This profile is part of the "PhD at 75" series celebrating the 75th anniversary of the iSchool's PhD degree program. Vandana Singh (PhD '08) is the program director for data science at the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies and professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

For Stephanie Orphan (MSLIS '98), the best part of her job as program director at arXiv is knowing that she is contributing to something meaningful that helps individuals as well as society. That was the same reason that she decided to earn a degree in LIS. "It seemed like a move that would lead me to gratifying, meaningful work, and that has turned out to be true."

Elisandro (Alex) Cabada (MSLIS '17), assistant professor at the University Library, emerging technologies and immersive scholarship librarian, and director of the Grainger IDEA Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Cabada will become president-elect in July 2023 and assume the presidency in July 2024 for a one-year term.

The PhD degree program at the iSchool celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2023. This profile is part of a special series featuring PhD alumni. M. Cameron Jones (PhD '10) is a senior engineering manager at Google.

Fortunately for Chad Kahl, a PhD in political science wasn't in the cards. As a graduate student in political science at the University of Illinois, he wasn't certain that he was in the right field. His advisor, Professor Paul Diehl, suggested that he take a class in the iSchool to see if it was a better fit—and everything fell into place. Chad not only ended up earning his MSLIS degree, but mutual friends in the program introduced him to fellow classmate (now wife) Stephanie Davis-Kahl.

The PhD degree program at the iSchool celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2023. This profile is part of a special series featuring PhD alumni. Noah Samuel (PhD '21) is a user experience researcher at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is seeking nominations for three distinguished awards. The awards are given annually at the iSchool alumni reception held at the American Library Association conference. The deadline for nomination is April 1, 2023.

Adjunct Professor Sidney Berger (MSLIS '87) has authored a new book that will provide readers with a definitive glossary of book-related terminology. In The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others (2nd Edition), which was recently published by Rowman & Littlefield, he brings “the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world” through the addition of more than 700 new entries. 

The PhD degree program at the iSchool celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2023. This profile is part of a special series featuring PhD alumni. Noah Lenstra (MSLIS '09, CAS '11, PhD '16) is an associate professor of library and information science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Emily Bruce (MSLIS '17) has found school librarianship to be challenging but rewarding in the six years she has worked in the field. Bruce has experience working in elementary, junior high, and high school libraries, and she currently serves as the librarian at Lincoln High School in Vincennes, Indiana. Her favorite part of being a school librarian is restoring libraries to their full potential.