Panel Discussion: Technology Facilitated Abuse

Connie W. Chau is a PhD student, researcher, and survivor-advocate at Northwestern University where she applies her expertise in human-computer interaction to understand, design, and reimagine ways that technology can support anti-violence advocacy and survivors of gender-based violence. In collaboration with The Network, her current work aims to co-design interventions for secondary trauma and burnout for, and with, frontline advocates. In addition, she provides training & support for tech-facilitated abuse in Chicago and has had the honor of working with advocates from KAN-WIN, DVRP, and We Deserve Better Project.

Lindsay Nathan has been an Attorney at Ascend Justice since June 2011. She is currently the Director of the Family Law Program at Ascend. Prior to this position, Lindsay worked as a Senior Family Law Attorney and a Staff Attorney in the Order of Protection walk-in clinic. At Ascend, Lindsay manages the family law team, which handles divorce and parentage matters, including representing victims of domestic violence and frequently handling cases involving Orders of Protection. She also serves as a member of the DePaul’s Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center Advisory Board.  In May 2010, Lindsay received her JD from the University of Notre Dame Law School. She received her BA from Illinois Wesleyan University.  Lindsay has represented survivors of tech facilitated abuse throughout her career, and has been working to raise awareness of tech facilitated abuse and to encourage enforcement of violations of Orders of Protection for tech facilitated abuse. She also had the opportunity to testify with a client to the IL Legislature in support of the anti-doxxing bill that went into effect January 1, 2024.

I am Naman Gupta (he/him), a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With advise from Prof. Rahul Chatterjee, I critically examine digital safety through interdisciplinary critical and decolonial lenses to examine technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Specifically, I analyze the barriers faced by historically marginalized communities who face gender-based violence to seek support, heal, and build resilience. Further, I coordinate Madison Tech Clinic and lead the outreach program with our rural and indigenous partner organizations in Wisconsin, USA.

Sophie Stephenson (she/her) is a PhD candidate at UW-Madison. Sophie helped found the Madison Tech Clinic out of UW in 2021 and has served as a tech consultant and the clinic’s coordinator for over three years. In this time, she has personally helped dozens of clients who were facing technology-facilitated abuse (tech abuse). Sophie also does research to understand and mitigate tech abuse, most recently studying legal evidence of tech abuse in Wisconsin court cases.

Hana Chung: I am a first-year PhD student in the area of human-computer interaction. I work with minoritized populations to design technology which enhances social support. A recent project I am working on seeks to understand how we can better support LGBTQ+ survivors as they experience technology facilitated abuse in intimate partner violence (IPV). I have experience as a support group facilitator at SafeHouse Center in Washtenaw County, which provides services to survivors of IPV and sexual assault. My academic background in psychology and gender studies lead me to this work, which is motivated by the desire to create social change. Outside of work, I am a cat mom and baker.