Hiya! I’m a third-year PhD student in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. I am advised by Sean A. Munson and am currently researching the impact of the overturn of Roe v. Wade on period tracking habits. My research interests include personal informatics, mental health, and storytelling. I'm particularly interested in how we can leverage narrative to support self-transformation.

I graduated from Pomona College in 2021, where I got my BA in Computer Science and Media Studies. During my time there, I was also part of the HCI Lab where I did research on online health communities for mental health and improving patient-provider collaboration with Prof. Alexandra Papoutsaki and Prof. Daniel Epstein (University of California, Irvine).

In my free time, you'll find me enjoying a hot cup of coffee, baking sourdough bread, reading a fantasy book, watching TV shows or movies, traveling, spending time with my cat, or listening to music (mostly Taylor Swift these days 🏙). I love all things history and mythology and am the world’s biggest ice cream fan. I also occasionally make short films for fun 🎥

You can always reach me at gak98 [at] uw [dot] edu.