Veronica is an autistic researcher studying how to make healthcare more accessible for neurodivergent people using digital technology. They have a background in many areas, including international communication and service, decolonial internet governance research, user interface design, business analysis, neuroscience, and psychology. Their career has been a winding road that started at the Georgia Tech School of Psychology, continued through the healthcare tech industry and the American University School of International Service, and is currently in a program that fully engages their multidisciplinary background. Veronica likes to study phenomena at multiple levels: biochemical, informational, interpersonal, social, international, and beyond. They take a systems approach, analyzing semiotic and material processes as recursive, precarious, and deeply entangled. Their research is grounded in the Neurodiversity (ND) Paradigm, which posits that styles of being/thinking in the world such as autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities are not disordered, but incredibly valuable.
As of the summer of 2025, they are conducting interviews with autistic healthcare professionals to understand the communication challenges they and their autistic patients encounter, and how technology could help with those challenges. Additionally, they are collaborating with the NEU APPEAR Lab to conduct research on the social media experiences of ND people who have had eating disorders (publications forthcoming). They are also analyzing neurodivergent family TikTok content with their advisor, Meryl Alper for another forthcoming CHI publication. Previously, they have collaborated with Professor Alper on two studies looking at how ND children and their caretakers think about the ethics of extended reality technologies. They have also collaborated with the NEU SEA Lab to conduct a study on how transfeminine social media users think through privacy and security measures using a spatial lens. In their free time, Veronica enjoys playing violin, dancing ballet, and exploring the city of Boston with their dog Minnie.
Research/Publications Highlights
Rachel F Rodgers, Isabel Cunha, Veronica Rubinsztain, Xinran Wang, & Meryl Alper. Forthcoming. Harmful or Helpful? Effects of Eating Related TikTok Content on Body Image, Eating Disorder Symptoms, and Mood in Autistic Young Women. International Journal of Eating Disorders, Forthcoming.
Melder, E., Rubinsztain, V. E., Li, J., Vonbuelow, E., & DeVito, M. A. (2026, April). The Pit Beneath the Town Square: How Digital Solastalgia Affects Platform Migration and Community Structures of Transfeminine Users. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-17).
Alper, M., Pak, E., McGivney, E., & Rubinsztain, V. (2025). “Someone Who Has ADHD or Someone Who Has Autism Should Make the Rules”: A Participatory Study of Neurodivergent Child Perspectives on the Ethics of Extended Reality Technologies. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. doi: 100782.
Alper, M., Pak, E., McGivney, E., & Rubinsztain, V. (2025). Parent and clinician perspectives on the ethics of extended reality technologies for neurodivergent children in the US. Journal of Children and Media, 1-20.
Departments
Interdisciplinary, Art + Design
Education
- Master of Arts in International and Intercultural Communication; American University class of 2022
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology; Georgia Tech class of 2017
Awards
- Georgia Tech Faculty Honors 2017
- Moll Davenport Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award 2017
- Sustained Silver Tower Award 2017
Research Focus
- neurodivergent human-computer interaction