Call me an educator, an academic leader, and a data engineer.

I call the University of Oregon my academic home. There I am the inaugral Executive Director of the School of Computer and Data Sciences (SCDS). In SCDS we advance knowledge, educate leaders, and develop technologies that serve society.

Before becoming a Duck, I spent a couple of decades at Indiana University Bloomington and served as a rotator at the National Science Foundation (NSF) (2017 – 2020) working on policy (small “p”) in open science and funding novel initiatives that advance data sharing and open science.

I am a co-PI of the NSF ICICLE AI Institute and serve on the Board of Directors for the non-profit DONA Foundation, the Alliance for Data Science and AI (ADSA), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

My research interest is in technology and policy research for AI that empowers people, strengthens institutions, and advances society. This includes AI infrastructure (edge-cloud continuum), democratizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI accountability, provenance and reproducibility, and open science. I am singularly proud to have contributed to better outcomes for students, faculty, and research professionals through workforce development, community building, and broadening participation in computing in transdisciplinary settings.

See the Plale Lab website for our work.

I am surrounded by a spouse of many, many years, a cat, two grown sons and their lovely spouses and everyone else in our broad family-through-choice.