Jessica J. Santana

Dr. Jessica J. Santana is an Assistant Professor in the Technology Management Program at UC Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on entrepreneurial failure, innovation deviance, and computational social science. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University, an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford, and an M.Sc. in Information Science from UC Berkeley. Her work bridges sociology, network science, and entrepreneurship, emphasizing resilience after failure and ethical dimensions of innovation.

Education:

• Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology, Stanford University (2020, 2015)
• M.Sc. Information Science, UC Berkeley School of Information (2010)
• B.A. International and Area Studies, University of Oklahoma (2005)

Research Interests: Dr. Santana investigates how entrepreneurs navigate failure through peer networks and rhetoric, exploring topics like failure recovery, deviance in innovation, and computational methods for analyzing social data. Her work highlights underrepresented groups' experiences and emphasizes ethical considerations in emerging technologies like synthetic biology and cryptocurrency.

Awards/Grants:

• 2024 NSF Hispanic-Serving Institution Grant
• 2023 UCSB Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship
• 2022 Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship
• 2018 Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Award

Advising & Grants: She advises students across disciplines and leads the Computational Social Science (CSS) Lab. Current grants focus on empowering underrepresented communities through technology. Her work spans academic and industry partnerships, including collaborations with Stanford’s IRISS and the Center for Responsible Machine Learning at UCSB.

Labs/Teams: Principal Investigator of the CSS Lab, affiliated with UCSB’s Center for Responsible Machine Learning and Stanford’s Institute for Research in the Social Sciences.