Dr. Allison Druin

Allison Druin is an Associate Dean for Research in the iSchool at the University of Maryland. Previously she was Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) where she led for 5 years an interdisciplinary lab of 50 faculty/staff/students from 8 colleges and 2 institutes.  Her own research over the last two decades has focused on developing new technologies for children with children as design partners. With this team, she has helped to developed new digital library and storytelling tools with such partners as the U.S. National Park Service, Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, Nokia, UNICEF, and many others.

In 2010, the International Children’s Digital Library (www.childrenslibrary.org) which she helped to develop a decade ago was given the “American Library Association President’s Award for International Library Innovation” and she was awarded that same year by the ACM the SIGCHI “Social Impact Award” for her HCI work in supporting children with new technology. Her most recent award was this year when she was named an ADVANCE Professor through an NSF award.  12 senior women faculty were selected on the campus of the University of Maryland to mentor and support junior faculty who are women and under-represented minorities in advancing their careers in academia.