Maria M. P. de Athayde
Ph.D. Candidate, Public Policy
University of Massachusetts Boston
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Research Overview:
Do nonprofit organizations convert online engagement into offline action? My research investigates how nonprofits leverage digital technologies (e.g., social media) to communicate effectively, influence public policy, and engage different constituencies. I investigate the digital communication repertoires of environmental nonprofits in the climate change sector, analyzing their communication strategies with a special emphasis on the digital public sphere. I combine computational social science (e.g., natural language processing and topic modeling) with qualitative methods to illustrated how digital narratives are constructed, framed, communicated, and, possibly, translated into real-world action or in-person mobilization. My research sits at the intersection of public policy, nonprofit communications and management, and computational social science.
You can find my full CV here.
Keywords:
Nonprofit advocacy, Digital communication, Climate Policy, Computational social science, NLP & topic modeling, Public policy
Dissertation:
Tweet This, Not That: Examining Environmental Nonprofit Organizations' Online and Offline Advocacy Efforts for Climate Change Action.
Selected Research:
MacIndoe, H., & Beaton, E.E., Pache de Athayde, M.M., & Ojelabi, O. "Giving Voice: Examining the Strategic Repertoires of Nonprofit Advocacy for Marginalized Populations." In Nonprofit Policy Forum (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 29-53). De Gruyter. [published]
Pache de Athayde, M.M., & MacIndoe, Heather. "Nodes of Change & Connectedness: An Analysis of Environmental Nonprofits Twitter Behavior About Climate Change". [working paper]
Pache de Athayde, M.M. "Artificial Language Landscapes: Nonprofit Organizations Use of AI and LLMs for Service Delivery". [working paper]
Pache de Athayde, M.M. "Uncovering Digital Communication Repertoires: Towards a Typology of Data and Storytelling for Advocacy Nonprofit Organizations in the United States". [in progress]
Recent Activity:
Scholarly Support Fund, University of Massachusetts Boston [April 2026]