iNews The Information School || Autumn 2019
ACTIVISM IN ARCHIVES Assistant Professor Marika Cifor is challenging assumptions at the heart of archival practice
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS At UW, Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine, MSIM ‘15, works tirelessly as a voice for tribes and Native students
DEAN’S MESSAGE
We all reap the rewards of diversity W
hen Associate Professor Amy Ko came out as trans at the start of the academic year, I was filled with emotion. I was incredibly happy for my friend and colleague, and glad that she felt comfortable enough in her life and career to take this huge step publicly. But I was also saddened that someone I had known since she was a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University felt she had to conceal an important part of her identity for so many years. As she wrote in her powerful blog post announcing the news, Amy came out under the best possible conditions. She has a supportive family; she has the job security that comes with tenure; she works at a university recently ranked one of the most LGBTQ-friendly in America. The reaction from iSchool students, faculty and staff was every bit as warm and supportive as I expected. Amy’s doctoral students showered her with affection and cupcakes, colleagues stopped by to wish her well, tributes poured in over email and social media. It was a celebration. As Amy wrote in a follow-up blog post, it was “what coming out as trans should look like.” While I’m thankful we have such an inclusive community, my thoughts turned to others in my life and the 2
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barriers we build, even if we do so unconsciously. It’s heartbreaking that there are countless people who would fear for their careers, social lives and personal safety if they were to share their true selves. I went home and discussed it with my children because I wanted to be sure they feel free to be who they are. When people can be themselves, without fear of discrimination and ridicule, they are able to reach their potential in their lives and careers. For those of us who research, teach and learn at a university, it means that everyone, regardless of their skin color, identity or how they present themselves, can ask the hard questions they want to ask and have the conversations they want to have. One of our greatest strengths at the iSchool is that people here have so many different backgrounds and so many ways to think about a problem. Diversity of thought is how we will make progress toward solving the real problems of our times. That is why we not only embrace diversity at the iSchool; we pursue it. We have a diversity committee and an advisor, Cynthia del Rosario, dedicated to recruiting and supporting students of diverse races, backgrounds and identities. In admissions, we work hard to root out bias from the application process and we reach out to transfer students, veterans and first-generation college students, encouraging them to apply. Our student organizations are key to making people feel welcome; and some students have even taken the initiative to reach out to racially and socioeconomically diverse high school students and let them know the iSchool is a place for them. All of these efforts add up to stronger scholarship and a better experience for our students. The reaction to Amy’s announcement was a tribute to the diverse, welcoming community we have built here, but it was also a reminder. We all need to keep working — both at the iSchool and in our lives — to make the world a more inclusive and equitable place for everyone. It’s work that pays off in infinite ways. — Anind Dey Professor and Dean
INSIDE For the good of democracy Center for an Informed Public, launching this fall, confronts misinformation 12
Read-a-Rama Kids enjoy books, songs and slime at camp created by iSchool professor 15
Native soul 2019 Distinguished Alumnus stands firmly in the ways of his people, the Apsaalooke 16
Racing ahead Two alumni say Informatics gave them the foundation to succeed at Slalom 23 Informatics . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 MLIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 MSIM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Ph.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Download. . . . . . . . 11 Donor honor roll . . . . . . 22 Faculty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Bookshelf . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Alumni updates . . . . . . . 28 In Memory. . . . . . . . . . . 31 CREDITS Writing, editing and photography: Doug Parry, Maggie Foote, Kara Eagens, Mary Lynn Lyke, Mark Stone, Jessi Loerch, Jim Davis Design: Katie Mayer Alumni relations: Tara Warming Cover illustration: Zack Keys Copyright 2019 University of Washington Information School
Q&A | Perspectives from iSchool scholars
What is a technology that you think has potential to make significant improvements in people’s lives over the next 25 years? SONU MISHRA
ANSEL SANTOSA
Ph.D. Candidate, Information School
Informatics ’13, Senior Software Engineer, Pioneer Square Labs
There are many answers to this question! One is patient portals — the websites that many health-care organizations have that allow you to see things like your test results. Over the next 25 years, I’m hoping to see improvements in the design and content of patient portals. Work by Wanda Pratt and her students highlights how portals could be expanded to give hospitalized patients in particular a voice in their care. Hospitalized patients often find it difficult to access information about their care. Patient portals have the potential to give them real-time access to information about their plan of care, so they can learn about their treatment options, prepare for discharge, and even just find their way around the hospital. Patient portals or other patient-facing technologies could also be leveraged to help patients keep track of changes to their health and share that information back with clinicians. Over the next 25 years, I’m hoping to see this technology expanded to provide broader support for patient needs and give hospitalized patients a voice in their care.
Our commodity consumer devices have a growing number of sensors. We typically hear them discussed in the context of privacy concerns, but I’m excited that these sensors will also lead to increased access to personalized medicine. At Pioneer Square Labs, we are working on a number of ideas internally built around this general thesis. We’re using smartphones to facilitate a marketplace for tele-medicine. We’re using games to help identify early signs of anxiety or depression in teenagers. Perhaps the best example of this trend is that we’re teaching people who suffer chronic migraines and anxiety how to control their heart rate, lower their blood pressure, and mitigate their symptoms. This is only now possible because of advances in the understanding of biofeedback, as well as smartphone cameras that are sensitive enough to detect your heart beating by slight changes in your skin color.
MARIA GARRIDO OTT TOOMET iSchool lecturer & data science researcher I would take a global perspective: What technology will make life better for the poorest billion on this planet? My bet is that their lives will be improved most by old, well-known technologies: clean water, sanitation, prevention of common diseases through vaccination and established medicine, and improved education. Make no mistake — they still will remain poor, but there is a huge difference between being desperately poor and just poor. But what about the new and emerging technologies? In my opinion, the most important one is communication — in particular, internet-based communication and cheap travel. It shrinks the distances and makes the richer parts of the world more willing and able to help. We will see many conflicts and disruptions, but those who are rich and want to contribute will find it easier. Already today we can easily find like-minded people all over the planet, we can build trust, and despite the fact that a lot of hate and distrust flows through communication channels, I believe that in long run we can make the world better.
Principal Research Scientist, Technology & Social Change Group As a social scientist, I study the effects of information and communication technologies, and the new social, economic and cultural dynamics they engender, in marginalized communities around the world. Rather than identifying a single technological advancement, my interest lies within the strategies that enable ethnic, racial, gender, cultural and economic diversity for the different people who are involved in its design, development and use. Throughout my research journey, it has become increasingly evident that discussions surrounding the new technological frontier, and its effects on society, must be centered not only on the affordances allowed by any given technology, but also on the diversity of voices behind its creation, and the social and cultural values it represents. We must acknowledge that technology is not neutral and all those who are at the technology frontier — academia, private sector, policymakers, etc. — must devise strategies that empower and give agency to these different voices in order to build more equitable and inclusive technologies that could potentially lead to a more equitable and inclusive world. ischool.uw.edu
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HIGHLIGHTS | Informatics program
Leading the way on INFO recruitment By Jessi Loerch “How did you hear about the iSchool?” The answer to that question is, very often, word of mouth. Information about the iSchool is frequently passed from friend to friend or among families. That’s a powerful way for students to learn about all the school offers. But it’s also limiting. “When I talked to students about how they’d found Informatics, they all told me it was through word of mouth,” said Eva Perez, an Informatics student. “And that’s not equitable or sustainable.” When knowledge of the program is mainly spread among friends or families, it reinforces existing demographics and works against the iSchool’s goal of increasing the diversity of its student body. In response, student leaders have taken the initiative to spread the word about Informatics to high school students who might not be aware that it’s an option — in particular, students of color or those at schools with fewer resources. Katie Goulding, a 2019 iSchool graduate, and Cynthia del Rosario, iSchool diversity programs advisor, came up with the idea of “high school to iSchool” programming. Goulding won a grant from the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity that made it possible to create a hackathon for about 40 high school students from the Technology Access Foundation, which focuses on teaching tech to students of color and other underrepresented communities. Perez, who is the director of diversity for the Women in Informatics student group, was a mentor at that event, a “Hack for Social Good,” last spring. She was impressed with the students’ ideas to address issues such as menstrual equity and the high school to prison pipeline. “The students had a great time, and we were able to educate them that coding is not just coding — there’s a great impact beyond that,” Perez said. Perez has continued to work with other students and del Rosa-
Informatics student Eva Perez speaks about diversity at the All iSchool Welcome event in September. Photo by Doug Parry
rio to expand the program. In addition to visiting high schools, she’s gone to Seattle Central College to talk about the iSchool and hopes to reach other community colleges this academic year. This fall, Perez worked with other students on the iTech Symposium, which brought Seattle high school students to the iSchool. Associate Professor Amy Ko, Informatics program chair, knows the value of this outreach to the iSchool’s goals. When Informatics students lead the efforts, their age can make it easier to connect with those who are still in high school. Now is an important time for the iSchool to consider how to effectively spread the word to high school students. The University of Washington is moving toward a model where more high school students apply directly to a specific program. In the past, the Informatics program would get a few applicants a year from incoming freshmen, but now dozens of students apply, and that number will only grow. The iSchool needs to think strategically about how they admit those students, Ko said. And attracting new students, particularly from groups underrepresented at the iSchool, is vital. It will help produce graduates who are able to go into the job market with the skills to use technology for good. “All jobs require a diversity of human experience, because that’s what they are designing for,” she said. “They are designing for everybody. It’s really important that those who graduate represent the public.”
Alumni spotlight: Brittney Hoy, INFO ‘17 NOW: SOFTWARE ENGINEER, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY “I’m on Disney’s Messaging team, where we do everything that has anything to do with messaging, whether that’s emails, text messages or push notifications. We help enable our business units, like ESPN and Parks and Resorts, to send those messages to guests like you and me! In other news, Jonathan Li and I recently got engaged! It’ll be an iSchool love story between two former presidents. We are getting married in the fall of 2020.”
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HIGHLIGHTS | MLIS program
New challenge in New York By Kara Eagens Visionary Brian Bannon has a reputation for reinventing the concept of public libraries. After seven years in Chicago, he’s ready for his next challenge: leading the efforts of the New York Public Library’s 88 circulating branch libraries. The 1999 iSchool MLIS graduate and 2015 Distinguished Alumnus moved to the NYPL in September after earning acclaim and a National Medal for Museum and Library Service during his time as commissioner of the Chicago Public Library (CPL). Bannon said recently that he was excited by the chance to move from the Windy City to the Big Apple. “The New York Public Library has long been the gold standard for what is possible in the public library system,” he said. “They’ve led the charge on some of the most important initiatives in the field, from e-books to innovative direct services to logistics to management of materials, you name it. It’s a chance to take so much of what I was passionate about in Chicago and public libraries and take it to the next level in another world-class city.” As the Merryl and James Tisch director, Bannon serves as both chief branch librarian and leader of NYPL’s education initiatives, which work to boost the impact of reading and learning for New Yorkers across NYPL’s neighborhood branches in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. Bannon comes into his new job with a wealth of experience and achievement. He has held key positions at the Seattle Public Library, the San Francisco Public Library and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and one of the Chicago Tribune Blue Sky Vault’s top innovators in Chicago. During his tenure as commissioner, Bannon oversaw the construction and renovation of 30 libraries across Chicago, giving him an opportunity to pilot cutting-edge design methods. “There is something really powerful about constructing a building that is uniquely designed for the community in which it is sitting and serving,” he reflected. One of those branches — Chinatown — required a deviation from the traditional model that set a new standard for how the
city thinks about library construction. “We were building on a triangular lot and it was not conducive to the prototype,” Bannon noted. “Instead of doing architectural acrobatics, we created a design competition that attracted world-class architects. We were able to get the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design a 16,000-square-foot library while using a very inclusive community process, which then resulted in a building that was very sensitive to the physical locality.” Another game changer for Bannon as commissioner was a redesign of CPL’s summer reading program that doubled participation rates and boosted impact in the areas of reading, science and math. “We were able to show that certain key investments can substantially impact the lives of students in the classroom,” Bannon said. “I think it’s been really Brian Bannon became the important to the field; CPL Merryl and James Tisch was the first to launch a director at the New York Public Library in September. summer learning challenge Photo by NYPL with that kind of rigor. I think what you’ll now see in more libraries across the country is a norm of using highquality learning experiences for all students, seeing increases in participation and deepening impact.” Bannon sees potential for immense growth in the field. “There’s huge opportunity in the public library space to drive meaningful change in our communities through this radical mission of what public libraries are here to do. It’s just that we have to exercise the creativity and the strategy and hold true to that vision rather than let past practices define our future,” he said.
Alumni spotlight: Kim Mats Mats, MLIS ‘03 NOW: EXPERIENCE DESIGN DIRECTOR, AVANADE “I’m approaching eight years with Avanade. Last year, our team launched an updated website and mobile app for a large utilities company in Washington. In addition to making it easier for low-income customers to find payment plans and avoid having their power shut off, it is helping local residents find incentives for energy conservation. I love working on projects like these that use technology to make a real impact for people and the community.”
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HIGHLIGHTS | MSIM program
Working for the good of marine life By Jessi Loerch When Amanda Phillips came to the iSchool, she’d already had a successful career, albeit in a field quite different from those of most fellow students. In her 10 years in marine science, she’d worked on fishing vessels as a biological observer, sailed with a poop-sniffing dog to collect orca fecal matter, and piloted a remotely operated vehicle to study endangered rockfish. Now in her second year of the iSchool’s Master of Science in Information Management program, Phillips is learning skills to move from collecting data to analyzing it. Through an internship over the summer, she has already started using her iSchool education to protect the marine environment, specifically by helping to prevent illegal fishing. Phillips loved her work in marine science, but she was ready to advance her career and knew she needed a master’s degree. As she considered her next step, she remembered a night during her undergraduate studies when she was leaning over a microscope, cataloging plankton species at 2 a.m. The next morning, she and her classmates summarized 24 hours of data that illustrated how plankton followed the movement of the sun. “That was what really excited me about marine science in the first place,” she said. “It was finding that order in chaos. So I looked for a program that had that element of making chaos into order.” That search led her to the iSchool and the MSIM program. It met all of her career goals and, as an added bonus, it allowed her to stay close to her beloved Salish Sea. Annie Searle, an iSchool senior lecturer, says Phillips’ unique professional background gives her a valuable perspective in classroom discussions. Searle was impressed with Phillips’ writing and her ability to address complex issues. “I have no
Amanda Phillips worked in marine science for 10 years before pursuing her master’s in information management at the iSchool.
doubt that she will continue to be looked to by members of the mid-career cohort as a genuine leader, an incisive analyst and a person determined to make an impact on the world with her work,” Searle said. Phillips worked over the summer at Vulcan Inc. on its Skylight technology, which is satellite-based software to help authorities detect fishing vessels that may be operating illegally. Skylight uses satellite images and data analysis to help authorities identify vessels that are fishing illegally. Phillips was responsible for finding ways to group the vessels into useful categories to simplify the analysis. She concluded that there is no single correct way to group the vessels, and that it’s better to have a range of groupings for different purposes. Phillips is looking forward to further applying what she’s learned at the iSchool, perhaps by using data to help protect the Salish Sea’s endangered orcas. She was also thrilled to earn the 2019 Eric and Christine Larsen Endowed Fellowship for Innovation in Information Management, which gives her the financial stability to immediately return to work in marine science after she graduates next year. “I thought I would need work outside the environmental field for a few years to pay off school loans,” Phillips said. “Instead, I can start working on these things I’m passionate about now. … It’s been really rewarding.”
Alumni spotlight: Emily Smalligan, MSIM ’18 NOW: SENIOR ASSOCIATE, PWC “My responsibilities include program management, change management and strategy for our clients, leveraging data analytics and management on a large scale. I often work with clients in Denmark, Taiwan and Ireland, and we are gradually rolling out a new enterprise system to thousands of employees. I also became the nonprofit relationship owner at PwC for Summer Search Seattle, supporting college readiness and financial wellness programs for students facing systematic inequalities.”
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HIGHLIGHTS | Ph.D. program
A passion for inclusive tech studies By Mary Lynn Lyke Technology studies in college can be a turnoff for many. Women and people of color have long been underrepresented in the IT workplace, and it’s easy to see why. They may encounter computer science courses dominated by condescending white men; classrooms that are competitive instead of collaborative; large, packed, impersonal lecture halls; and dense, discouraging instruction. They stay away. Or walk away, which Mina Tari almost did her freshman year at the University of Washington as she waded through STEM and computer science courses. “I did not find any of them very welcoming spaces in terms of learning. There were almost 1,000 people in a class and very little face-to-face time with teaching assistants, instructors and peers. It was very isolating,” says Tari, who is now examining the tech turn-off problem as a Ph.D. student at the iSchool. She is one of two iSchool doctoral students to be awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship this year. The other is Yim Register, who brings a spirit of playfulness and keep-it-real relevance to technology education. “I believe in a compassionate bridge between technology and people,” says Register. Both doctoral students are drawing on feminist theory to make computing education more welcoming, more accessible, and more appealing to all, especially those who’ve traditionally felt or been excluded. “Yim and Mina start from equity in everything they do, whether it’s research, teaching, or service to their academic community,” says Amy Ko, director of the iSchool’s Code & Cognition Lab. Ko is Register’s adviser and a committee member for Tari, who is advised by iSchool associate professor Hala Annabi in her ACCESS-IT research group.
Ph.D. students Mina Tari (left) and Yim Register received research fellowships from the National Science Foundation.
Tari, who found her academic footing after switching to a double major of Informatics and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, has conducted in-depth focus groups and interviews with undergraduate women of color to see what could make tech coursework more attractive. A major finding is that women of color, who receive less than 5 percent of computer science undergraduate degrees, seek a more collaborative tech environment where they can support each other. Register is a self-described “radical optimist” who earned a bachelor’s degree in Brain and Cognitive Science at the University of Rochester in New York and worked as an ESL kindergarten teacher in Thailand before joining the iSchool. Register, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, has a talent for making big ideas digestible, such as creating a YouTube video that uses a pile of pancakes to explain data stacking. To reduce pressure in learning, they created a new curriculum this summer for beginning software engineering students that incorporated “a lot of jokes and silliness” into lessons on statistical data analysis. NSF fellowships, which include a $34,000 annual stipend and full tuition, allow the two doctoral students to freely explore their research ideas. They can go off on their own paths. They can make mistakes. “It means you have the security for your own ideas,” says Register. “How awesome is that!”
Alumni spotlight: Martez Mott, Ph.D. ‘18 NOW: POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER, MICROSOFT RESEARCH ABILITY TEAM “Since starting at Microsoft Research in January 2019, I have created a research program that focuses on improving the accessibility of virtual reality systems for people with mobility limitations that affect their neck, arms, hands and legs. I am also serving as a co-chair for the Posters and Demonstrations track at the 2019 ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’19) with fellow iSchool Ph.D. grad Kristen Shinohara, ’17.”
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RESEARCH | Spotlight on iSchool scholarship
Accessibility work honored By Doug Parry Information School Professor Jacob O. Wobbrock’s research into touch-screen accessibility was honored for making a lasting impact over the past 11 years by addressing the needs of people with disabilities in the era of smartphones and tablets. Wobbrock and fellow researchers Shaun Kane, iSchool Ph.D. ’11, and Jeffrey Bigham, Computer Science Ph.D. ’09, won this year’s SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award, given biennially by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing. The award honors a paper published at least a decade earlier that made a significant innovation or has been influential in the field. Wobbrock, Kane and Bigham’s winning 2008 paper was titled, “Slide Rule: Making mobile touch screens accessible to blind people using multitouch techniques.” The research that led to Slide Rule came amid the early popularity of Apple’s iPhone, which initially was a step backward for blind users who relied on a cell phone’s physical buttons and could not use many of the new iPhone’s features. “With the advent of the iPhone, I asked how on earth a blind person could operate such a device, where all they would feel, aside from the one physical ‘Home’ button, is the flat glass of the
Updates iSchool Dean Anind Dey was honored with a 20-year Impact Award at the 2019 International Semantic Web Conference for his work on wearable technologies. Throughout his career, Dey has researched how to passively gather information about people’s behaviors and actions, and how to use that information to help improve people’s lives. 8
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Jacob O. Wobbrock and fellow researchers Shaun Kane and Jeffrey Bigham received this year’s SIGACCESS ASSETS Paper Impact Award.
screen,” Wobbrock said. In response, he and his students designed a prototype by hacking an iPod Touch and demonstrating how its screen could be made accessible to blind people. They created the first fingerdriven screen reader, a series of intuitive flick gestures for navigation, and an accurate method of tapping targets that allowed the user’s finger to stay on the screen without having to dwell in one place. All of these features have since appeared in major commercial products. Apple introduced VoiceOver in 2009, allowing blind users to explore the touch screen and listen to what was there using text-to-speech technology. They could tether the phone to a Braille display and use gestures to perform tasks.
While Slide Rule wasn’t officially credited, many in the research community have noted the similarities between it and VoiceOver. Among them is Richard Ladner, a professor emeritus in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, who made the connection in nominating Slide Rule for the award. “Before the introduction of VoiceOver, this paper publicly demonstrated that touch-screen devices could be made to be accessible to blind users. Remarkably, the touch-screen gestures explored in the paper are among those that are used in VoiceOver,” Ladner wrote. Kane, then a Ph.D. student advised by Wobbrock, was the first author
Professors Batya Friedman and Jacob O. Wobbrock were inducted into the CHI Academy, Batya the top honor in humanFriedman computer interaction research. They join Dr. Dey as iSchool faculty who have received this prestigious award.
(CAREER) award totaling $549,966. In her 5-year critical design study, titled “Visually Encoding Personal Jaime Data for Vulnerable Snyder Populations,” she will look at alternative designs of visualizations for these populations.
Jaime Snyder was awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program
Professor Wanda Pratt and alumnus Pedja Klasnja were honored in the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal of
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MLIS students work with incarcerated teens on VR An art exhibit over the summer at the Snoqualmie Library displayed artwork inspired by teens’ experiences in virtual reality. Called “Here But Not Here,” the exhibit showcased the work of teens who are incarcerated at the Echo Glen Children’s Center for Juvenile Rehabilitation. The exhibit and the VR experiences that inspired it were part of a research project led by the University of Washington Information School and the Museology program. The project’s goal is to create a digital arts education program for kids at the Echo Glen School, and to establish a
model for learning about and creating digital art using VR as an educational tool. Recent Master of Library and Information Science graduates Dovi Mae Patiño and Eliza Summerlin did much of the legwork on the project as research assistants. Together with other RAs, faculty and teen librarians from the King County Library System, they designed VR experiences and worked with teens at Echo Glen to explore their interest in VR and creating VR art. Patiño and Summerlin’s work was the basis for their Capstone project last spring.
Dovi Mae Patiño and Eliza Summerlin.
Biomedical and Health Informatics, which listed papers that have had a particularly important role in advancing the field of biomedical informatics. The iSchool once again had a prominent presence at the world’s foremost conference on human-computer interaction, with lead authors on a Best Paper Award winner and 17 papers accepted in total at CHI 2019. Assistant Professor Alexis Hiniker, Computer Science Assistant
Professor Jon Froelich and iSchool Ph.D. students Mingrui (Ray) Zhang and Erin Beneteau Alexis earned a Best Paper Award Hiniker for research inventing a technique for using audio recordings to study children’s reactions to technology. iSchool data-science research, led by Lecturer Ott Toomet and Associate Professor Bill Howe, was widely credited
Team wins $2.8 million to study bias Information School Professor Wanda Pratt is part of a research team that has won funding to analyze patient-doctor communication to detect and provide feedback on implicit biases. The National Library of Medicine announced $2.8 million to fund the Wanda Pratt work over the next five years. The project is led by Andrea Hartzler, a former doctoral student of Pratt’s who is now an associate professor and co-director of the UW’s Clinical Informatics and Patient-Centered Technologies program. Others on the team include Janice Sabin, an associate professor in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the UW; and Nadir Weibel, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego. The project will use “social signal processing,” a computational approach that detects subtle forms of bias. For example, talk time, interruptions and body movements from health-care providers might differ based on a patient’s race, gender or socioeconomic status. “These hidden biases can undermine many patient-doctor interactions and they make a difference in the care people receive and the trust they have in the entire health-care establishment,” Pratt said.
for a change in Washington state eviction law, giving tenants more time to respond to notices. The law will help prevent a common trigger of homelessness. Associate Professor Amy J. Ko worked with policymakers to shape a bill in the state Legislature mandating access to computer Amy J. Ko education in high schools. The bill was signed into law in April 2019. ischool.uw.edu
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RESEARCH | Spotlight on iSchool scholarship
Project VOICE puts communities first community data into informed programs. Campana said the libraries were incredibly passionate about what they Researchers from the iSchool wanted to achieve, but needed help and Kent State University’s School of assessing how community data could Information are developing a toolkit to improve their efforts. The group decided help library staff produce social justiceto address that challenge in the Project oriented outreach programs for families VOICE three-year grant. in underserved communities. “We are excited to have the The initiative, Project VOICE, is opportunity to take the next step with funded by the Institute of Museum and our findings from Project Library Services (IMLS). VOICE LOCAL and work with is short for “Value-sensitive librarians to develop planning design of Outcomes Informing and assessment strategies Community Engagement.” that incorporate social justice The research team consists theories and principles,” Mills of Ph.D. alumna Kathleen said, adding that the project Campana, ’18, now an assistant will help libraries understand professor at Kent State; Ph.D. Michelle Martin how to lead with equity candidate J. Elizabeth Mills; and better hear the voices Beverly Cleary Professor and of those in the community MLIS Program Chair Michelle who have traditionally been Martin; Associate Professor marginalized. Ricardo Gomez; and Jacqueline Project VOICE takes a Kociubuk, a Kent State MLIS participatory design approach alumna. that puts the goals and desires Project VOICE’s mission is J. Elizabeth Mills of communities at the forebased on the idea that libraries front of outreach efforts. “We are key sites of learning for want to encourage librarians to listen their communities and, as such, can to their communities when designing leverage their learning-based programs outreach rather than approaching it and services to engage with families from the perspective in which libraries that experience significant barriers create outreach based on their strengths,” to accessing the library. In doing so, explained Martin, the UW principal librarians are working to close gaps investigator on the project. and enable all children to benefit from This “strengths-based perspective” library programs and services. emphasizes library, family and “Libraries can lift up these families community capabilities, the use and give them the support they might of community resources, and the need to be better prepared for school,” avoidance of a victim mindset. said Campana, the project’s principal “We are committed to the standpoint investigator. that families — parents and caregivers Prior to this project, Campana, Martin, — are their child’s best, first teacher, and Mills and Kociubuk worked together that they know their child best,” said Mills. on Project LOCAL (Library Outreach “Additionally, we believe that librarians as a Community Anchor in Learning), are committed to constantly learning from also funded by the IMLS, in which they their community and are looking for ways found that while many libraries do run a to use that knowledge to build relevant, variety of outreach programs, they often supportive services and programs.” have difficulty transforming relevant
By Kara Eagens
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Continued from Page 8 on the paper. Now an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he said Slide Rule overcame initial skepticism from blind users who thought the approach couldn’t work. “As human-computer interaction researchers, we’re taught to always listen to the user,” Kane said, adding that by pushing ahead, he discovered something that influenced his future research. “What I learned is that while users can speak to their present and past experiences, sometimes the only way to learn whether some new form of technology will work is to build a prototype and try it out.” All three of the paper’s authors have continued to work to make technology more accessible. Bigham works on accessibility as an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s HumanComputer Interaction Institute; Kane directs the University of Colorado’s Superhuman Computing Lab; and Wobbrock, one of the world’s leading HCI researchers, directs the ACE Lab (for Accessible Computing Experiences) at the UW. Wobbrock and Kane — along with Martez Mott, iSchool Ph.D. ’18, and Romanian researcher Radu-Daniel Vatavu — recently collaborated on Smart Touch, which took a similar approach to Slide Rule. Whereas Slide Rule was for people who are blind, Smart Touch was about making touch screens accessible to people with motor impairments. Both projects try to capitalize on the abilities of their users and make the systems they are using amenable to those abilities, an approach Wobbrock calls Ability-Based Design. “Given the prevalence of touch screens in our society, the need to make them accessible to all people is still great, and we will continue to pursue that goal, along with the many other projects we are doing,” Wobbrock said.
The download Tlingit story in glass headed to Smithsonian Assistant Professor Miranda Belarde-Lewis looks over one of glass artist Preston Singletary’s works in the “Raven and the Box of Daylight” exhibit, which ran through Sept. 2 at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Belarde-Lewis curated the exhibit, which moves to the Wichita Art Museum in early 2020 and then on to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian next fall. The exhibit takes visitors through a Tlingit story of how Raven, a trickster figure, transformed the world by releasing the stars, moon and sun. (Photo by Doug Parry)
Nine iSchoolers among Husky 100 Nine iSchool students were named among the 2019 Husky 100, which honors those who are making the most of their UW experience, making an impact inside and outside the classroom. Those honored were (clockwise from top left) Andrea Chen, Oorja Chowdhary, Katie Goulding, Shaarika Kaul, Nicole Kuhn, Leanne Hwa and Chris Sofian from the Informatics program; Shannon Smith from the online MLIS program; and Prithvi Shetty from the MSIM program.
Informatics student Shannon Gatta won the first phase of the “Out Astronaut” contest, earning free tuition for spaceflight training through the Advanced PoSSUM Space Academy at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Gatta has worked as a flight software engineer at NASA and systems engineer at Ball Aerospace, and has served in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. The Out Astronaut Project, at outastronaut. org, seeks to address the underrepresentation of LGBTQ people in science and space. It’s raising money with the goal of sending Gatta, who identifies as pansexual, to advanced spaceflight training and eventually on a mission in space.
Can you tell which of these faces are real? iSchool Associate Professor Jevin West and Biology Professor Carl Bergstrom, the duo behind “Calling Bullshit,” went viral with the website WhichFaceIsReal.com. The site illustrates how convincing “deepfakes” can be while training users with tips for how to spot them. Hint: Look closely at the background. ANSWERS:
Top left: Real. Top right: Fake. Bottom left: Real. Bottom right: Fake.
Gatta wins the Out Astronaut contest
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Principal researchers (from left) Ryan Calo, School of Law; Chris Coward, iSchool; Kate Starbird, Human Centered Design & Engineering; Emma Spiro, iSchool; and Jevin West, iSchool.
CONFRONTING MISINFORMATION Goal of a healthier democracy motivates researchers behind new Center for an Informed Public Story & photos by Doug Parry Misinformation infects the information ecosystem, sowing doubt and confusion. It feeds on openness, transparency and a free exchange of ideas. If misinformation is a virus, democracy is a welcoming host. “I see misinformation as one of society’s most pressing problems,” said iSchool Associate Professor Jevin West. “Everything we do in society depends on individuals having the best information possible. If none of us trusts anything we’re reading or we’re being duped all the time, I think 12
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that’s something to be concerned about.” West and colleagues have devoted their energies to addressing the problem. This fall, they established the Center for an Informed Public, an interdisciplinary research center led by the iSchool, Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) and the School of Law. The center, CIP for short, will bring together diverse voices from across the UW campus as well as industry, government, media, libraries, nonprofits and other institutions in pursuit of ambitious goals: resisting strategic misinforma-
tion, promoting an informed society and strengthening democratic discourse. Misinformation has been around since the days of stone tablets, and West, the center’s inaugural director, harbors no illusions that the CIP will make it disappear. But through research, the center will learn about the effects of misinformation and how it spreads. And through outreach, the center will educate people about the sources of misinformation and the motivations of those who spread it. The researchers hope a healthier information environment will foster a
healthier public discourse. “The reason we want to devote a lot of effort and thinking to this is that it’s involved with every aspect of society,” West said. “You can’t solve climate change until you solve the information problem. You can’t solve human health issues until you solve the information integrity issue.” West has spent much of his career studying how information spreads in the academic world — the “science of science” — and how dubious information can gain traction in the scientific community. Since the mid-2010s, he has turned his attention toward bringing data reasoning and critical reasoning skills to the classroom. Along with colleague Carl Bergstrom from the UW Biology Department, he developed “Calling Bullshit,” an undergraduate course that filled within minutes after registration opened. Educators at colleges and high schools across the country adopted the curriculum, equipping students with the tools to identify and call out misinformation. That was just the beginning. West aimed for a much broader effort when he teamed with fellow faculty members Chris Coward and Emma Spiro from the iSchool, Kate Starbird from HCDE and Ryan Calo from the School of Law to pursue funding for the CIP. In July, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foun-
dation announced investments totaling $5.6 million to establish the center. It’s part of a $50 million Knight Foundation effort to better understand how technology is transforming democracy and how we receive and engage with information. From the outset, the researchers know they will face misperceptions that they intend to stifle certain political viewpoints, particularly on the conservative end of the spectrum. They emphasize that misinformation, not politics, is the problem. Misinformation and its more sinister form, disinformation, come from all sides, often with the goal of confusing people so they won’t know what to believe and won’t participate in public debates, weakening democracy as a result. Starbird, an associate professor in HCDE, saw this effect in action as she researched the social media conversation around #BlackLivesMatter. Her initial takeaways were that the conversation around the movement was divided into two polarized camps and that much of it was toxic, adopting an “us-vs.-them” mentality. She later learned that Russian agents posing as Americans were participating in the conversation in large numbers on both sides of the debate. Their goal wasn’t to promote a point of view; it was to rip communities apart. In studying the use of social media during crisis events, Starbird has seen
“These are hard problems, not just in the U.S. but globally, about how we access and make sense of information and how we can be manipulated, and what can we do to help defend ourselves.”
Learn more about the Center for an Informed Public at cip.uw.edu.
Spiro, Coward and Starbird at a meeting of the CIP’s leaders. ischool.uw.edu
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“The idea that a group of people are intentionally attempting not to convey a particular idea, but to rip apart the fabric of democratic society, really challenges our model of what free-speech protection looks like.” a dramatic change in the conversation around such platforms. An increasing amount of what she has seen shared is disinformation — the strategic use of false information to cause harm. Social media were hailed as tools for democratic activists during the Arab Spring of 2010, but have since been weaponized to undermine democracy. “Over time in this shift toward misinformation and disinformation, we’re seeing the worst of human behavior,” Starbird said. While disinformation works to erode people’s trust, the CIP will aim to make them feel empowered by knowing what tactics are being used and how to counter them. The challenge, Starbird said, will be to help people understand that they’re vulnerable without making them even more distrustful and cynical. “These are hard problems, not just in the U.S. but globally, about how we access and make sense of information and how we can be manipulated, and what can we do to help defend ourselves,” she said. Like Starbird, iSchool Assistant Professor Emma Spiro focuses much of her research on social media in crisis situations, but she also brings a sociologist’s perspective to social networks and the dynamics of relationships among people and groups that meet online. She noted that misinformation is a problem across generations and forms of media. “Younger kids are on YouTube watching videos all the time, and they’re on on SnapChat; older people are watching TV,” Spiro said. “They have different ways of interacting with information, and this problem spans all of them.” Knowing they are tackling a multifaceted problem, the CIP team enlisted collaborators from across the UW campus, including the Communication Leadership Program and the School of Law, where Ryan Calo is an associate professor. Throughout his academic career, he has worked at the intersection of law 14
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and technology, studying topics such as bots used to deceive social media users. As part of the CIP’s leadership team, he lends his expertise in how policymakers deal with technology, and how they often struggle to keep up with it. “The stakes are super high,” Calo said, adding that attempts to prevent misinformation raise challenging legal questions. For example, “The idea that a group of people are intentionally at-
accustomed to research that engages the public in direct problem-solving. Much of his work involves mobilizing libraries as hubs of civic participation around the world. The CIP plans community labs in public libraries, tribal centers and other institutions, as well as in online communities, in an effort to promote civil discussions of civic issues. “A lot of public libraries and library associations have already been in touch with
Jevin West and Ryan Calo during a recent meeting of the CIP’s leaders. The center draws on expertise from across the UW to tackle a multifaceted problem.
tempting not to convey a particular idea, but to rip apart the fabric of democratic society, really challenges our model of what free-speech protection looks like.” Scholars and professionals in many fields are grappling with misinformation and their responsibility to counteract it. Journalists, tech workers, policymakers, educators and librarians are among those who are increasingly tasked with identifying misinformation and preventing it from spreading, and they will need tools and training to do so. In response, public outreach will be a key feature of the center. Chris Coward, a researcher and director of the iSchool’s Technology & Social Change Group, brings an applied research background to the CIP, meaning that he’s
us,” Coward said. “They’re an avenue to connect directly with the public because they are in both rural and urban areas, they’re in over 16,000 communities, and they span the ideological and political divides that are part of this bigger problem.” Outreach and research are among many pieces of the puzzle as the CIP ramps up its efforts. Education will be key. Technology could provide answers to certain aspects of the problem, such as detecting “deepfakes,” West said. But most importantly, it will take boots on the ground. “It’s going to have to include people that actually talk to humans,” he said. “We need humans doing that work, which is kind of what we do in the Information School.”
Books, songs and slime Camp Read-a-Rama branches out with programs at Spokane library Story and photos by Doug Parry
AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, including Delina Biniam (at left, lower right photo) helped kids mix reading and fun during Camp Read-a-Rama at the North Spokane Public Library over the summer.
Michelle Martin’s Camp Read-a-Rama had kids moving, creating and reading across the state this past summer, including the camp’s first foray into a public library. Martin, the iSchool’s Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Services, has run the day camps with Rachelle D. Washington for kids ages 4 to 11 since 2009, when both were on the faculty at Clemson University in South Carolina. Read-a-Rama is a nonprofit that promotes literacy by using books as the springboard for hands-on activities, such as crafts and sing-alongs. Martin’s motto is “100 percent engagement, 100 percent of the time.” Martin and Washington have typically run the camps at churches and community centers with high numbers of children from low-income households. This year, librarians Gwendolyn Haley (MLIS, ’00), Mary Ellen Braks and Melanie Boerner adapted the program for a series of seven weeklong half-day camps at the North Spokane Library. “We know we have some schools where kids are really struggling with reading,” said Braks, the library’s public services manager for early learning. “We thought if there was any way we could help over the summer other than just saying ‘keep reading,’ that might really help the kids keep up their skill levels.” The camps had room for 16 children each week for seven weeks, and they filled up surprisingly fast, said Boerner, the library’s literacy coordinator. Campers took turns at tables where camp counselors — a trio of AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers — assisted with activities such as painting and making gooey, green slime. Thirty minutes each day were devoted to “DEAR time,” for Drop Everything And Read. “We always had books available to them, and we asked them for that 30 minutes to find a book and sit down and read, or a counselor would read for them,” Boerner said. Learn more about Camp Read-a-Rama at www.read-a-rama.org. ischool.uw.edu
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2019 iSCH O OL DISTIN GU ISH E D ALU MN U S
Family man, ambassador, boss, mentor. Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine has a strong sense of where he comes from and who he is — a citizen of the Apsaalooke Nation.
ative soul STORY, MARY LYNN LYKE PHOTOGRAPHY, MARK STONE
IN IISAAKSIICHAA ROSS BRAINE’S FAMILY, college education is an obligation, not an option. ○ His father has a master’s degree in range science. His mother earned hers in counseling. But when a young Braine told the counselor in his rural Montana high school that he wanted to attend the University of Washington, the counselor advised him to forget it. ○ “He said, ‘You should do something else. Indians don’t do well in college,’” recalls Braine, this year’s iSchool Distinguished Alumni Award winner. ○ Braine, who earned his own graduate degree through the iSchool’s Master of Science in Information Management program in 2015, has been busting stereotypes all his life. ○ “I’m not a werewolf, thank you ‘Twilight.’ I’m not an Indian in the cupboard. And I’m not a redskin — a term I find absolutely disgusting,” says the wry, straight-shooting, 6-foot-3 man, a citizen of the warrior Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation. “We don’t all own casinos, we don’t all go to college for free, and I didn’t get into college because I am Native, I got in because I’m very smart.”
Right: Iisaaksiichaa after the annual TeePee Creepers 5k run at Crow Fair on Crow Reservation, Montana.
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Smart and strategic. In his dual roles as UW tribal liaison and director of wəɫəbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House), he is a master networker, negotiator, mediator, ambassador, mentor and, thanks to his iSchool studies, skilled information manager. “He works tirelessly to ensure that American Indian and Alaska Native people see the University of Washington and the iSchool as their place, where they are welcome, where they will be supported, and where they will achieve their fullest potential. He leads with integrity, grace and unwavering commitment,” says Harry Bruce, recently retired dean of the iSchool. Whether fundraising or community-building, Braine knows how to work a room and keep it real, say those who’ve watched him in action. “No matter who you are or what your story is, he will always be genuine and connect with you on a level many people would not dare to connect on,” Nataly Brockwell wrote in a nomination letter that helped earn Braine a UW 2015 Distinguished Staff Award. Brockwell was his co-worker at the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, which supervises the director position in wəɫəbʔaltxʷ.
The wəɫəbʔaltxʷ (wah-sheb-altuh) Braine directs is a handsome cedar longhouse-style gathering space on campus that is focused on preparing American Indian and Alaska Native students for leadership roles in their tribal communities. “Tribes say, ‘We’re sending our students to you and you need to send them back to run our enterprises, our law department, our forestry program, our fisheries, and be our biologists.’ I hear it from every single tribe,” says Braine, who was given the name Iisaaksiichaa (ee-sox-ih-jeh) by his clan uncle. “The name translates as ‘good lad’ or ‘good young fella.’ But I’m neither good nor young,” quips the 37-year-old. Braine’s warm diplomacy works on-campus and off. He travels regularly, attending tribal meetings and community events including powwows (he joins in dancing, in a style known as “Crow Style” Men’s Traditional) and tribal paddles (he keeps to shore: “I’m not an ocean-going Indian”). He keeps an impressive taxonomy, a skill he learned in his iSchool MSIM studies, to manage a large trove of information about Native students and the more than 60 Northwest tribes he works with. “I have a working knowledge of every single one of our
Above: Iisaaksiichaa with Michael and Annette Yates of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe at the Paddle to Lummi Landing.
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I’m always going to pick my people first. You can yell at me, fire me, whatever you want, but when I leave the UW I have to go back to my people. I stand very firmly in my ways, the Apsaalooke ways.
tribes, a Rolodex with what we talked about and what we need to be working on with the UW.” He connects many worlds. If university researchers come to him with a proposal involving a certain tribe, he makes sure the tribe knows about it and has the final say on whether it’s a go. If the researchers don’t come to him first, he finds out anyway: “The tribes always call me. ‘What do you know about this research group?’” Many tribal citizens are wary of academics after decades of what they see as thievery of their information in the interest of research, says Braine. “I tell them, ‘I know what universities have done in the past, and I’m working on it with our folks here at the UW.’” Braine’s dedication to tribes and tribal students is fierce. “I’m always going to pick my people first. You can yell at me, fire me, whatever you want, but when I leave the UW I have to go back to my people. I stand very firmly in my ways, the Apsaalooke ways.” Braine’s ties to the iSchool run deep. He provided important input for the school when it instituted a new strategic focus, Native North American Indigenous Knowledge, which concentrates on the study and celebration of Native Above: Iisaaksiichaa judges the Men’s War Bonnet category at Crow Fair on the Crow Reservation, Montana.
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I knew immediately that Iisaaksiichaa had a strong heart. I knew immediately he was intelligent. I knew he was sincere, I knew he could be trusted, and I knew he was a careful thinker. He asks a lot of questions, insightful questions.
communities as they intersect with 21st-century information and technology. The iSchool is now one of the only information schools in the country with a growing Native faculty and indigenous knowledge as part of its curriculum. Indigenous knowledge is not necessarily something written on paper and archived, explains Braine. It may be oral history, carried over time and kept alive by tribal members. Braine gives the example of a tribal elder who was present when a particular tree was planted eight decades earlier. Walking the woods, the elder points to the tree and explains how it came to bend a certain way, how it was burnt, twice, and survived. That itself is a valuable information system, Braine says. “Our elders are a wealth of knowledge. I call them my library.” He was heavily recruited to the iSchool’s MSIM program by Harry Bruce and Cheryl Metoyer, iSchool associate professor emerita and Eastern Band Cherokee. “I knew immediately that Iisaaksiichaa had a strong heart.
I knew immediately he was intelligent. I knew he was sincere, I knew he could be trusted, and I knew he was a careful thinker,” says Metoyer, one of the first Native American Ph.D. graduates in library and information science in the country. “He asks a lot of questions, insightful questions.” Even before he signed on for the MSIM, Braine was part of the iSchool’s Indigenous Information Research Group, a first-of-its-kind gathering of Native scholars and students focused on tribal rights and managing information within tribal contexts. Braine contributed valuable boots-onthe-ground knowledge about Northwest tribes and their information needs, says Metoyer, who founded the group and now directs its next iteration, iNative. “He awakened faculty and students to the fact that some of the solutions they were offering just wouldn’t work in a tribal setting,” she says. One assumption is that all tribes have internet access. They don’t. Surveys show just over half of Native Americans
Above left: Iisaaksiichaa greeting his sister and nephew at the powwow at Daybreak Star Cultural Center, Seattle. Right: Iisaaksiichaa carrying his youngest son, Thomas, at Crow Fair.
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living on reservations or other tribal lands have access to high-speed internet service. “There is a huge digital divide of access,” says Braine. Even if they do have access, however limited, tribes struggle with complex questions about how to share, collect, and protect information in the unruly wilds of the internet. Tribes are sovereign nations. They own their data. But how do they control it? “Some of our tribes do not want photos taken of their events or recording of their songs and stories. As sovereign nations, that information belongs to us. And a lot of times, we do not want to share that,” says Braine. “Sometimes, we need no technology.”
graduate studies at the UW. For Braine, family, present and past, are all-important. He introduces himself as the eldest son to parents Tim and Nita; husband to “amazing, beautiful, strong” Megan, a pharmacist; and father of their two boys, Michael and baby Thomas. He is not only a citizen of the Apsaalooke nation, a member of the Big Lodge clan, and a member of the Night Hawk Warrior society — “all Crow” — he is also Northern Cheyenne and Sioux. He grew up on reservations in Montana, riding horses and, in the winter, sliding over snow in a horse-drawn sleigh. “We only had one television station, so we just played outside all the time.”
Braine severely limits his own daily data intake. Though he’s happy to tune in to YouTube or play a game of “Marvel Strike Force,” he refuses to engage in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media. He has seen too many people arguing and slinging insults online. “I just don’t like it,” he says. “I like my fake privacy — my imaginary fake privacy.” Braine plays as hard as he works. He likes to dive for crab, preferably in just his swim trunks, despite dangerously chilly Northwest waters. He likes to fish from his old duck boat but puts the fish back. He loves basketball and plays a lot of it. “If I could have done anything, I would be a professional basketball player, but I’m too short for the NBA,” he says, smiling inside his office in the wəɫəbʔaltxʷ. There are emerald-colored studs in his ears and a ponytail pulled low to the back of his head. A tattoo with three chevrons marks his inner wrist. The chevrons represent him; his brother, who served in the Air Force and attended Boise State University; and his sister, who is also pursuing
His parents pulled up roots and moved the family to Washington to boost their son’s chances of getting into the UW. The day the acceptance letter arrived was the first time Braine had seen one of his achievements make his father cry. As an undergraduate, Braine decided to concentrate his studies on forestry, completing his undergraduate degree in the field. But the profession wasn’t a fit. “I had really loved the woods all my life, but going into them for work changed everything. I was like a crop manager versus listening to the birds, hearing the walking of animals,” he says. “They saw the forest as a product; I kept saying: ‘The forest has a spirit.’” Early in those undergraduate years, he brought his energy to activism and protest, leading the fight on campus for justice for sovereign tribal peoples. In 2002, he took on the official role of American Indian Student Commission
See Soul, continued on Page 31
Above left: Iisaaksiichaa talks with Joel Moffett, a former Nez Perce tribal council member, at the Paddle to Lummi Landing. Right: He preps shawls for the Crow Fair parade with his grandmother, Joy Matt (pictured) and family members in full regalia.
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We thank the many alumni, friends and organizations that supported the Information School through their gifts during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Your support helps build a dynamic community where we educate the next generation of information leaders and find innovative solutions to information challenges. For questions about this list or your contribution to the iSchool, please contact Michele Norris, Assistant Dean for Advancement: 206-543-4458 or mnorris@uw.edu.
$250,000+ •Alfred P. Sloan Foundation •William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
$100,000+ •Microsoft •Steve (‘71, ‘75) & Sharon Orlick
$50,000+ •Facebook •Ithaka Harbors, Inc. •Pierre & Pamela Omidyar
$25,000+ •BECU •Peggy & Sam Grossman •Jamie McCornack •Jill (‘69, ‘73) & Joe McKinstry •Tom Morgan •Smartsheet.com, Inc. •Carla Wale (‘11)
$10,000+
•T-Mobile •Alex Wade (‘95)
$1,000+ •Cindy (‘87) & Greg Aden •Adobe Systems •Association of Children’s Museums •James & Cherry Banks •Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation •BlackRock •Boeing •Zion Brewer (‘05) •Harry & Lorraine Bruce •Corinne Campbell (‘66) •Center for Information, Ethics & Law •Devindra Chainani •Beverly Cleary (‘39) •Kevin (‘05) & Kelly (‘00) Cushman •Jessica Dorr (‘98) & Stephen Hansen •Mike & Carol Eisenberg •Lauri Ellis (‘94, ‘96) •Layne Foit (‘98, ‘02) & Nicole Stanley (‘11) •Friends of the Edmonds Library •Nancy Gershenfeld (‘91)
•Jenny (‘02) & Jeff Abdo
•Accenture
•Linda Gould (‘66, ‘70)
•Amazon
•Rolf Hapel
•John Cole Jr. (‘62, ‘63) & Nancy Gwinn
•Kim & Tim Hargraves
•Lynn (‘73) & Greg Detweiler
•Mary Hotchkiss
•DocuSign
•Ronald Johnson
•Epic Games, Inc.
•Eric & Christine Larsen
•Leslie & Glen Holt
•Bobette Lee (‘71)
•Donald & Lynda (‘72, ‘74) Horowitz
•Jonell (‘99, ‘02) & Christopher (‘03, ‘07) Lee
•PitchBook Data, Inc.
•Georgia Lomax (‘84)
•Kabir (‘04) & Noreen (‘04, ‘09) Shahani
•Nicole (‘03) & Stuart Maclean
•Slalom, LLC
•Irvin MacQuarrie Jr. (‘05)
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•Mark Mader & Jane Porter-Mader •Robert & Marilyn Mason •Monica McCool (‘09) •Chris & Rae Miller •Bryce (‘68, ‘81) & Bonnie Nelson •Oren Ogle (‘69) •Nancy & Joe Pearl •Hudson Poissant (‘15) •Priscilla (‘59) & John Privat (‘56, ‘59) •Chris & Steve Putur •Marisa Quinn & Matthew Jaffy •Sharon Stewart Reeves (‘69) •Barrett (‘09, ‘11) & Theresa (‘19) Rodgers •Dominique Roosa •Howard Roosa Jr. •Lisa Rosenblum •Agueda Sanchez (‘05) •Ansel (‘13) & Sarah (‘13) Santosa •Rivkah Sass (‘78) •Matt & Sharon Saxton •Cheryl & Wayne Scott •Patricia (‘75) & Michael (‘71, ‘75) Scott •Seattle Public Library •Peter & April Spiro •Dave (‘68) & Marcie (‘69, ‘76) Stone •Sunny & Mike Strong •Suquamish Indian Tribe •Tableau Software, Inc. •Joe Tennis (‘05) & Bradley Bergman •Marcellus Turner •Ubiquiti Networks •US Bank •Betty Wagner (‘51) •The Walt Disney Company •West Monroe Partners •Carol (‘69) & Eugene Woodward •Michelle Wu (‘95)
Racing ahead at Slalom By Jim Davis Slalom is in the business of helping other businesses succeed. For instance, the Seattle-based consulting firm recently helped Alaska Airlines navigate the complex and potentially thorny acquisition of Virgin America. Slalom also specializes in helping companies keep pace with the light-speed evolution of technology. Hospitality company Hyatt sought Slalom’s assistance to produce an industry-leading mobile app that’s increased hotel booking revenue by 80 percent. For these types of technical challenges, Slalom has tapped the talents of numerous Information School graduates, such as Ian Burns and Elliot Keder. Burns, a 2014 graduate of the iSchool’s Informatics program, works as a software engineer on the Slalom Build team in downtown Seattle. Slalom employs more than 1,000 people in Seattle and 7,500 total in 31 offices in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. Burns assists with data warehousing, real-time analytics, point-of-sale systems and other projects for Slalom’s big-name clients. He started at the company the summer after graduating. Keder graduated from the UW in 2015, also majoring in Informatics. He, too, is a software engineer in Seattle, working on internal applications used by Slalom employees. Both Burns and Keder credit the iSchool for giving them the foundation to help them excel at Slalom. Burns considered majoring in mathematics when he was at the UW but found himself disillusioned with the subject’s theoretical nature. That’s when his roommate suggested Informatics, in which students study computer systems from a user-centered perspective. Informatics students approach real-life problems faced by real people and come up with solutions that work for them. That approach has translated well for Burns in his work at Slalom. “If I’m given a requirement and I need to make something, I can make it perfectly,” Burns said. “If I don’t think about what the requirement is doing and if it’s
Slalom employees, from top: Elliot Keder, a 2015 Informatics graduate; Erik Johnson, who serves on the MSIM Advisory Board; and Ian Burns, a 2014 Informatics graduate.
the right thing, the right action to take or the right value to provide, I’m only seeing half of the problem. I think the iSchool helps you see that full picture.” Keder, too, was attracted to the practical aspect of Informatics. He went to the UW expecting to study computer science, but eventually chose
the iSchool. He enjoyed the breadth of coursework that Informatics offered. “I still had opportunities to take those programming classes that I wanted to focus on, but also the design and project administration classes across the entire field that you wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to take in computer science,” Keder said. He enjoyed the push by the iSchool to collaborate on projects, something that he’s found useful in the workplace. “The iSchool puts such an emphasis on real-world projects and internships,” Keder said. “I could not stress that more for current students to do internships. Do real-world client projects as much as you can in your undergrad because that experience just translates so well in the real world.” About 20 graduates from the iSchool’s Informatics and Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) programs work at Slalom in Seattle, said Erik Johnson, a Slalom practice area director who serves on the MSIM Advisory Board. “Together with our alliance partners, including Microsoft, AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Google Cloud Platform, we are at the forefront of modern, cloudbased analytics platform implementations and application development,” Johnson said. “Our iSchool alumni are at the forefront of our delivery.” After graduating, Keder went to work for a Wisconsin health-care records company before joining Slalom in 2018. He was attracted to Slalom in part because of its many industry accolades. For four years running, Slalom has made Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. This year, the company was named the No. 1 Best Workplace in Washington by Puget Sound Business Journal. “I knew a couple of people who worked here and I started reading about them online, and they had just won award after award after award,” Keder said. “I decided this would be the top company that I would want to work for right now. I was lucky enough to get a job here.” ischool.uw.edu
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FACULTY | New at the iSchool
Focus: fairness in tech By Jim Davis Does a business such as Spotify have an obligation to be fair? The music streaming service needs to turn a profit. If it doesn’t, the business shuts its doors, the employees lose their jobs and the shareholders have squandered their investment. Spotify could recommend only the most popular songs or podcasts and probably satisfy much of its audience. Then, only the biggest music acts would be heard — and only those acts would be paid. Is that fair to lesser-known artists? How would those artists develop a following? How would they become the next big thing? If Spotify recommends the lesser-known artists’ music and it doesn’t resonate with the audience, then would the listeners choose another streaming service, hurting Spotify in the long run? These are the types of questions that intrigue Chirag Shah, a new associate professor at the University of Washington’s Information School. Fairness, bias and privacy are taking on a profound new meaning with the exponential growth in data collection, as well as the rise of automation and machine learning, said Shah, who was most recently an associate professor at Rutgers University. In his research, Shah specializes in information retrieval and seeking, personalization and recommender systems using data science and machine learning techniques. He enjoys working in a field at the forefront of these issues. “You get to not just work on solving the problem, but you actually get to define the problem,” Shah said. “What is this problem, right? … How do you define fairness?” For Shah, it’s not just theoretical. He worked during a sabbatical from Rutgers last year as a visiting research scientist at Spotify in New York City. That’s where he first started thinking about fairness with music streaming. He brought that experience back to the classroom at Rutgers. Now, one of his 24
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Ph.D. students there is doing her dissertation on fairness in online search. When Shah was hired at the iSchool, he also obtained a position as an Amazon Scholar. He’ll be exploring topics along these lines in that role. Shah’s work with Amazon, Spotify and other companies gives him the context and perspectives to really inform his research while at the UW, said Carole Palmer, an iSchool professor and associate dean for research.
are going to impact people,’” Dey said. “That’s exactly the heart of what we do.” Shah received his master’s in computer science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his Ph.D. in information and library science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That’s where he met his wife, Lori, who was a research assistant at nearby Duke University. They have three daughters, Sophie, Zoe and Sarah; a dog named
CHIRAG SHAH | associate professor “Whenever you have faculty members who are engaged with industry, it really brings it alive for students,” Palmer said. Shah has both a very strong technical background and a deep understanding of what information schools are trying to achieve, said Anind K. Dey, the iSchool’s dean. Shah’s work has a very humanistic bent to it, Dey said. “He wasn’t doing technology work for the sake of technology, but he was really thinking about, ‘OK, how can I make technical innovations to solve really hard and interesting problems that
Legolas; and a guinea pig named Wilbur. During his post-graduate work, Shah took up competitive ballroom dancing, being dragged into it like “many guys by a girl who needed a partner.” Before long, Shah found himself competing and later became a team captain. He found the repetitive drilling refreshing. “Most of my work was sitting in front of a computer,” Shah said. “This was completely different. … It’s an activity that demands a different side of you. It was great at many levels. I picked up so many good life skills.”
Archives and activism By Mary Lynn Lyke Marika Cifor was drawn to the iSchool by its keen focus on social justice. “No matter which area faculty work in, their research, teaching and service address urgent issues of social good, social justice, social importance, diversity, equity and inclusion. That’s what centers my own research and my commitment to doing work in the information field,”
on an interrogation of power around gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, ability — all kinds of categories in difference,” says Cifor. “I see my academic work as a way to collaborate with and serve activists in fundamental ways.” Cifor’s strength in archival studies, digital studies, and studies of gender, sexuality and race are increasingly important to the information field, says iSchool Dean Anind Dey. “She will help
MARIKA CIFOR | assistant professor says the new iSchool faculty member, a specialist in archival and digital studies. She brings a strong voice and fresh perspective to her job as an assistant professor in the Master of Library and Information Science program. “Historically, the iSchool has had a really strong MLIS program, but it has not always centered on archives,” says Cifor. “I knew I could bring a different approach to the faculty’s leading research on the relationships of people, information and technology.” Her approach is that of feminist activist scholar. “This orientation centers
the iSchool address the growing student demand for these topics.” Traditionally, the archivist’s role of collecting, arranging, describing, presenting and preserving records was cast as strictly objective, performed by impartial recordkeepers grounded in neutrality. No biases and no politics: their job was to record, not interpret. Cifor is part of a new wave of scholars and practitioners challenging those assumptions. She poses probing questions. What should be the relationship of the recordkeeper and record subject?
What should be in an archive that isn’t, and why? What is in it that shouldn’t be, for cultural and privacy issues? Should racist descriptions in an archive be eradicated or preserved and re-explained in new language? What records need to be rethought to more authentically serve the people and communities they are meant to represent? Should archivists showcase how their own thinking has evolved in records and descriptions? “Moving beyond neutrality has allowed us to think critically about our practice, and about how we introduce others to the profession. It’s a fundamental shift,” says Cifor, who comes to the UW from Indiana University, where she served as assistant professor of information and library science. Colleagues comment on her sharp intellect. “To state that she is a force to be reckoned with in the study of information, archives, and digital cultures is the proverbial understatement,” says Mario H. Ramirez, head of special collections and archives in the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at California State University, Los Angeles. Ramirez met Cifor when both were working on doctorates at the University of California, Los Angeles. They also collaborated at Indiana University, where he went for post-doctoral work. “To work alongside Marika is to challenge oneself to be more rigorous and thoughtful, and to be even more engaged with a scholarship and pedagogy that is multidisciplinary, erudite, and socially aware and invested,” says Ramirez. Cifor is currently working on a book and digital project exploring three New York City archives that document HIV/ AIDS activism during the 1980s-’90s. She examines how artists, archivists and activists are using the collections now in efforts to frame the epidemic not just as a phenomenon of that past, but as an ongoing emergency across the world. “Archives are a key component to AIDS activism,” says Cifor. “It keeps knowledge from being marginalized, suppressed, forgotten.” ischool.uw.edu
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FACULTY | New at the iSchool
Six lecturers join iSchool Six scholars joined the iSchool faculty recently as lecturers, with expertise including library and information science, indigenous systems of knowledge, information management, user experience and cybersecurity. Many bring deep experience from their respective fields to inform undergraduate and graduate education in Informatics, Library and Information Science and Information Management. The new faculty hires include:
Chance Hunt Senior lecturer in library and information science Chance Hunt (MLIS, UW 1992) was the assistant director for community partnerships and government relations at the Seattle Public Library. Over his 25-year career in public libraries, he has served as a children’s librarian, youth services manager and public services administrator in the King County region. At both the local and state levels, Hunt has focused on innovative programs and services that activate the public space and enhance access to library service. His work on “What If All Kids Read the Same Book?” brought him recognition as a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker” in 2004. An avid supporter of community collaboration, he most recently served as the City of Seattle’s community technology manager.
Sandy Littletree Lecturer in library and information science Sandy Littletree is an LIS educator and researcher with interests at the intersections of indigenous systems of knowledge and library and information science. Her dissertation research focused on the history and development of tribal libraries in the United States, examining the themes of advocacy, leadership, self-determination, cultural knowledge and government responsibilities to tribes. She has developed 26
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advocacy resources for tribal libraries, produced a series of oral histories that document the stories of Arizona’s tribal libraries, and overseen the revision of the third edition of TRAILS, a training manual designed for tribal libraries. She is a past president of the American Indian Library Association and currently serves on several advisory boards for LIS projects in indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, originally from the Four Corners region of New Mexico.
Edmund Manrique Senior lecturer in information management and information systems Manrique’s two and a half decades of experience in professional services, software and academia bring instant credibility and thought leadership across various functional areas and industries. Manrique has helped hundreds of Global 1000 companies in various strategy and implementation roles, recently earning acclaim from SAP for S/4HANA. Formerly as an executive at SAP, a major global consultancy, and a niche analytics firm, Manrique brought strategic, business and technical expertise in operationalizing solutions, garnering regard on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. He was also one of the founders of the Master of Business Analytics program at Benedictine University.
Nam-ho Park Part-time lecturer in UX, data and technology Nam-ho Park has been active in crafting compelling digital experiences for more than 20 years. He is the principal of PLAIN Strategies, providing outcome-focused digital strategies for nonprofits and impactdriven organizations. Having lived and worked in London, Seoul, Hanoi,
New York, Washington, D.C., and now Seattle, he draws his experience from a lifetime of learning and exploring how we relate to technology and harness it for good. He has been teaching at the iSchool since 2015 and serves on the board of NTEN, helping nonprofits use technology to further their missions. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University.
Andrew Reifers Senior lecturer in information management/ information systems Andrew Reifers will teach both undergraduate- and graduatelevel courses in cybersecurity and information management. Reifers uses his previous experience as a network security engineer, principal application security consultant and chief technology officer to teach students about how cybersecurity will tangibly impact the world we live in via technology. Reifers received his doctorate in information sciences and technology from Pennsylvania State University.
Kyle Thayer
Lecturer in data, code and information technology Kyle Thayer brings his deep experience in code, data and information technology to the iSchool. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the UW. Thayer has investigated the barriers faced by coding bootcamp students, the way culture influences debugging, and the knowledge programmers need to work with programming libraries. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he earned a bachelor’s degree at Colorado State University and a master’s degree at Emory University. Thayer also traveled around the world, created 3D reconstructions of ancient Greek ruins, and worked as a software engineer at RealGo and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Bookshelf A selection of recent books by iSchool faculty: Katie Davis and Cecilia Aragon explore the world of fanfiction in their book, Writers in the Secret Garden. Davis, an iSchool associate professor, and lead author Aragon, a Human Centered Design & Engineering professor, shed light on fanfiction communities, which they describe as welcoming places for teens to explore their creative sides and work together to improve their skills. Professor Batya Friedman and Associate Professor David Hendry co-authored Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination. Amid growing concerns over privacy, security and inclusion, they write, value sensitive design “brings together theory, methods and applications for a design process that engages human values at every stage.” Lecturer Annie Searle published a third edition of her compact volume of practical advice titled Advice from a Risk Detective. With stories based on Searle’s personal experience, the book walks the reader through the value of having plans so that risks can be taken with confidence.
Exploring data and Vienna The iSchool piloted a new study abroad program in Vienna, Austria, this summer, taking 16 students to explore the intricacies of using semantic and business artificial intelligence to address user information needs. The month-long course examined how companies use data science and information science to collect and shape data for customers, employees, government agencies and companies. Pictured, from left, are: Vighnesh Prakash Miscal (MSIM), Jessela Budiman (Computer Science), Amanda Robb (MLIS), Kailey Terracciano (HCDE), Ani Harriott (Computer Science), Caitlin Stewart (MLIS), Kiran Pradhan (Informatics), and Grant Yang (pre-major). Photo by Tanner Kooistra
Associate Professor Hala Annabi released the Autism @ Work Playbook, a product of research into how to make workplaces in the tech sector more inclusive. The book includes advice from several major employers on establishing and maintaining an autism hiring program.
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Alumni updates Where are you now? Submit your update at ischool.uw.edu/alumni/updates.
Informatics Sam Bender, ’17, started a fitness business based on a mobile app that he built and designed. Amelia Burger, ’17, is working as a software engineer at Facebook in Seattle. She previously worked at Liberty Mutual. Carlos Marin Burgos, ’10, is working for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as a UX designer and has two children, Dylan and Leia (yes, like the princess). Chengsu Chen, ’17, is working as a product designer at Facebook. Parker Ciambrone, ’19, started as a software engineer on the Commerce and Ecosystems team at Microsoft. Michael Cohen,’12, recently left a job at Microsoft to start at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Ashley Dillinger, ’14, works as a software engineer at Indeed. Matthew Farmer, ’19, is working as a product designer at Postmates. Joe Goldberg, ’02, started a job at a Seattle-based startup called Convoy, which is a freight logistics company. He’s an engineering manager on a team that’s building back-end services to help import shipping data quickly and accurately. Davis Huynh, ’19, took a short break after graduation to enjoy his last free summer, playing a lot of games and traveling to Korea. He now works at Liberty Mutual. Sean Ker, ’17, finished the Global Innovation Exchange dual-degree master’s program and started in 28
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Microsoft’s Cloud & AI organization as a software engineer. Bryce Kolton, ’17, is working as a software engineer at Mercedes-Benz R&D in Seattle, building new front-facing website frameworks and back-end server-side vehicle data pipelines. Dan Laush, ’13, moved to London to work at TransferWise as a front-end developer. Dong Lee, ’12, works at the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service specialist (information management specialist), assigned to Washington, D.C., after an overseas assignment in Russia. Casey Lum, ’19, began working as a technical consultant at Huron Consulting Group, based in Portland, Oregon, working with higher education research institutions on their compliance software. Morgan Mackaay, ’19, is working as a data engineer for T-Mobile. Thomas Ng, ’10, recently took on a role as a research product manager with Facebook Reality Labs (formerly Oculus Research), working on AR technology research and product incubation. Cindy Nguyen, ’18, moved to the Bay Area to work as a UI engineer, then moved to a hyper-growth startup company as a full-stack engineer. Andrew Nichols,’12, is a mobile solutions architect lead for Samsung. He travels the country solving technology problems and designing unique solutions for customers. Spencer Pease, ’19, started a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Jonathan Phan, ’18, is working at Comcast as a Kubernetes administrator for its development teams. Ashley Retzlaff, ’15, is working for Microsoft as a program manager for Xbox Game Pass. Saralyn Santos, ’18, started in the Human Centered Design and Engineering master’s program this fall. She also recently started working as the STEM engagement coordinator at the University of Washington Pipeline Project, working with youth in rural and tribal communities to encourage them to study STEM and pursue higher education. Adam Sebetich, ’17, is a security, cloud and infrastructure consultant in Seattle, primarily working with clients to transform their data centers by moving and migrating to the cloud. Kunwar Singh, ’19, started working as a cyber risk consultant for Deloitte in Denver, Colorado, specializing in identity and access management. Victor Ung, ’13, was certified as a life coach and now works with people oneon-one and in groups to deepen their relationships with themselves and others. He also has a blog and podcast called “Human Up.” Mark Vitazko, ’10, is a senior product designer at Facebook, leading projects on Facebook Search. He previously worked at Microsoft from 2012 to 2019 on the Cloud + AI team, designing for the HoloLens, enterprise voice tools, Cortana, IoT and Windows Phone. Yana Yatkovskaya, ’06, has been promoted to a senior project manager at CDW and manages various projects for
customers. She works with technologies including firewalls, telephony, routers and switches, primarily on Cisco and some Microsoft projects.
MLIS Pennington Ahlstrand, ’90, started working as the reference and processing archivist for the Computer History Museum. She had previously been contracting and consulting in Silicon Valley for 20 years. Margaret Ansell, ’12, was promoted to associate chair at the Health Science Center Libraries at the University of Florida. Teresa Bateman, ’87, is a school librarian and also a children’s author. Her 26th book, “Ghastly Ghosts,” came out recently. Books No. 27 and 28 will be published in 2020. Elizabeth Brookbank, ’13, is an instruction librarian at Western Oregon University, where she has been since just a couple months after graduation in 2013. Rebecca Brothers, ’15, is the research and information services librarian at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Staci Crouch, ’18, is the lead archivist at the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle. Marjorie Coots Doyle, ’82, rejoined the staff of the Missoula Public Library in 2017 as an on-call librarian after retiring as a reference librarian in 2015. She retired once again in October to spend more time volunteering and spending time with her first grandchild. Ann Glusker, ’08, left her position at the UW Health Sciences Library in 2019 to start as the Sociology, Demography, & Quantitative Research Librarian at UC Berkeley. Ruth Griffith, ’95, works as an adult services librarian at the Mountlake Terrace Library, specializing in business services. She has been with Sno-Isle
Libraries since March 1996. Stephanie Hallam, ’17, is working as an education information librarian at Southeast Missouri State University. David Hines, ’62, spent 27 years with IBM, most of which was in the technical library and subsequently the Competitive Resource Center. He then went to EDS, the company founded by Ross Perot, for nearly 10 years and retired in 2005. Sara Hoover, ’15, is the metadata and scholarly publishing librarian at the George Washington University Health Sciences Library. Sheila Hosner, ’78, worked for several years as a librarian, then switched to working in the environmental and public health fields. She retired from the Washington State Department of Ecology and then spent two and a half years working in a hospital in Uganda. She is now working with a community in Uganda to build a small health clinic. Chance Hunt, ’82, joined the iSchool as a full-time senior lecturer after more than 25 years working for the King County Library System, the Seattle Public Library and the city of Seattle. Matthew Hurley, ’19, recently began working as a reference associate at South Hill Public Library in Puyallup. Anna Hurwitz, ’19, celebrated graduation by traveling to Lithuania with her father to try to learn more about his family. She is now in a full-time, six-month contract position with Hansell Tierney as an assistant archivist at the Gates Archive. Jordan Jue, ’18, is working as a public services librarian at Sacramento City College. David Kent, ’79, is retired after 40 years working in libraries in the United States and Colombia, including libraries in K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities, and medical libraries. Sami Kerzel, ’16, is a community librarian for the Deschutes Public Library
in Sunriver, Oregon, serving all ages. She hosts story times, book clubs and teen programs. Amelia Klaus, ’16, is working as a technical recruiter for Amazon’s Fulfillment Technologies division. She also helps out at a local community college, covering occasional Saturday shifts so that she can keep one foot in the library world. Grove Koger, ’74, published an account of his visit to Catalonia, “Barcelona & Beyond,” in the Summer 2019 issue of Art Patron magazine. His short fiction has appeared in recent issues of The Bosphorus Review of Books, Ariel Chart, Sirens Call and Danse Macabre. Rachel Singletary Kopel, ’16, became the archivist at Chihuly Studio in Seattle. Cass Kvenild, ’00, was appointed associate dean of libraries at the University of Wyoming in July 2019. Alanna McAuley, ’18, now lives in London, England, where she is a senior knowledge coordinator at Baringa Partners. She helps more than 650 management consultants capture, curate and share knowledge. Cecilia McGowan, ’84, is the 201920 president of ALSC, the Association of Library Service to Children. This ALA division confers many prestigious awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott and Sibert. Cass Mabbott, ’98, is now the children’s services coordinator for the King County Library System. Justin Melde, ’15, is the database administrator for the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stephanie Milne-Lane, ’09, is working as the processing archivist and records manager at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Peter Oliver, ’16, is working as a library associate with the King County Library System in its Ask KCLS ischool.uw.edu
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Department. He is also a substitute reference librarian for Seattle Colleges at the North Seattle College Library. Justin Otto, ’03, is serving as the interim dean of libraries at Eastern Washington University. Robert “Bob” Pankl, ’70, has retired from the Tacoma Public Library after 44 years. He now spends part of his time volunteering. Ann Pool, ’13, recently celebrated her three-year anniversary as a taxonomist for Echo Services, mostly supporting Microsoft along with a short period on a Nike project in 2018. Renato Rodriguez, ’13, is a documents archivist at the San Diego History Center. Betsy Rolland, ’07, is the director of team science and research development for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Carbone Cancer Center and Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Centered Design & Engineering at the UW in 2013. A.M. Salaz, ’06, was appointed associate dean for research and academic services at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries in December 2018. Ellen Shatter, ’69, retired in 2003 after working at the San Francisco Public Library and is now living happily in Providence, Rhode Island. Gina Strack, ’09, is the digital archives manager at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. Sonja Sutherland, ’08, is working as an extra-help librarian at the Sonoma County, California, Library. Joel Turner, ’11, is working as a technical adviser for media and information literacy at IREX, a global development non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Connie Urquhart, ’02, is the library director at Camas Public Library in Camas, Washington. Jennifer Vanoni, ’13, is working in Los Angeles as the props and art archivist 30
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for the 20th Century Fox Collection at the Walt Disney Archive. Amy Vecchione, ’07, started the Boise State University MakerLab in 2014. In the past five years, the program has grown and become successful, outgrowing its space and finding more high-impact projects every semester. Sarah Wakefield, ’03, is working as the Primary Years Program librarian at the International School of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Virginia Reynolds Williams, ’80, had her first book published by WestBow Press. It’s called “Consider the Raven: Meditations Beside a Vernal Pool.” Andrea Zager, ’18, is working as a K-5 school library media specialist in the Northshore School District. Stephanie Zimmerman, ’12, works as a senior project manager in information security at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
MLIS Law Amanda Runyon, ’08, was named associate dean and director of the Biddle Law Library at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, starting in August 2019. Wesley Cochran, ’80, was elected president of the Texas Tech University Faculty Senate for the 2019-20 academic year.
MSIM Himanshu Arora, ’19, is working as a data engineer at Micron in Boise, Idaho. Akshay Bhagwatwar, ’10, was promoted in 2019 to senior research scientist at Amazon Worldwide Operations. Avanti Chande, ’18, is working as a product analytics manager at Walmart Labs in the Bay Area. Charudatta Deshpande, ’18,
recently accepted a position with Salesforce in Bellevue as a senior software engineer. Sue Gemmell, ’07, is building and supporting a Yammer network of communities for UNICEF.org, to help 15,000 colleagues in 190 countries promote the rights and well-being of children. Yammer is a freemium enterprise social networking service used for private communication within organizations. Emily Hayes, ’11, was promoted to manager at Moss Adams LLP in July 2019, within the Business Consulting Services group. Nick Hernandez, ’19, transitioned from the public sector to an associate role with a Seattle-based management consulting firm, Forum Solutions. Frank Lim, ’19, is working as the director of cybersecurity for the U.S. Coast Guard at its Command, Control, and Communications Engineering Center in Portsmouth, Va. Nicole J. Nora, ’16, earned her technology management MBA from the UW Foster School of Business. She began working as a business intelligence analyst at the Boeing Co. in September 2019. Nihar Sanghvi, ’19, is working as a senior data scientist at Oracle Data Cloud in Colorado. Tanya Sangoi, ’19, is working at Amazon as a UX designer. Zerrin Hejazi, ’06, began working as a chief operating officer at the Berry Sign Systems Co. after 16 years at the Boeing Co., Tejas Karangale, ’18, is working as a data engineer at Auth0, enjoying the startup work culture and learning a lot of new things.
Ph.D. Jeff Hemsley, ’14, is an assistant professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. He is up for tenure this academic year.
Soul Continued from Page 21 director, representing all the American Indian and Alaska Native students on campus through the Associated Students of UW. “That’s when I first started to get in The System,” he says. People took notice of the bright young activist. One was his soon-tobe mentor Julian Argel, a member of the Tsimshian and Haida tribes, who was then serving as tribal liaison. Argel began grooming Braine for the liaison role. This job was a fit. “I didn’t wake up and say ‘I’ll be the point of contact for all the Northwest tribes and the University of Washington,’” says Braine. “There was never a day when I said, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ It was kinda like, ‘Oh, man, no one else is going to do this, and I’m good at it.’ It’s like I was predestined for it.” Argel had long fought for construction of a culturally representative gathering space for American Indian and Alaska Native people on campus. But it wasn’t until the 2000s that the state Legislature dedicated $3 million for project. The other $3 million came from private donations and some Washington tribes. When Argel — “Uncle Julian” to students — died in 2012, Braine vowed to see the project to its conclusion. He became full-on project manager for wəɫəbʔaltxʷ, doing everything from feasibility studies and fundraising to construction punch-lists. “I was determining where electrical outlets go and how far lights should come down. Every square inch of this building, I know by heart,” says Braine, who credits coursework in design and project management at the iSchool for helping him successfully manage human resources and grow a strong team. A few months before the building’s official opening in March 2015, the wəɫəbʔaltxʷ planning and advisory group took a tour of the facility and spotted an immature bald eagle sitting in the crook of a nearby tree. It was eating a crow. “We all said, ‘That’s Julian, man.’ I cried then. In our tribe, in our way, crying is allowed. It’s not male or
female. We are expected to express our emotions, so I cried and I cried a lot.” Four years later, with fundraising for a second longhouse-style building in the works, wəɫəbʔaltxʷ has become the gathering place Braine’s mentor imagined, open to Natives and non-Natives alike for study, classes and celebrations. With a great hall and a large kitchen, it hosts more than 150 events a year, including basket-weaving classes, gourd dancing lessons, indigenous cooking workshops, the UW president’s annual tribal leadership summit, and, for students, intensive professional development sessions in skills such as resume-building and grant-writing. wəɫəbʔaltxʷ is also the site of the yearly Raven’s Feast graduation ceremony for American Indian and Alaska Native students, who comprise approximately 1.2 percent of the UW student population. Braine makes sure these Native students — “my students” — graduate at rates well above national averages. “At the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, we circle and protect our students, whether it’s crisis intervention, suicide prevention, housing, food insecurities, or just, ‘My parents passed away and I need to get home and I don’t have any money.’” If they need tough love, he delivers. “I say, I see you messing around, see you on the internet all the time. I don’t see you at the study tables. I say, ‘C’mon, man, get yourself together. Do what you came here to do.’” He’s had plenty of tough love himself from mentors. He credits them with giving him a thick skin, teaching him how to say “No,” and showing him how and when to invest and fight for something. Now he’s passing it on, mentoring scores of students and colleagues. “He helps us find what we want to do and introduces us to people and opportunities to help us grow,” says Michael Yates, the administrative assistant at wəɫəbʔaltxʷ and a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. “He was also the officiant at my wedding. And when my little brother got into the UW, Iisaaksiichaa started mentoring him as well.” For Braine, master networker and “good young fella,” that’s how it works. You get, you give.
Save the dates iSchool Research Fair Thursday, March 5, 2020, 6:30-8 p.m. in the HUB. iSchool Capstone Event Wednesday, May 27, 2020, 6-9 p.m. in the HUB. iSchool Convocation Saturday, June 6, 2020, 1-4 p.m. in Hec Edmundson Pavilion VISIT US ONLINE Many of the stories in this issue of iNews have been shortened for print. Read the full stories at ischool.uw.edu/news. FOLLOW US Facebook: www.facebook. com/uwischool Twitter: @uw_ischool LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/ school/uw-ischool
In Memory Samantha Becker, MLIS ’09, passed away in May at age 47. She was the principal research scientist for the U.S. Impact Study, a Technology & Social Change Group project that focused on research and evaluation in public libraries, public access technology and barriers to digital inclusion. Much of her work was aimed at helping libraries and community technology centers leverage information to improve outcomes for their clients and support sustainability, and her passing was felt across the library community. Molly Mignon, M.Lib ’65, passed away in June at age 83. She was an author and an expert in the study of Mayan culture. In memory of her husband, a beloved faculty member, she created the Ed Mignon Distinguished Lecture. The annual lecture series hosts renowned speakers on topics related to current events, policies, controversies or issues in the information and technology fields. ischool.uw.edu
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“For those students who want an education at a college or university, the cost of that education should not be a major deterrent.” Frank, ‘66, and Mary, ‘66, Montgomery, iSchool Planned Giving donors
JOIN FELLOW HUSKIES BY SUPPORTING STUDENTS AT THE iSCHOOL If you would like to support the iSchool in a way that matters to you and receive a lifetime income in return for your gift, you can establish a charitable remainder trust or a charitable gift annuity at the University of Washington. Contact the Office for Planned Giving to learn more: 206-685-1001 | 800-284-3679 giftinfo@uw.edu giving.uw.edu/planned-giving