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Alex Leavitt

Senior Staff Researcher, Meta (Facebook Research)

Alex Leavitt, PhD (they/them) is a social scientist and global trust & safety expert. They were previously a Senior Staff Quantitative User Experience Researcher at Meta, where they worked for almost 7 years leading product and policy research initiatives across various teams including News Feed Integrity, Civic Integrity, and Social Impact.4 Their research covered topics such as misinformation, polarization, COVID-19, and social media's impact on marginalized populations.3

Currently, Alex is the Principal Researcher for Trust & Safety at Roblox, focusing on content moderation, civility & pro-social design, and safety & harm measurement.3 They are a mixed-methods researcher, combining traditional ethnographic, interview, and survey research with novel computational and experimental methods.3

Alex holds a PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California.2 Their research has been featured in prominent publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the Huffington Post.1 Alex has also spoken at notable industry events including South by Southwest Interactive and Penny Arcade Expo.1

In addition to their professional work, Alex is an instructor for a course on "Intro to R for UX Researchers" through Maven, where they teach data analysis techniques for UX Research using the R programming language.2

Highlights

Jul 25 · linkedin

Really excited to announce a unique opportunity for PhD students: Roblox is offering a TWO YEAR PHD FELLOWSHIP, which includes a stipend of $35,000 per year, possible internships, and opportunities to collaborate internally and on academic publications.

While we're focusing across many possible topical areas, I'm specifically looking for candidates who would be interested in applying computational social science methods (machine learning, causal inference, scalable survey methods, etc.) to studying complex questions around Safety and Civility in interactive "metaverse" spaces, particularly for kids and teens. Candidates can come from human-computer interaction and other tech-focused social sciences, as well as computer science.

More info and application here: https://lnkd.in/gKBfF7fv Only current PhD students and candidates are eligible, and they must have two full years of their graduate program remaining. [Also, FYI: the deadline is coming up very soon on August 15, 2024!]

Apr 26 · linkedin

Are you a data scientist on the job market interested in Trust & Safety? Come join my team at Roblox! We're hiring data scientists for junior and mid level roles for people who are located in the Bay Area (3 days in-office required). Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gPyVgCU4

Related Questions

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Alex Leavitt
Alex Leavitt, photo 1
Alex Leavitt, photo 2
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Location

San Francisco Bay Area