Staff Spotlight: Carol Boston, HCIM Program Manager
Having worked on campus for 5 years in the early 2000s, Carol was keen to return – and became part of the first HCIM cohort in 2011! She became the HCIM Program Manager in 2017 after working with Drs. Jenny Preece and Tammy Clegg on their large NSF grant following the completion of her Master’s degree. Her combination of project management, domain knowledge, and passion for both teaching (she used to be a public school teacher) and learning (she is an avid consumer of the plentiful guest lectures on campus) makes her ideally suited to the various program- and student-facing responsibilities of her position. She is proud of constantly looking for ways to make the HCIM program more relevant and responsive to current and future needs; for example, connecting with HCI professionals and alumni to discover current UX industry needs, collecting feedback on the recently-introduced 1-credit courses, and formalizing a part-time pathway through the HCIM. Maybe because of her similarly aged daughters, Carol loves seeing students thrive: one of her most memorable experiences at the iSchool was watching the UXTerps student group organize and participate in a makeathon which included two design challenges set by Procter & Gamble. In her spare time, Carol stays busy planting native plants for pollinators in her garden, making soups and stews (perhaps while listening to science podcasts like Invisibila), and serving on the Board of Trustees at her church, the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi.