Trista Cao

Trista Cao is a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Suzanne Barber at the Center of Identity. Her research lies in the intersection of Natural Language Processing and Human-Centered AI, with a focus on bridging the existing gap between current AI technologies and their real-world deployment. She emphasizes ensuring equity and fairness in AI to support diverse stakeholders and promote inclusive, accessible solutions for all users. Her primary research areas include Fairness in AI and Accessibility, with the goal of designing systems that are not only high-performing but also socially responsible.

Trista completed her Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, under the supervision of Prof. Hal Daumé III. In addition to her research, Trista has actively contributed to the NLP community by co-organizing the TrustNLP Workshops at NAACL 2022, ACL 2023, and NAACL 2024, fostering discussions around building trustworthy NLP systems. She also served as Chair of the Student Research Workshop at NAACL 2024, supporting emerging scholars and promoting innovative research from early-career researchers in the field.