School of Information Sciences

Johnson elected president of IAP

Office Support Specialist Dimitria Johnson has been elected president of Illinois Administrative Professionals (IAP, formerly known as The Secretariat), an organization for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign employees in certain Civil Service classifications. She began her one-year term on July 1.

Over the course of her 22 years at the University of Illinois, Johnson has worked at the McKinley Health Center, Division of General Studies, and School of Information Sciences. As a member of the Admissions team at the iSchool, Johnson's primary duties include processing applications and communicating with prospective students.

Since joining the IAP in 2019, Johnson has served on the Executive Board as co-chair of the Membership and Mentorship Committee. One of her goals for the upcoming year is to expand the mentoring program.

"Having someone who you can turn to when you have question or concern about your job or a personal issue is very beneficial," said Johnson. "In addition to meeting amazing people from all over campus, IAP members can participate in professional development opportunities such as networking socials and Career Connections luncheons."

This year, IAP is celebrating its 75th anniversary—a great time to join, according to Johnson.

"I am so excited to be a part of such a wonderful organization," she said. "I encourage Civil Service staff members who are eligible to join IAP to contact us for more information."

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Nguyen receives Critical Language Scholarship

MSLIS student Christine Nguyen has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Japanese this summer. She is one of four University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students who received full scholarships to spend 8-10 weeks abroad and study one of 14 critical languages. The program is part of an initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages and cultural skills to enable them to contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security.

Christine Thuy Minh Nguyen

iSchool researchers to present at CHI 2026

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2026), which will be held from April 13–17 in Barcelona, Spain. The conference, considered the most prestigious in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, attracts researchers and practitioners from around the globe.

Wang and Snap Research partner on "Profile Agent"

Imagine your favorite apps had a "digital twin" of your personality that actually grew up with you. Right now, most AI systems create a static snapshot of your interests. For example, a personal shopper who keeps recommending video games just because you bought one three years ago, even though you've long since moved on to hiking and cooking. To bridge this gap, Professor Dong Wang's team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is partnering with Snap Research to build a "Profile Agent."

Dong Wang

Dahlen selected as juror for 2026 Kirkus Prize

Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen has been selected as one of six jurors for the 2026 Kirkus Prize, given annually in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature. The prize is one of the richest in the literary world, with awards of $50,000 in each category.

Sarah Park Dahlen

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top