PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Naveena Karusala

Naveena Karusala is a researcher who studies how AI technologies can center care work, with a focus on healthcare and social services. A Georgia Tech computer science graduate with a University of Washington PhD, she coauthored the CHI 2021 Best Paper "That courage to encourage," a study of WhatsApp-based health peer support groups for youth in Nairobi. She led the author list of an October 2021 CSCW workshop proposal on the future of care work, then spent 2022 to 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Center for Research on Computation and Society. In 2024 she co-organized a Southeastern SIGCHI chapter social in Atlanta, and in January 2026 she presented research done with a California healthcare workers union on how its workers contend with AI at work. She is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing and Vice-President for Communications on the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee.

Timeline

  1. 2021

    A CHI Best Paper

    As an Allen School PhD student in the University of Washington's ICTD Lab, she coauthors 'That courage to encourage' with professor Richard Anderson and global health researchers. The study of WhatsApp-based health peer support groups for youth in Nairobi, Kenya wins a Best Paper award at CHI 2021.

  2. October 2021

    A CSCW workshop on care work

    In October 2021, she leads the author list of the CSCW 2021 Companion workshop proposal "The Future of Care Work: Towards a Radical Politics of Care in CSCW Research and Practice," written with 17 coauthors. It asks what narratives drive the push for technology in care work and whom it benefits.

  3. 2022–2024

    Postdoc at Harvard's CRCS

    After an undergraduate degree in computer science at Georgia Tech and a computer science PhD at the University of Washington, she serves from 2022 to 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Center for Research on Computation and Society.

  4. 2024

    A Southeast chapter for SIGCHI

    In 2024, as SIGCHI's Vice-President for Communications from Georgia Tech's Interactive Computing, she co-organizes a Chapter-in-the-Works social at Google Atlanta. More than 60 attendees from Emory, Georgia Tech, Google and the University of Georgia set goals for a Southeastern chapter, including local HCI workshops and mentorship networks.

  5. January 2026

    Worker voice in healthcare AI

    In January 2026, she gives a UC Irvine seminar talk, "Towards Worker Voice in Responsible AI for Healthcare." It draws on her research with a healthcare workers union in California about their experiences contending with AI in their workplaces, the limits of responsible AI under top-down governance, and community-engaged research for worker-led AI governance.

  6. As of October 2026

    Assistant professor at Georgia Tech

    She is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing, where her research centers care work in the design of AI technologies for healthcare and social services. She also serves as Vice-President for Communications on the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee.

Career

  1. NowGeorgia Institute of TechnologyAssistant Professor

Education

  1. Georgia Institute of TechnologyUndergraduate degree in computer science
  2. University of WashingtonPhD

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  4. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.

Sources and credits

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  1. UW researchers ride a wave of innovation at the 2021 ACM CHI Conference news.cs.washington.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. FY 2021 Annual Report | SIGCHI sigchi.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. The Future of Care Work: Towards a Radical Politics of Care in CSCW Research and Practice pure.psu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Naveena Karusala naveenak.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. People – Intelligent Interactive Systems Group at Harvard iis.seas.harvard.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Building Human-Computer Interaction Community in the Southeast | School of Computing computing.uga.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Towards Worker Voice in Responsible AI for Healthcare - UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences ics.uci.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Naveena Karusala | Research Community research.gatech.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Executive Committee | SIGCHI sigchi.org. Checked 22 October 2026.