Dr. Carleen Maitland is Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Affairs and Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, USA. In this capacity, she leads the college’s research and graduate program portfolios across three departments. She also manages college staff and interacts with the university’s research and graduate affairs administrative units. Undergraduate research is a passion and she teaches a 1-credit seminar to help students access research experiences early in their college careers. She also represents the college on several university standing committees and task forces, and convenes meetings of Associate Deans for Research across the university.
As a faculty member, her research analyzed information and communication technology (ICT) use in international organizations, particularly those involved with humanitarian relief. Her work has been carried out in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, while working with several UN organizations, Save the Children, and the U.S. State Department, just to name a few. She also led students on an international research exchange through the NSF’s International Research Experiences for Students.
Outcomes from her work, including over 100 refereed journal articles, conference proceedings, and presentations, have appeared in outlets such as the Journal of Information Technology, The Information Society, Telecommunications Policy, and Information Systems Frontiers. Her edited volume ‘Digital Lifeline? Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Refugees and Displaced People’ (MIT Press, 2018) has been described as a unique interdisciplinary contribution and balance of critical and pro-technology perspectives. She has served as PI on over $1 million of grants from the National Science Foundation, and co-PI on another $800,000 from diverse organizations including the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and IBM, among others.
She is a leader in both the ICT for international development (ICTD) and policy communities, serving on the editorial boards of Telecommunications Policy and Digital Policy, Regulation, and Governance, and as Associate Editor on the ACM Journal of Computing and Sustainable Societies. She has held leadership positions in the ICTD and TPRC conference communities.
From 2010-2012 she served as a Program Manager in the U.S. National Science Foundation, both in the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure. There she received a prestigious Director’s Award. Upon her return to the faculty at Penn State, she served as interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Programs (2014-2015).
Dr. Maitland received a Ph.D. in the Economics of Infrastructures from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 2001 as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Stanford University.
My graduation from TU Delft with (4th from left, L to R) Bill Melody, Rohan Samarajiva, Amy Mahan, me, Johannes Bauer, Koen Dittrich, Henk Sol, and Robin Mansell.
