Faculty
Colin Rhinesmith, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director
Digital Equity Action Research Lab
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
crhines@illinois.edu
Colin Rhinesmith (he/they) is an associate professor and director of the Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Rhinesmith is also a research fellow with the Quello Center at Michigan State University and an editor-in-chief of The Journal of Community Informatics. He is the author of the book, Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy published by the University of California Press.
Previously, Rhinesmith was Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. He has been a Google Policy Fellow and an Adjunct Research Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute, Senior Advisor with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Senior Fellow with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Dr. Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was a U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a Researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a Research Scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Yvette Iribe Ramirez, PhD, MLIS
Postdoctoral Fellow
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Yvette Iribe Ramirez (she/her/ella) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate, educator, and librarian with a PhD in Information Science from the Information School at the University of Washington.
She has a range of experience working in libraries and on community-based research projects, both in the U.S. and abroad. Her dissertation examined collaborative dynamics among Indigenous communities, academic researchers, and NGOs in Latin America, using participatory methods and a human rights-based framework. Broadly, her research interests include information and communication technologies for development, engaged scholarship, and community-based research.
As a librarian and instructor, Yvette is committed to a practice of engaged pedagogy that prepares students to engage confidently and critically in an interconnected world. She is particularly interested in the role of emerging technologies, such as generative AI, in classrooms and libraries; digital equity and accessibility; and expanding pathways for students from diverse backgrounds to enter the Library and Information Science field.
Ph.D. Students
Miranda Doran-Myers
Doctoral Student
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Miranda Doran-Myers is a first-year PhD student in the School of Information Science. Her research interests include intellectual freedom, information law and policy, and the impact of those laws/policies on our ability to freely access information. Miranda’s intended doctoral research will examine the changing legal and organizational contexts of censorship in schools, libraries, and other information organizations, with a focus on the people (community members, information workers, and students) that these policies affect.
Adebola Obayemi
Doctoral Student
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Adebola is a PhD student whose research focuses on community informatics, information access, the digital divide, and inclusion among marginalized populations. Her work examines how the design of technology can either widen or bridge existing divides, particularly for populations that have been left behind by rapid technological advancements. She has worked with immigrant communities and incarcerated populations, exploring how technology and information systems can be leveraged to promote empowerment, equity, and reintegration. Currently, she is collaborating with the San Francisco Public Library on a project titled Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People. Through this work, she advocates for empowerment by supporting incarcerated individuals in developing digital literacy and the practical skills needed to successfully navigate reentry in today’s highly digitized world.
Armando J. Torres
PhD
Education Policy, Organization & Leadership
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Armando J. Torres (he/him) received his PhD in the Education Policy, Organization & Leadership department with a Global Studies in Education concentration. Armando has spent the last 5 years engaging communities in problem-solving and justice-oriented transdisciplinary research and practice to critically examine how liberatory pedagogical approaches inform local perspectives on digital literacy and global citizenship to address the global imperative for more democratic digital governance to protect people and planet from unregulated digital development and an underlying digital coloniality among Global Majority countries. Armando’s work integrates knowledge and methods in critical education, community informatics, global and development studies.
Ebubechukwu Uba
Doctoral Student
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Ebubechukwu Uba is a Ph.D. student whose research sits at the intersection of education technology, community informatics, AI governance, and critical technology design. Her work explores how digital and Artificial Intelligence tools can be co-designed to support equitable learning in rural and underserved communities, with a particular focus on AI in education. Ebube is the founder of Step-Up Academy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational access and digital literacy among marginalized youth through culturally relevant and community-driven learning models. During the summer, she conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, focusing on digital equity initiatives and the role of Digital Navigators in bridging digital gaps.
Master of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS) Students
Bashi Hariharan Yasodha
MSLIS Student
School of Information Sciences
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Bashi (she/her) is a first year MSLIS student at the iSchool at UIUC, and a current GA at the Help Desk in addition to her position in the DEAR Lab. She is interested in digital accessibility, open access policies, outreach, and instructional librarianship. She hopes to learn more about different types of libraries, their place in outreach and promoting a space for everyone.
Alumni
Master of Science in Library and Information Science (MSLIS) Students
Elliot Barber (MSLIS ’26)
Isabel Braico (MSLIS ’26)
Mads Christiansen (MSLIS ’26)