Lecturer: Chris Cunningham

Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Education: Undergraduate degree in history with a social studies concentration, University of North Carolina-Charlotte; MLIS, UNC Greensboro; PhD, University of South Carolina; currently working on an MBA from Kent State University.

What classes do you teach at SIS?

I am currently teaching INSC 514, technology foundations. I’ve also taught the business intelligence course, and I’ve also taught an information use course that has now been deprecated.

What has your experience been like as an SIS lecturer?

Dan Greene’s (’03) current life is immersed in information sciences: he’s an alum of SIS, he is the SIS technology coordinator, and he’s also an SIS lecturer. But information sciences wasn’t even on his radar when he was an undergraduate at East Tennessee State University. There, he switched majors so many times he almost lost count before he finally did graduate with a degree in history. But there were always two other fields that kept pulling at him throughout the years: computer science and librarianship.

Lecturer: Plato Smith

Location: University of Florida, Gainesville

Education: MLIS, North Carolina Central University; PhD, Florida State University

Lecturer: Janine Pino

Location: Knoxville, Tennessee

Academic Background: MSIS, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Crystal Sherline didn’t think she wanted to get a PhD; she was working as a library director of a small, rural library, and had already been through the rigorous PhD experience with a spouse.

“I had a couple of patrons I was very close to, who were older and worldly. They told me, ‘You need to go do a PhD.’ I contemplated for a couple of years, but I’m a lifetime learner,” Sherline said.

Lecturer: Ashley Maynor (’13)

Location: New York City, NY

Academic Background: I was a college scholar, which is part of the “design your own major” program for undergraduates at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I mostly focused on French literature and cultural studies but took courses across many curricula—from anthropology to cinema studies to international relations! I also have an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and an MSIS from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Location:  Durham/Chapel Hill, NC

Academic  Background:  Bachelor’s degree in English literature from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.; master’s degree in library science from UNC, Chapel Hill

Strong African-American women have been present for almost all of the pivotal moments in LaVerne Gray’s career–both professionally and academically.

These were the women she wrote about in her doctoral classes at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and for her dissertation, “In a Collective Voice:  Uncovering the Black Feminist Information Community of Activist Mothers in Chicago Public Housing, 1955-1970.” But apart from the historical figures who inspired her research, Gray can also point to specific women who were integral in getting her to push past her own limits, and expand her knowledge and education.

 Scot Smith

Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Academic Background: Bachelors of arts in humanities, East Tennessee State University; master of arts in teaching, ETSU; and master’s in information sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I have completed numerous graduate hours in European History as well. Work Background: Teaching for almost 30 years overall, and for 20 years at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Been a librarian for 22 years. Currently a librarian at Robertsville Middle School at Oak Ridge Schools.

Lecturer: Julie Ann Winkelstein

Location: California, Bay Area near Berkeley (Albany, CA)

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts from the University of California, Berkeley; Masters of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University; PhD in Information and Communication from University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Work Background: Before I entered the UTK doctoral program, I worked as a public librarian for 20 years, including as a jail and prison librarian, and in a branch as a teen librarian and children’s librarian, as well as several other positions.

How did you become a lecturer at SIS?