oriented programming, logical programming, procedural programming, and multi-paradigm programming. I also conducted biweekly hour-long conversational English classes with local police officers.
Computer Science GTA, University of Texas at El Paso - El Paso, TX (January 2014 - May 2015)
Conducted two lab sessions twice per week for undergraduate programming students. I taught the introductory course for two semesters, and the second level for one semester.
English as a Second Language GTA, University of Texas at El Paso - El Paso, TX (January 2013 - May 2013)
Conducted weekly hour-long conversation classes, as well as individual writing tutoring to English as a Second Language students.
Foreign Language Assistant, CIEP - Liévin, France (September 2011 - April 2012)
Provided English language teaching and cultural activities at Paul Bert primary school. I taught courses to students from ages 5-10 whose native language was French.
Culture and Language Auxiliary, Ministerio de Educación, Deportes y Cultura - Nerja, Spain (September 2010 - May 2011)
Assisted in English language teaching and cultural activities at I.E.S. Sierra Almijara. I taught courses for ages 11-20 to students whose native language was Spanish.
Editorial Experience
Managing Editor, Native Max. 2015 - 2018
First served as Editor for the Life and Education sections, then as the Managing Editor, where I oversaw the generation of story ideas and proof read article submissions.
Assistant Editor, MedInfo. 2015
Reviewed accepted conference posters and papers for grammar and formatting.
Assistant Editor, AMIA Year in Review. 2015
Reviewed Informatics articles from the past year to select the most interesting and valuable publications in the field. The selected articles are presented at the annual AMIA Symposium.
Intern, European Journalism Centre. 2010
Wrote articles about current events in journalism for the Centre’s blog. I also researched and created materials for journalism seminars.
Intern, HELPARGENTINA. 2009
Translated Spanish documents into English for business files and web content.
Reporter and Editor, Convergence. 2008-2009
Edited students’ work at the Columbia Missourian and assisted in multimedia projects at Newsy.com. I also reported for the Columbia Missourian, the local National Public Radio station; and for the NBC affiliate, KOMU.
Honors
2020 - Chahta Doctorate Scholarship recipient
2018 - USC Graduate Research Enhancement Fellow
2017 - National GEM Fellow
2016 - Outstanding Masters Student in Computer Science recipient
2015 - BRAID recipient to attend the Grace Hopper Conference
2014 - COURI-Provost Summer Research Assistant Program
2013 - NUTES Fellow
2012-2013 - College of Liberal Arts Dean’s List
2010 - Study Abroad Scholar in Belgium
2009 - Study Abroad Scholar in Argentina
2008 - Study Abroad Scholar in Brazil
2008 - International Center Scholarship
Professional Societies and Affiliations
Systers - Native American Women in Computing (NAWiC)
American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)