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On April 9听Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg听announced new guidelines for memorial legacy accounts, and those changes were directly informed by research from ATLAS PhD candidate Katie Gach, along with听her faculty advisor,听Jed Brubaker,听an assistant professor in听the Information Science Department whose PhD dissertation resulted in Legacy Contact.听

A听legacy contact听is the person a听facebook user designates听to look after his or her听Facebook听account if听it's memorialized.听
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"It鈥檚 rare for a junior PhD researcher to have their research impact anything at this scale," says Gach, a digital ethnographer studying human experiences on social platforms.听"I鈥檓 so grateful to Dr. Brubaker and the memorialization team at Facebook for trusting me with a piece of this important work."听

Through her research听evaluating听Facebook's Legacy Contact, Gach听finds听ways to build compassion and empathy into social media.听 During the project,听Gach completed interviews with Legacy Contact users听and provided analyses to help the Facebook team understand how to help people find the connections they need in times of grief.听

Gach will continue听her research听this summer as a research听intern听at Facebook.