Allison Druin

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Allison Druin is an American computer scientist who studies how people interact with computers, especially children and educational technology, and she works with digital libraries. She is a professor emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Associate Provost for Research and Strategic Partnerships at the Pratt Institute.

She earned a BFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1985, a master’s degree from MIT’s Media Lab in 1987, and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1997. Her doctoral research was about designing interactive applications and the MEDIA Program.

Druin joined the University of Maryland as a research assistant professor in 1998 and became a regular faculty member in 1999. She directed the Human-Computer Interaction Lab from 2006 to 2011, was Associate Dean for Research from 2010 to 2012, served as ADVANCE Professor from 2011 to 2013, and was Chief Futurist from 2013 to 2015. She took a two-year leave to work as Special Advisor for National Digital Strategy to the U.S. National Park Service, then joined Pratt Institute as Associate Provost in 2017.

Her honors include winning the ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award in 2010 with Ben Bederson for the International Children's Digital Library. She became an ACM Distinguished Member in 2014, and in 2016 she was elected as an ACM Fellow and joined the CHI Academy for her work with children.