About
Biography
Photo by Phil Smith
Demetrios Karis is a researcher, writer, and human-centered design consultant whose work examines how complex systems affect people, and how evidence, usability research, and artificial intelligence can improve those systems. His current work focuses on access to justice in the legal system, frontier AI, climate risk to human societies, and democratic resilience.
Demetrios Karis received a B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Cornell University. After spending five years doing research at the University of Illinois in a cognitive psychophysiology lab, he moved to industry, first at Grumman Aerospace, and then at GTE Labs and Verizon Labs.
At GTE and Verizon, Demetrios worked on user-interface design and the evaluation of consumer products and services, as well as conducting applied research. After Verizon, he started teaching at Bentley University in the Human Factors and Information Design Department, while also working as a contractor at Google, Fidelity, and other companies.
In 2019, he started working with his graduate students at Bentley on research projects with the Massachusetts Trial Court, and continued with a group of volunteer user experience researchers and then by himself. Demetrios has multiple patents and several dozen publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Current Volunteer Work
Court Appointed Special Advocate
Graphic by The CASA Project
Demetrios currently serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) at CASA Project Worcester County, a partner to the Juvenile Court in Massachusetts, where he advocates for children in the court system — work that grew out of his long-running research partnership with the Massachusetts Trial Court.
“Appointed by judges to help on the most heart-breaking cases in the foster care system, CASAs help abused and neglected children navigate the Worcester County Juvenile Courts, one child or sibling group at a time. CASAs report the best interests of the children to the judge, who uses the reports in their evaluation and decision on each case.”
Most states have a CASA organization. To become a CASA you only need to be over 21, pass a background check, and go through a training program. The CASA organization provides the tools, training, and oversight you need.