Hello!
I am a HCI researcher and 4th year Phd student at Northwestern University, advised by Maia Jacobs in the Personalized & Adaptive Technology for Health (NU-PATH) Lab.

I am a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher, NU Tech Ethics Fellow, and Bouchet Honor Society Inductee. I apply participatory and community-based research methods to co-design technologies that support frontline workers / service providers with burnout & promote equitable health outcomes for marginalized communities.

My research interests also include:

💭 the design of digital mental health technologies with, and for, real people
🌱 support tools & interventions for the people who support people (doctors, social workers, etc.)
🌼 socio-technical opportunities to facilitate healing & resilience for survivors of trauma
🧠 ethics and trauma-informed approaches to AI, technology, and design

Email at: [ conniewchau@u.northwestern.edu ] / conniewchau [@] u [dot] northwestern [dot] edu

Publications

  • “Burning Out for Others: Trauma-Informed, Collaborative Just-in-Time Support Opportunities for Gender-based Violence Advocates”. [under review]
    Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Stefany Cruz, Denise Huang, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.

  • “Enhancing Situational Awareness in Urban Low-Income Communities Through Acoustic Wearable Technology”. [under review]
    Stefany Cruz, Xinye Wang, Ananay Gupta, Celeste Mason, Connie W. Chau, Stephen Xia, Josiah Hester, Maia Jacobs.

  • “‘All Day, Every Day, Listening to Trauma’: Investigating Features of Digital Interventions for Empathy-based Stress and Burnout”. [under review]
    Connie W. Chau, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.

  • [P1] “Envisioning the future of burnout support: Understanding frontline workers' experiences in nonprofit gender-based violence organizations”. CSCW 2024. [PDF]
    Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Denise Huang, Colleen Norton, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.

  • [P2] “On Hackathons: A Multi
disciplinary Literature Review”. CHI 2023. [PDF]
    Connie W. Chau and Elizabeth M. Gerber.

  • [P3] “Equityware: Co-designing with and for low-SES communities.” CHI 2023. [PDF]
    Stefany Cruz, Alexander Redding, Connie W. Chau, Claire Lu, Josiah Hester, Maia Jacobs.

  • [P4] “Part of the Conversation: Workforce Professionals’ Perspectives on the Roles and Impacts of Workforce Technologies”. CSCW 2022. [PDF]
    Connie W. Chau, Kenneth Holstein, and Michael Madaio.

  • “Towards trauma-informed interventions with & for secondary traumatic stress (STS) for advocates in gender-based violence”. Workshop on Trauma-Informed Design: A Collaborative Approach to Building Safer Online Spaces at CSCW ‘23. [Workshop Paper]
    Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Kaylee Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.

  • “From self to community care: The need for multilevel interventions to address advocate burnout in gender-based violence”. Workgroup on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH) at CHI ‘23. [Workshop Paper]
    Connie W. Chau, Hannah Studd, Kaylee P. Kruzan, Maia Jacobs.

 
A portrait from the mid-torso up, of an East Asian woman with long, dark brown hair smiling and wearing a dark dress shirt.

Updates & News

October 2024 - Wrote a Medium article on ACM CSCW about my first publication related to my multiyear community-based partnership research with addressing burnout among local frontline anti-violence workers! Presenting at CSCW2024 in Costa Rica!

September 2024 - Attended the Tapia Conference in San Diego, CA + moderated an Alumni Panel event for Northwestern’s Center for HCI+D + mentoring students in an Independent Project/Study course on creating educational tech ethics content + provided another training on tech-facilitated abuse for The Network’s 40+ agencies!

July 2024 - Created & led a presentation on digital literacy & safety (including spotting scams & AI-generated images, deceptive or “dark” patterns in UX, and hallucinations in LLMs) and careers in computing to 85+ youth members at YWCA Evanston/North Shore.

June 2024 - Joined the We Deserve Better Project, a grassroots group of anti-violence workers committed to creating better working conditions that mutually benefit advocates and survivors.

February 2024 - Facilitated 2 workshops on wellness for graduate students (a follow-up to my last presentation on burnout back in May 2023) & passed my first Communications qualifying exam!

January 2024 - Presented at The Network’s bi-monthly membership meeting (with representatives from 40+ agencies in domestic violence) & facilitated another training on Technology-Facilitated Abuse.