Class Notes

Lauren (Huff) Anderson (MSLIS '22) began a new position as a metadata management librarian at the University of Oregon. 

Bridgette Hammond (MSLIS '21) presented at the international conference, "Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10," hosted by the Archives of Latvian Folklore in Riga, Latvia.

Jason Katsion (MSLIS '21), deputy director of the Barrington Area Library District, was featured in the Illinois Library Association's Member Spotlight for the week of February 24, 2025.

Brandi Nahrwold (MSLIS '24) was promoted to Director of Library and Information Services at Trine University Main Campus in Angola, Indiana.

Andrew Rea (MSLIS '24) has recently begun a new position as the digital resources archivist with the Department of Archives and Special Collections at Kansas State University.

Rachel Riffe-Albright (MSLIS '23) was a 2025 fellow with the Society for Scholarly Communication. She served on the President's Early Career Panel and presented a poster discussing the professional needs of early career library and publishing professionals. 

Jessica Smith (MSLIS '24) has authored a new Choose Your Own Adventure book, Curse of Great Winter Academy, under her pen name Jessika Fleck. It will be coming out on June 17, 2025.

Jeanie Austin (PhD '17) is co-principal investigator on a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant will ensure continued support for the Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People initiative at the San Francisco (CA) Public Library.

Maria Emerson (MSLIS '14) received the 2024-2025 Outstanding Faculty Award from the University Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Henry Gabb (PhD '19) was appointed chair of the Board of Directors for the Linked Data Benchmark Council, a nonprofit organization that defines standard graph benchmarks and graph processing technologies.

A Little Like Magic, an author-illustrated picture book by Sarah Kurpiel (MSLIS '11), was awarded the 2025 Schneider Family Book Award by the American Library Association.

In February 2025, Kristi Lear (MSLIS '18) was promoted to Archival Program Administrator, overseeing the Operations Division, at the Illinois State Archives. In September 2024, Lear was awarded the Ancestry Leadership Award at the Council of State Archivists Annual Meeting.

Nisha Mody (MSLIS '17), a life coach for Liberatory Dreamers and Trauma-Informed Facilitator for Libraries, will be hosting an orientation for her course, Trauma-Informed and Relational Care for Libraries, in June 2025.

Christina Norton (MSLIS '14) was featured in the Illinois Association of College & Research Libraries Forum (IACRL) Member Spotlight on February 28, 2025.

Ziba Z. Pérez (MSLIS '12) has been elected to serve on the American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board. Elected board members will begin a three-year term in July 2025 and conclude in June 2028. Pérez serves as a young adult librarian III at Los Angeles Public Library.

Catheryne Popovitch (MSLIS '11) has been appointed director of the Illinois State Archives. This past summer, she was also elected as President of the Council of State Archivists, a one-year term

Miguel Ruiz (MSLIS '13) has been named the new head of the Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress.

Jordan Ruud (MSLIS '12) has co-edited a new book, Censorship Is a Drag: LGBTQ Materials and Programming Under Siege in Libraries.

Laura Sheets (MSLIS '12) was promoted to associate professor with tenure in the University Libraries at Bowling Green State University.

Taliah Abdullah (MSLIS '03) has been appointed as executive director of The Urbana Free Library. She will begin her new role on July 7, 2025.

Honore Bray (MSLIS '06) retired as director of Missoula (Montana) Public Library in 2022. She is now vice chair of the board for "The Trust for MT Libraries." 

In September 2024, Linde Brocato (MSLIS '09, CAS '11) started her new job as a metadata librarian at the University of Arkansas Libraries.

Tiffany (Torbeck) Erickson (MSLIS '06) is publishing her first picture book, The Snack Thief, with Lawley Publishing on July 22, 2025. The book is described as "a delicious whodunit for ages 3-5."

As a solo librarian at his city’s community hospital, Salem Health, Paul Wilson Howard (MSLIS '04) has been part of a research project investigating a clinical staff resilience intervention. Project results have been published in the Journal of Nursing Administration.

Jimi Jones (MSLIS '07, PhD '19) has accepted a position at the University of Illinois Foundation as manager of gifts documentation.

Nancy Kirkpatrick (MS '07) has been named the dean of libraries for Smith College, effective August 1, 2025.

Karen Kohn (MSLIS '02) has published a book titled, "Assessing Academic Library Collections for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion." It was released through Bloomsbury in July 2025.

Jan (Pye) Marry’s (MSLIS '04) debut novel "Sweet Tea and Anzac Biscuits" is being released in April. Set in a library, it contains a little bit of every library where she has worked or volunteered. The launch is in the Williamsburg Library in Virginia on April 27th, and everyone is welcome.

Lindy Smith (MSLIS '09) has started a new job as assistant director of the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries.

Mark Dibble (MSLIS '94) has been promoted to library director of the Blumberg Memorial Library at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas.

Jill Howk Gengler (MSLIS '99) started work as a 7th grade science teacher at Edison Middle School in Champaign in October 2024.

Jill Gengler (MSLIS '99) started work as a seventh grade science teacher at Edison Middle School in Champaign in October 2024.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (MSLIS '95) was elected to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Governing Board.

John Klasey (MSLIS '94) retired as senior manager, knowledge resource management at DLA Piper in Chicago, Illinois, on January 3, 2025, after 38 years in the legal industry, including the last 25 at DLA Piper.

Jason Kuhl (MSLIS '99) began a new position as CEO of the Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County on January 6.

Donna J. Lilly (MSLIS '92) passed away on December 28, 2024. 

The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association selected Eric C. Novotny (MSLIS '94) as the the recipient of the 2025 Innovation and Advocacy in Library History Award.

Scott Finet (MSLIS '84) retired from his position as legal information manager at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, District of Columbia. 

Lorraine J. Haricombe (MSLIS '88, PhD '92) will retire from her position as vice provost and director of the University of Texas Libraries at the end of August after leading the libraries for almost 11 years.

Carol Leibiger (MSLIS '87) has been named professor emerita in the University Libraries at the University of South Dakota. She will retire from her position as information literacy coordinator on June 20, 2025, after 36 years at the university.

Marcia Schnake Trauernicht (MSLIS '85) has retired from her position as university librarian at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

George M. Woolsey (MSLIS '82) passed away in October 2024.

Rita Bartholomew (MSLIS '76) passed away in March 2025. For most of her career, she worked as a reference librarian.

Peggy Tutor (MSLIS '77) passed away on December 22, 2024.

Thomas Scott (MSLIS '68), retired library administrator in both the public and academic libraries, wrote to the School to express his gratitude "for the rigorous, comprehensive, and practical educational foundation I received, which enabled me, during the course of my career, to transition from card catalogs and Gaylord charging systems to the full-text retrieval of digitized content and archival materials."

Norma Poinsett (MSLIS '53) passed away on January 26, 2025.