M. Beatrice (Bea) Dias (she/her), Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Learning, and Leadership in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. She formerly served as a project director and the co-director of outreach at Carnegie Mellon University’s Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment Lab (CREATE) Lab. Over the past decade, her work focused on engaging with different communities of practice to explore the role of technology in society. Bea earned her undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Following college, she worked in the private sector for two years before moving to Pittsburgh to complete her Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Bea embraces joy, believes in our collective wisdom, and practices freedom-dreaming.
Education and Society
Technology and humanity
EdTech Criticality
Race, Gender and Technology
Bea’s goal in work and life is to listen for wisdom. She believes we collectively hold the knowledge and capacity to build just, equitable, and joyful spaces in our world. As a scholar, she is invested in grappling with broad questions about our humanity and society, with a particular focus on the intersections of technology, learning and community.
Hsu, Y.-C., Cross, J., Dille, P., Tasota, M., Dias, B., Sargent, R., Huang, T.-H. and I. Nourbakhsh. “Smell Pittsburgh: Engaging Community Citizen Science for Air Quality.” ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems, article no.: 32, November 2020.
Dias, B., King, M., Kaminsky, J., Mroziak, J. and Martinez, A. “Living and Learning in the Wild: What We Learned Exploring Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Education.” Proceedings of the 2019 Connected Learning Summit, pp 268, October 2019.
Dias, B., Boulder, T. “Toward Humanizing Online Learning Spaces.” The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 12(4).
Board Member, Allegheny CleanWays
Member, Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity