Chair of PIT-Midwest
Dr. Casey Canfield is an Associate Professor at Missouri S&T in Engineering Management & Systems Engineering, where she studies how people shape complex systems in energy, broadband, and healthcare. She leads cross-sector, stakeholder-driven research to design ethical, impact-focused technology, and serves as Missouri S&T’s lead for the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN). Her work is supported by agencies like NSF and the Sloan Foundation, and published in journals including PNAS and Human Factors. She holds a PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon and previously served as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Vice Chair of PIT-Midwest
Dr. Lisa A. Frazier is a senior researcher at the Battelle Center at Ohio State’s John Glenn College, where she leads research on public problems at the intersection of technology and society. A health policy scholar, she applies computational methods to issues like opioid policy, Medicaid, and health informatics, and serves as Ohio State’s lead for the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN). She holds a doctorate in public policy from Ohio State and has held research and faculty roles across academia and public health. An award-winning educator, she teaches and mentors students in health policy, policy analysis, and civic innovation.
Conferences
Dr. Francisca García-Cobián Richter is a Research Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University and Associate Director of the Center on Poverty and Community Development. Her work focuses on evaluating social interventions and understanding how context—like housing, neighborhoods, and family stability—affects child and family outcomes. Her recent research includes studies on the impact of neighborhood quality on education, housing instability in child welfare, and the cost of childhood exposure to domestic violence. A former research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, she also serves as Associate Director of Math Corps Cleveland, a community-based mentoring and enrichment program.
Student Engagement
Kelsey Badger is the Research Data Librarian and an assistant professor at The Ohio State University Libraries, where she leads efforts to support access, stewardship, and sharing of research data. Her work focuses on advancing scientific transparency and reproducibility, with expertise in data management planning, metadata, and federal funder requirements. She brings experience from academia and government, including roles at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. At Ohio State, she supports researchers across disciplines in managing and sharing data responsibly and effectively.
Membership
Susan Paykin is the Senior Associate Director of Community-Centered Data Science at the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute, where she leads strategic partnerships and public interest initiatives across research, education, and engagement. She also co-founded and directs the Open Spatial Lab, developing open-source geospatial tools for community and public-sector use. With a background in environmental policy and spatial data science, Susan previously served as Research Manager at UChicago’s Center for Spatial Data Science. She holds an MPP from the University of Chicago and a BA from Brandeis University.
Communication
Dr. Ryan Cheek is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Missouri University of Science & Technology, where he researches how political communication technologies, crisis rhetoric, and civic messaging shape public discourse and democratic participation. He co-leads the Zine Lab, a Public Interest Technology initiative that uses zine-making as a tool for communication justice and civic engagement. A passionate educator, Dr. Cheek teaches courses on leadership, AI, media design, and research methods. He holds a PhD in Technical Communication & Rhetoric from Utah State University.