Class Notes

graduates in cap and gown

Find out what's happening in the lives of your friends from days gone by. Publications, awards, marriages, retirements, moves, promotions, birth announcements—you're sure to come across news from someone you remember.

While you're here, don't forget to submit a class note and let old friends know what you've been up to. Don't be a stranger—we'd love to hear from you!

Alumni Class Notes will remain posted online for at least six months, and will be published in the next possible issue of the iSchool magazine, Intersections.

We're proud of the accomplishments of our alumni and their contributions to the field and their communities!

2020

  • Appedu, Sarah (Class of 2022) 3 months 29 days ago

    Sarah Appedu (MSLIS '22) has been accepted into the 2024 ALISE (Association for Library and Information Science Education) Leadership Development Internship Program.

  • Benton, Emily (Class of 2020) 3 months 28 days ago

    Emily Benton (MSLIS '20) will start her new position as the Prairie Research Institute (PRI) librarian and clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois on September 3, 2024.

  • Cheng, Jessica Yi-Yun (Class of 2022) 3 months 16 days ago

    Jessica Yi-Yun Cheng (PhD '22), assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, has been awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant for her project, "Storytelling Across Time: Building a Community Around Provenance (B-CAP)."

  • Fink, Kaitlin (Class of 2022) 5 months 16 days ago

    Kaitlin Fink (MSLIS '22) has accepted a job as LRC coordinator for JB Nelson School in Batavia, Illinois. She is excited to move from a classroom to a library setting.

  • Greenlee, Rebecca (Class of 2021) 1 month 28 days ago

    Rebecca Greenlee (MSLIS '21) has been promoted to law librarian II and continues to manage her assigned law library as a solo librarian. She has also been appointed to the Connecticut Statewide Access to Justice Commission, where she will put her ideas about equitable access to justice to work.


     

  • Hayes, Cordiah (Class of 2022) 5 months 6 days ago

    Cordiah Hayes (MSLIS '22) has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Beta Phi Mu Distinguished Member Award.

  • Kannenberg, Gene (Class of 2022) 5 months 24 days ago

    In March, Gene Kannenberg, Jr. (MSLIS '22) published Here Comes Charlie Brown! A Peanuts Pop-Up (Abrams ComicArts). He created the book using paper-engineering techniques he learned in Bookbinding: History, Principles, Practice (IS 590) with Adjunct Lecturer Andrew Huot.

  • Nelson, Ruth D. (Class of 2024) 16 days 4 hours ago

    Ruth D. Nelson (MSLIS '14) has authored a new book, "Our Lady of the World's Fair: Bringing Michelangelo's Pieta to Queens in 1964," which was recently published by Cornell University Press-Tree Hills.

  • Palid, Olivia (Class of 2021) 3 months 15 days ago

    Olivia Palid (MSLIS '21) was recently promoted to senior coordinator, Chicago programs, at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois.

  • Pedraza, Mary (Class of 2021) 1 month 28 days ago

    Mary Pedraza (MSLIS '21) began a new role at the University of Illinois Chicago Daley Library Special Collections on September 30. She is excited to return to Chicago and serve Illinois students once again, and she invites fellow alumni to "come on down for some research!"


     

  • Sielaff, Anna (Class of 2023) 16 days 4 hours ago

    Anna Sielaff (MSLIS '23) is an associate member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League [featured in the film "A League of Their Own"]. She has been doing research on former player Dottie Schroeder, who grew up in Champaign County. 

  • Ternes, Erika (Class of 2024) 5 months 3 days ago

    Erika Ternes (MSLIS '24) continues to serve her "tiny but mighty" rural library in youth services. She enjoys the variety of small library work, from conducting story time and editing MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) records to redesigning cash handling procedures and hula hooping on the library lawn.

2010

  • Baker, Mary (Class of 2016) 5 months 24 days ago

    Mary Baker (MSLIS '16) has been accepted to the 2024 Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) Fellowship Program. CELI partners with experts from universities, companies, and organizations to offer energy education and leadership development opportunities.

  • Dietrich, Stephanie (Class of 2018) 3 months 1 day ago

    Stephanie Dietrich (MSLIS '18) started a new position as educational programs manager for the Cancer Center at Illinois.

  • Jallas, Mallory (Class of 2012) 3 months 9 days ago

    Mallory Jallas (MSLIS '12) started a new position as the head of information literacy and academic outreach and clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois Springfield in August 2024.

  • Lansdown, Kristin (Class of 2019) 5 months 24 days ago

    Kristin Lansdown (MSLIS '19) has received the 2024 Core Career LIFT Award, sponsored by OCLC and Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

  • Moore, Courtney (Class of 2014) 4 months 13 days ago

    Courtney Moore (MSLIS '14) received the 2024 Young Adult Library Professional of the Year Award from the Illinois Library Association. 

  • Moreno, Teresa (Class of 2019) 1 month 19 days ago

    A paper by Teresa Moreno (MSLIS '19) was named the winner of the 2024 Annual Library Juice Paper Contest. "Interrupting the Criminalization of Information in the Academic Library Classroom," which was published in the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship, was determined by the award jury to be the most excellent paper out of seventeen submissions. 

  • Pollack, Julia (Class of 2012) 2 months 11 days ago

    Julia Pollack (MSLIS '12), creative program manager for the University of Illinois Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, was featured in The News-Gazette for the poison dart frog artwork she created for the Dixon Graphics window in Champaign.

  • Ruud, Jordan (Class of 2012) 4 months 6 days ago

    Jordan Ruud (MSLIS '12) has been appointed as the director of library services at Boreham Library at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

  • Sheets, Laura (Class of 2012) 4 months 16 days ago

    Laura A. Sheets (MSLIS '12) has been selected to guest-edit a special issue of Advances in Online Education: A Peer-Reviewed Journal. The special issue, which will be published in fall 2024, will focus on librarian collaboration with faculty in the development and delivery of online education.

  • Stein, Zack (Class of 2016) 9 days 4 hours ago

    After spending a year as interim assistant dean, Zack Stein (MSLIS '16) became the permanent assistant dean of technical services at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He also received tenure and was promoted to the status of associate professor.

  • Tang, Lydia (Class of 2015) 5 months 21 days ago

    Lydia Tang (MSLIS '15) delivered a keynote on the intersection of archives and accessibility for the COSA SERI STEER Unconference and Society of Ohio Archivists Annual Meeting. She was also promoted to senior outreach and engagement coordinator, a position in which she continues to provide leadership for hosted ArchivesSpace and advance accessibility at Lyrasis.

  • Tanner, Elise (Class of 2015) 15 days 4 hours ago

    Elise Tanner (MSLIS '15) has started a new position as the digital asset manager at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

  • Trammell, Anna (Class of 2015) 4 months 16 days ago

    Anna Trammell (MSLIS '15) recently started a new position as Community Archiving Program Manager at Internet Archive.

  • Villa, Katherine (Class of 2018) 3 months 22 days ago

    Katherine Villa (MSLIS '18) started her new position as arts, humanities, and social sciences librarian for Researcher Services at the University of California-Davis Library on March 1, 2024, and graduated with a PhD in philosophy from the University of Miami on August 2, 2024.

2000

  • Asimakopoulos, Jennifer (Class of 2007) 4 months 13 days ago

    Jennifer Asimakopoulos (MSLIS '07) received the 2024 Reader's Advisory Service Award from the Illinois Library Association.

  • Del Rio , Lora (Class of 2008) 1 month 20 days ago

    Lora Del Rio (MSLIS '08) was featured in the Illinois Association of College & Research Libraries Forum (IACRL) Member Spotlight on September 26, 2024.

  • Finnell, Joshua (Class of 2007) 4 months 16 days ago

    Joshua Finnell (MSLIS '07) was recently appointed as the Associate University Librarian and Director of Research & Scholarly Initiatives at Case Library and Geyer Center for Information Technology at Colgate University.

  • Gregory, Leah (Class of 2004) 1 month 28 days ago

    Leah Gregory (MSLIS '04) is the co-host of a new podcast called "Can't Shelve This!," which aims to entertain and educate everyone on the importance of school libraries.

  • Kraus, Daniel (Class of 2006) 1 month 4 days ago

    Daniel Kraus (MSLIS '06) was interviewed by I Love Libraries, an initiative of the American Library Association, for Episode 11 of their podcast "How I Library."

  • Linton, Norma (Class of 2009) 1 month 25 days ago

    Norma Linton (MSLIS '97, PhD '09) passed away on October 6, 2024.

  • VanSwol, Mary (Class of 2005) 1 month 25 days ago

    Mary VanSwol (MSLIS '05) has been named the new director of the Park Forest (IL) Library. 

1990

  • Carrico, Jeffrey (Class of 1997) 1 month 25 days ago

    Jeffrey Carrico (MSLIS '97) passed away on May 13, 2024.

  • Kahl, Chad (Class of 1998) 4 months 16 days ago

    Chad Kahl (MSLIS '98) moved into the Data and Social Sciences position at Illinois State University's Milner Library on July 1. He has worked at Milner Library since 2003.

1980

  • Drone-Silvers, Frances (Class of 1984) 1 month 4 hours ago

    Frances Drone-Silvers (MSLIS '84) is the recipient of the Starfish Thrower Award from the Health Sciences Librarians of Illinois (HSLI). This award recognizes an HSLI member who has made a difference in the organization.

  • Horio, Molly (Class of 1989) 1 month 4 hours ago

    Molly Horio (MSLIS '89) is the recipient of the 2024 President’s Award from the Health Sciences Librarians of Illinois. The award recognizes an HSLI member who has made a lasting impact on the organization.

  • Hunter, David (Class of 1989) 9 days 4 hours ago

    David Hunter (PhD '89) gave a lecture at the Clark Library at the University of California, Los Angeles. He said the lecture was part of the Karmiole Lecture series on the history of books and printing, "about which I learned so much from Prof. D.W. Krummel." 

  • Riley, Ruth (Class of 1985) 1 month 11 days ago

    Ruth Riley (MSLIS '85), librarian emerita, is the 2024 recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

  • Riley, Ruth A. (Class of 1985) 4 months 16 days ago

    Ruth A. Riley (MSLIS '85) retired on June 3, 2024 and relocated to Concordia, Kansas.

1970

  • Chandler, Margaret (Class of 1971) 1 month 25 days ago

    Margaret Chandler (MSLIS '71) passed away on October 16, 2024.

  • Hamiter, Sue Ann (Class of 1972) 1 month 3 days ago

    Sue Ann Hamiter (Frizzell) (MSLS '72) passed away on August 14, 2024, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

  • Marlow, Ann (Class of 1973) 1 month 4 days ago

    Ann Marlow (MSLIS '73) passed away on October 24, 2024.

  • Vander Meer, Patricia (Class of 1977) 4 months 16 days ago

    Patricia Fravel Vander Meer (MSLIS '77) coauthored Artificially Yours: A Tale of Uncanny Animals, a book of fiction based in part on her work as an academic librarian.