ConnectED: Tech for All podcast launched by Community Data Clinic

Anita Say Chan
Anita Say Chan, Associate Professor
Julian Chin
Chieh-Li (Julian) Chin, Research Program Manager

The Community Data Clinic (CDC), a mixed methods data studies and interdisciplinary community research lab led by Associate Professor Anita Say Chan, has released the first episode of its new podcast, ConnectED: Tech for All. Community partners on the podcast include the Housing Authority of Champaign County, Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, Project Success of Vermilion County, and Cunningham Township Supervisor’s Office.

Under Chan's direction, a team of students collaborated to  generate this new resource. The team included PhD student and program manager Julian Chin, MSLIS student Evan Allgood, iSchool undergraduate students Aisaiah Pellecer, Harshitha Vetrivel, Kaylee Janakos, and Lauren Ravury, and College of Media undergraduate William Schermer.

ConnectED: Tech for All is a podcast that dives into the heart of East Central Illinois communities. In each episode, the podcast spotlights how local community resources and programs have transformed the lives of our neighbors. Whether an educational program, essential community services, or a grassroots initiative, the podcast aims to connect listeners with critical tools and promote conversations about digital equity, literacy, and access.

Community Data Clinic podcast logo

The first episode, “A Convo about Education with Jessica Black,” follows a conversation about accessible educational opportunities and programs in East Central Illinois. Black, a Mahomet, Illinois, native who formerly served as a case manager for Cunningham Township and Planned Parenthood, is now a fellow for Lead For America under the American Connection Corps. This episode highlights various free and low-cost educational resources for adults that are offered through institutions such as Parkland College and Cunningham Township as well as Black’s experience as a graduate of the Odyssey Project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which offers a free humanities education to residents of East Central Illinois. Through discussing her personal experiences as a student or steward of these programs, Black opens up a broader conversation about inclusivity, accessibility, enjoyment, and community in relation to education in a post-COVID-19 environment.

You can find the episode on Spotify and on the Community Data Clinic website.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Debnath datafies "The Bulletin"

MSIM student Tan Debnath, whose interests span data mining, statistical modeling, text mining, and digital humanities, joined the Center for Children's books as a research assistant. He was tasked with building curation processes that would datafying seventy-five years' worth of archival issues of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, one of the nation's leading children's book review journals.

Tan Debnath stands casually with his hands in his pockets and smiles broadly at the camera. It's a sunny day

iSchool undergraduates selected as 2025 Community-Academic Scholars

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) has selected BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur and BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig as 2025 Community-Academic Scholars. Representing nineteen majors and nine minors in eight colleges and schools at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and two additional universities, the eighteen scholars in this cohort encompass diverse fields of study, from community health to graphic design to statistics. 

BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig and BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur

He receives Amazon Research Award to improve monitoring of Earth’s ecosystem

A new project led by Professor Jingrui He aims to help scientists monitor disruptions to the Earth’s ecosystem, such as climate change. She recently received support for her work through an Amazon Research Award, which includes $60,000 in cash and an additional $40,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits.

Jingrui He

Guan successfully defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Yingjun Guan successfully defended his dissertation, "Disambiguating Academic Institution Names: A Comprehensive Study of Authority Files, Linguistic Variations, and Computational Evaluation in PubMed Affiliations," on April 28. 

Yingjun Guan

Scholarship provides validation, motivation for Martinez

BSIS+DS student Fabian Martinez chose his major because he wanted to learn how to help people understand and interpret data and information. While his immediate plans include finding a job in data analytics, business analytics, consulting, or product management, his ultimate goal is "to create meaningful relationships and help make a meaningful impact in the world" in whatever way he can.

Fabian Martinez graduation