Jessica Vitak is an American information scientist who is an associate professor at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. She is faculty in the

University of Maryland College of Information Studies The College of Information Studies (''Maryland's iSchool'') is a school within the University of Maryland, College Park in Maryland, United States. The College offers graduate study leading to the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS ...

(iSchool) and Communication Department. She serves as Director of the

University of Maryland Human–Computer Interaction Lab The Human–Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland, College Park is an academic research center specializing in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Founded in 1983 by Ben Shneiderman, it is one of the oldest HCI ...

(HCIL) and an Associate Member of the Social Data Science Center (SoDa).

Early life and education

Vitak studied journalism and communication at

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, Elon is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or professional doctorate d ...

. After completing undergraduate studies, she moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and worked for

PR Newswire PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...

. She received a master's degree from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, where she studied online identity and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

relationships with

Linda Garcia Linda Garcia (born c.1969) is an American environmental activist from Vancouver, Washington. In 2013, she heard of plans for a Tesoro Savage oil terminal in the Port of Vancouver, designed to be America's largest. After examining the company's re ...

. While at Georgetown, she also worked as a research intern at the

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

. She earned her doctorate from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, joining the research team of

Nicole Ellison Nicole Ellison is the Karl E Weick Collegiate professor in the University of Michigan School of Information, School of Information at the University of Michigan. She is best known for her research in the fields of computer-mediated communication, ...

and

Cliff Lampe Clifford Lampe is a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He is best known for his research in the fields of human-computer interaction, social computing, and computer supported cooperative work. Since 2018 he has ...

. Her doctoral research investigated the relationship between Facebook use and maintenance strategies.

Research and career

At UMD, Vitak was appointed as director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information in 2016, and simultaneously became associate director of the Human Computer Interaction Lab. She became the director of HCIL in 2021. Vitak has continued to study how new technologies can benefit and harm humans. She studies the underlying motivations for people's behaviors, how humans perceive risks when they approach new technologies, and how policy makers can do more to convey critical information. Vitak's research has focused on networked privacy and data ethics, identifying the privacy risks of new communication technologies and developing tools, curricula, games, and other resources to increase children and adults' understanding of privacy and security.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitak, Jessica American women scientists Information scientists University of Maryland, College Park faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Michigan State University alumni Georgetown University alumni Elon University alumni