About
Technology, built around people
I came to research through building things: information systems, a healthcare price-transparency platform, and enterprise tools. Along the way, the question that held my attention shifted from what a system can do to how the people using it experience it.
Professional narrative
I studied information systems at Brigham Young University, adding a minor in nonprofit management and later a master’s degree in Information Systems Management on the healthcare track. As a solutions architect intern at Adobe, I mapped business capabilities to enterprise technology. At the Sorenson Impact Foundation, I evaluated the financial, social-impact, and technical feasibility of ventures. And I founded OkWellThen, which turned public hospital pricing data into comparisons consumers could use.
Research on why patients misrepresent health information to their providers drew me into the questions I pursue now. At Virginia Tech, my dissertation examines how conversational AI can support people when organizations and institutions do not adequately meet their needs, and how to minimize potential harms when people rely on it.
Teaching runs through all of it. I have taught in Hong Kong, tutored honors students in physics, mentored roughly 120 students in Advanced Excel, and now guest-lecture on AI and machine learning for business students. I want students to leave knowing that they can learn difficult material, and that their instructor regarded their development as an important part of the work.
Path
Selected milestones
Some of these overlapped; ranges show where they did.
2016
Honors teaching assistant
Tutored 50 honors students in introductory physics at Brigham Young University.
2016–2018 (overlapping period)
Hong Kong
Lived and taught in Hong Kong, giving one-on-one and small-group instruction in Mandarin and Cantonese.
2019
Information Systems at BYU
J. Owen Cherrington Scholar and Grace Hopper Scholar; first place in the AIS Collegiate Blockchain Hackathon and Computational Case Study.
2019 & 2020 (overlapping period)
Adobe
Solutions architect intern in Cloud Technology over two summers.
2020–2021 (overlapping period)
OkWellThen
Founded and built a healthcare price-transparency platform, alongside social-impact work with the Sorenson Impact Foundation.
2021
Healthcare privacy research
Research assistant studying health-information disclosure; completed a Master of Information Systems Management (Healthcare Track) with distinction.
2022
HICSS Best Paper in Track; Virginia Tech
Best Paper in Track at HICSS-55 for work on health data privacy calculus. Began doctoral research at Virginia Tech in August.
2024
Teaching AI
First guest lectures in AI, machine learning, and deep learning; HICSS and AMCIS doctoral fellow.
2025
Rethinking Intake
Presented patient-intake research at AMCIS in Montréal.
2026
Doctoral fellowships
ICIS and AMCIS doctoral fellow; Judgy AI presented at AMCIS in Reno.
May 2027
Ph.D. expected
Dissertation on leveraging AI to support individual differences and experiences.
- Teaching
- Research
- Industry
- Education
Beyond the CV
Languages, learners, and design
Teaching across languages
From 2016 to 2018 I lived in Hong Kong, giving one-on-one and small-group instruction in Mandarin and Cantonese, in formats from brief conversations to extended lessons.
- English
- Native
- Mandarin
- Advanced speaking and listening; intermediate reading
- Cantonese
- Intermediate speaking and listening
- German
- Intermediate reading and listening; novice speaking
Community teaching
Since 2024 I have led biweekly, discussion-based lessons for students ages 16–18 in Fairfax, Virginia — adapting to varied prior knowledge and facilitating dialogue around sensitive and values-laden topics.
Design
I hold a Google UX Design Professional Certificate and a graphic design certificate. That training informs the research artifacts I build and the way I design teaching materials.
Recognition
Fellowships, awards, and conferences
ICIS 2023 · Hyderabad, India Presenting research on privacy attitudes and accurate health-information disclosure. 
HICSS-57 · Honolulu, Hawaiʻi HICSS doctoral fellow, presenting research on health-information disclosure in the patient–provider interaction. 
AMCIS 2024 · Salt Lake City, Utah AMCIS doctoral fellow, Early Career Track.
- 2026ICIS Doctoral Fellow
- 2026AMCIS Doctoral Fellow
- 2025Graduate Research Development Program Award, Virginia Tech
- 2024AMCIS Doctoral Fellow, Early Career Track
- 2024HICSS Doctoral Fellow
- 2022Best Paper in Track, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
- 2021Bench 2 Bedside Best in Digital Health Award
- 2021Healthcare Industry Scholar
- 2020Ballard Scholar for Social Impact, Impact Investing Emphasis
- 2019Grace Hopper Scholar
The complete list is in the CV (PDF).
Get in touch
For collaboration, papers, or speaking, email autumnpc@vt.edu.