» Tawanna Dillahunt

Tawanna Dillahunt

Associate Professor of Information, School of Information; Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Michigan Engineering

tdillahu@umich.edu

734-647-8296

Dr. Dillahunt’s research interests are in the areas of human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing and social computing. She is primarily interested in identifying needs and opportunities to further explore how theories from the social sciences can be used to design technologies that have a positive impact on individual behavior. Results from her past studies in the environmental sustainability domain suggest that improved communication provides individual community members with access to new information and helps to resolve common problems. Dillahunt plans to continue applying past research techniques to clarify and potentially meet the needs of understudied communities in environmental sustainability and in other domains such as education and health.

Ph.D. and M.S. Carnegie Mellon University; M.S. Oregon Health and Science University; B.S. North Carolina State University

Projects

Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility

The Partnership on Economic Mobility between Poverty Solutions and the City of Detroit is a joint effort to identify and implement concrete, evidence-based strategies that significantly improve economic opportunity and reduce poverty in Detroit.

Economic Mobility

Faculty Projects

The ‘Community Tech Workers’: A Community-Driven Model to Support Economic Mobility by Bridging the Digital Divide
Improving Employability via Physical Crowdsourced Tasks The project: Digital technologies that support employment — like LinkedIn and Massive Open Online Courses — are primarily used by individuals with higher education levels. According to a 2015 Pew Research report, American job seekers with lower educational attainment would benefit the most from using digital tools to support their employment endeavors. To understand opportunities […]
Supporting Economic Mobility through Community Mentorship The project: The Eastside Community Network in Detroit and the University of Michigan School of Information evaluated the impact of the Lower Eastside Economic Mobility (LEEM) program, which connects residents with low incomes with mentors from the community, with the goal of addressing known barriers to stable employment such as low self-efficacy and limited access […]
Time dollars as alternative currency to address transportation scarcity within Detroit’s low-income communities People living in poverty have limited access to financial resources that permits economic exchange. In turn, this limits formal economic participation. Prior research has shown that alternative, local currency systems, used alongside national currency systems (like USD), can enhance local economies by helping people experiencing poverty initiate or participate in economically productive activities. In the […]