Jesse Morris has been simultaneously working in a data management position at Oak Ridge National Lab while taking classes in the MSIS program for the last four years. One of the benefits of this has been aligning class projects with work she’s doing at her job. That’s the case for the paper she wrote that…
Ashley Orehek came to SIS dreaming about becoming some sort of science librarian and was part of the very first CALL cohort at the School, which trains students to become liaisons between scientists and the rest of the world. That dream hasn’t faded a bit, but she’s since added onto her path towards it. It’s…
Kay P Maye never really noticed how information flowed and shaped the world prior to entering the MSIS program, but now he sees it everywhere, in everything he does. He’s particularly interested in how everyday people find information and how they judge whether or not it is good or bad information. “I foresee myself either…
Julia Proctor spent her time in the MSIS program staying very busy with extracurricular activities related to the School and information sciences – so it should be no surprise that she is being given the 2021 SIS Outstanding Service Award. Nonetheless, Proctor, said she was surprised to get the news but also “really happy.” Proctor…
When Cassidy Thompson was in her former career as a teacher, she would never have imagined that she’d find her true passion in cataloging. But that’s exactly what Thompson, one of this year’s 2021 Academic Achievement Award winners, hopes to be doing after she graduates from SIS this spring. She was offered a cataloging job…

Hannah Gunderman came into the MSIS program with a doctoral degree in geography already under her belt – but she wanted to be a librarian and chose to pursue even more education to get there. Before she was even halfway through her program, Gunderman landed a position as a Research Data Management Consultant at Carnegie…
Karen Beal is nearing the end of completing her MSIS program, a goal of hers that she’s had since high school. She had put it off for years and finally went for it, and now it has enhanced her current career and given her other options for the future should she wish to go down…
Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski has just wrapped up his second year at the School of Information Sciences, and despite one of those years being in a pandemic, he’s still managed to produce exceptional research that earned him the SIS 2021 Bonnie Carroll and Roy Cooper Faculty Enrichment Award. In the last couple of years, Dobreski…
Associate Professor Vandana Singh wants her research to be a catalyst for change in the real world and therefore she pursues research topics that appeal to practitioners and advance the field of research. She has published about seventy journal articles and conference proceedings and that body of research has been recognized this year with the…
In all the years that Julie Longmire has been working in college advising, one thing has remained the same: she loves seeing the look a student gets when they are excited about their classes and imagining what their future will look like after graduating. Four months into her position as assistant dean for undergraduate programs…