Alumni News

  • UTK SIS Students, Faculty, and Alumni Shine at the 2024 Tennessee Library Association Conference

    Every year, professionals from across the state in the fields of library and information sciences, along with students and supporters, gather to share ideas, learn about new findings in the field, and award those who have shown exemplary leadership in the field. School of Information Sciences Director Abebe Rorissa (left) and Brynna Farris (Right) at…

  • MSIS Alumna Says UT CALL Grant and Internship Opportunities Helped Her Obtain New Position at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

    Jessica Atkins (‘22) is starting her new career as a senior data collection analyst at the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She says she wouldn’t be where she is today without the opportunities she had at her universities and during her internships.   Atkins completed her undergraduate degree in anthropology…

  • SIS Alumna Quanta Wyatt Receives the 2023 Arkansas Library Association Renetta Patrick Award for Outstanding School Librarianship

    Alumna Quanta Wyatt (‘95) loves conducting research. Her passion is what helped her gain the Arkansas Library Association (ARLA) Renetta Patrick Award for outstanding school librarianship, but she says she couldn’t have done it alone.   Wyatt is originally from Monticello, Arkansas, and lived there until she was fifteen. Her family then moved to West Memphis,…

  • Alumni Assist with CCI’s Annual Career Fair

    It was an internship that led to Pam Schmidt’s (’93) current job at MP&F, where she’s worked for a total of 25 years since she graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It’s no wonder that, as director of human resources and talent development, she’s an avid proponent of students getting internship experience before they…

  • CCI’s Links up with World Data System as a Leader in Open Science Initiatives

    Caption: Meredith Goins, director of World Data System, speaks with attendees at the World Data Systems Conference in Knoxville in summer 2023 A communication college working with the Department of Energy is not a very common occurrence. But the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has never been afraid of charting new courses, and the College of…

  • SIS Alums Justin Blair and Kay P Maye Complete LEADING Fellows Program for Data Science

    In 2022, two School of Information Sciences alumni took part in the LEADING Fellowship Program through Drexel University’s Metadata Research Center. Justin Blair and Kay P Maye were among the 26 fellows to complete a data science project under the mentorship of information science centers across the United States. Maye (’21) is currently the scholarly…

  • Alumni Highlight: MSIS Alum Roger Justus Offered Dream Job on Graduation Day

    Featured alumni: Roger Justus Current position and location: Data Services Librarian at Miami University Location: Oxford, Ohio In May of 2022, Roger Justus was playing the job search waiting game. He’d left behind his 25-year career in IT to find a vocation that would “feed his soul,” and friends and family had encouraged him to…

  • Hannah Gunderman Given 2022 SIS Innovator’s Alumni Award

    Videogames and information sciences may not sound like a natural fit, but Hannah Gunderman (’21) has found her niche at the crossroads of the two. She came into the MSIS program with a PhD in geography and a desire to be a librarian. Before she graduated with her master’s degree, she was hired on at…

  • 2022 SIS Distinguished Alumni Susan Jennings

    Susan Jennings (’07) didn’t start out with the dream to be a librarian, but in hindsight, she believes it was pre-ordained. After all, she and her family were voracious readers, she was a library page in junior high school, and she drove her mother to the public library every Saturday where they’d spend an hour…

  • Alumnus Eric Dawson Steps Into Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection Manager Position

    Eric Dawson (’13) has been in the history-filled book stacks and climate-controlled rooms of the East Tennessee History Center ever since he was a student in the MSIS program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His experience there started in 2012 when he took on a practicum with Steve Cotham, manager at that time of…