Elizabeth (Liza) Lerner Papautsky

Dr. Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical & Health Information Sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds an MS (2004) and a PhD (2009) in Human Factors psychology from Wright State University, Dayton OH. As part of her graduate work, she studied team communication and collaboration using information displays. She recently transitioned to University of Illinois at Chicago after conducting research as a government contractor since 2007. She studies cognition in real-world complex environments. Through mixed methods approaches such as naturalistic observations, cognitive task analysis interviews, and experiments she focuses on understanding how people make decisions. She applies findings to user-centered solutions such as interfaces, work flows, training systems, etc. Prior to entering academia, her work spanned projects in multiple domains, ranging from healthcare, unmanned aerial vehicles, submarines, serious gaming, to others funded primarily by Department of Defense. She transitioned to academia to focus her research on applying human factors principles and approaches to improve patient safety and quality.