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Category Archives: Alumni News


LEADING Fellowship Program through Drexel University’s Metadata Research Center. Justin Blair and Kay P Maye were among the 26 fellows to complete a data science project under the mentorship of information science centers across the United States. Maye (’21) is currently the scholarly engagement librarian for social sciences and data at Tulane University, and Blair (’21) continues to focus on publication of his research. We caught up with both to discuss their time in the program and its impacts on their future careers in the field of information … Read more “SIS Alums Justin Blair and Kay P Maye Complete LEADING Fellows Program for Data Science”


Alice Faye Duncan (’91) looks for those moments in history that define generations yet are not often discussed—and especially aren’t stories typically told via picture book.

She was the first-ever picture book author to delve into the Memphis Sanitation Strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in her book “Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop,” and now she’s taken on Juneteenth and the Tent City civil rights movement in Fayette County, Tennessee, in her next two books to be released in January 2022.

Becoming a Writer

As a child of two teachers, … Read more “SIS Alum, Children’s Author & School Librarian Alice Faye Duncan to Publish Two New Books”


a librarian at the Blount County Public Library, they realized their entire career had been spent there. That’s when they saw the job opening for the director of Tenn-Share.

“It was a really hard decision, I am still very passionate about public libraries… I was interested in doing something new and branching out but I didn’t want to have to move. I wanted to stay in Blount County as I’ve … Read more “Alum Ari Baker Steps Into Their New Role as Tenn-Share Director”


College of Communication and Information doctoral program alum, and now SIS lecturer. Not only did he successfully defend his dissertation in July, but he also stepped into a new role as a senior user experience researcher for the Machine Learning and Intelligence Operations Product team at JP Morgan in Columbus, Ohio.

Though he interviewed for jobs in academia, Tahamtan was offered the UX researcher position and couldn’t pass it up. While many UX researchers are assisting with end products such as a websites or applications, he will … Read more “SIS Lecturer and CCI PhD Alum Iman Tahamtan Takes on UX Researcher Role at JP Morgan”