College of Communication and Information

School of Information Sciences

Featured Story

  • MSIS Student Sarah Calise Founds Nashville Queer History Digital Archive, Lands Deal to Write First Book on Nashville’s LGBTQ+ History

    It’s easy to forget history, but even more so if no one preserves it. Sarah Calise, an archivist and a student in the School of Information Sciences master’s program, is someone who specializes in preservation. So when they saw the history of Nashville’s LGBTQ+ community slowly slipping away, they also saw an opportunity to make…

  • Alum Savanna Sims Manages Data at an Org to Help People Who are Experiencing Homelessness

    Every day, data is gathered in 12 East Tennessee counties about one of its most vulnerable populations: people experiencing homelessness. All of this data is entered into the Homeless Management Information System, which at the Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless (TVCH), is handled by MSIS alum Savanna Sims (’20). Sims started working at TVCH…

  • A Trio of Friends Journey Through Work and the MSIS Program Together

    It’s not unusual for students to take a meandering path that ends with them entering the MSIS program—some wander a little, and others even make hard turns into a drastic career change. But rarely do those paths intersect the way that those of three current MSIS students have: Carolyn Shafer, Jenny Huffman, and William Judd. Not…

  • 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…

  • Student Spotlight: Jessica Woofter on Databases and Data Analysis

    Featured Student: Jessica Woofter Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Education: Bachelor’s in General Studies with a focus on Business and Technical writing Career: Data Analyst at the University of Tennessee’s Environmental Health & Safety Why information sciences? I am definitely not a traditional student. I did not take a straight path to complete my college degree or…

  • SIS Launches Research Data Management Certificate Program

    The School of Information Sciences recently added another graduate certificate to its offerings, the Research Data Management Certificate (RDMC). “At SIS, we tailor our programs to the workforce needs of employers and provide a relevant curriculum that benefits our students,” said SIS Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa. “The new Research Data Management Certificate and our existing certificate offerings in Health Informatics and Youth…

  • SIS Professor Dania Bilal Works with PhD Student & Others to Learn How to Use Social Robots to Help People with Dementia

    SIS Professor Dania Bilal has explored research in recent years centered on artificial intelligence (AI) from an information sciences perspective, exploring how people interact with various AI and robot interfaces. She most recently partnered with doctoral student, Fengpei Yuan, and her advisor, Professor Xiaopeng Zhao, at the University of Tennessee Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering,…

  • SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May Writes Planning and Assessment Book with SIS Alum & Hodges Librarian Regina Mays

    SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May was a public and academic librarian before she decided to pursue her doctorate in information sciences, and that experience has informed what she researches and how she teaches. In both, she “tends to focus on finding better ways to do the things I did as a practitioner with maybe not…

  • Alumni Jill Grogg and Teddy Gray Talk About Working at a Consortium

    Jill Grogg and Teddy Gray were in the same cohort and both graduated from SIS in 2001 and went their separate ways but into the same career path: academic librarianship. Several years later, their paths converged again when both departed their academic librarian positions and began working for LYRASIS. It’s a job that combines their…

  • SIS Grad Student Songhee Kim Becomes CCI’s UX Lab Manager and Graphic Designer

    At her heart, Songhee Kim is an artist, and she’s found ways to incorporate that into her career path over the years. She earned an undergraduate degree in 3D animation and visual effects from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and went on to work for projects such as Disney Junior’s “Sophia the…