Julie A. Vera, Ph.D.

Weatherfluencers, trust, and collective sensemaking · UX/product research leader

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I’m a product/UX research leader and HCI researcher working across industry and academic research.

In industry, I build 0→1 research capabilities and lead foundational mixed-methods programs that shape research agendas, product strategy, and roadmaps. In my academic work, I study collective sensemaking, trust, and credibility in fast-moving, high-stakes information environments.

Current research

My primary empirical setting is severe-weather livestreaming and the emerging ecosystem of weatherfluencers. I study how creators make evidence, reasoning, uncertainty, and revision visible as events unfold, and how audiences use livestream chat to question, corroborate, compare, and continuously evaluate those interpretations.

I’m also studying what happens across repeated events: why audiences return to particular weatherfluencers, how trust accumulates or erodes, and how local observations, ground-truth reports, moderation, vouching, and correction shape collective interpretation over time.

News & upcoming

• Oct 8 · 4S Annual Meeting · Toronto
  Forecasting Outside the Weather Enterprise: Weatherfluencers as Unexpected Expertise, on weatherfluencers as a form of nontraditional expertise. 4S meeting →
• Oct 14 · ACM CSCW · Salt Lake City
  Making Sense of the Weather, Together: Collaborative Sensemaking in Severe Weather Livestreams, on real-time, visual, collaborative sensemaking during severe weather. CSCW 2026 →
• Oct 17–21 · National Weather Association Annual Meeting · Omaha
  Trust in the Chat: How Viewers Use Weather Livestreams During Tornado Outbreaks, on how livestream audiences question, corroborate, correct, and assess interpretations during severe-weather events. NWA agenda →

Selected publications & talks

• Making Sense of the Weather, Together: Collaborative Sensemaking in Severe Weather Livestreams · CSCW '26
• Popularity Without Legitimacy? Comparing Trust in Television Meteorologists and YouTube Weatherfluencers · ISCRAM '26
• "They've Over-Emphasized That One Search": Controlling Unwanted Content on TikTok's For You Page · CHI '25
• Collaborative Autoethnography as a Method to Explore Short-Lived Social AI Chatbots · HAI '25
• SAP UA Futures Group invited talk · June 2026

View publications and talks →

Contact

For research leadership roles, collaborations, talks, writing, or strange high-stakes information problems, get in touch.