Alumni Updates

Where are you now? Let us know at ischool.uw.edu/alumni/updates.

INFORMATICS

Saksham Aggarwal, ’21, started working at Tesla as an associate software engineer in 2021 and was promoted to software engineer in early 2022 .

Srinidhi Balaraman, ’22, started her first full-time job as a software engineer at Google/YouTube . Sam Bender, ’17, started a fitness business based on a mobile app that he built and designed . This year, the company had received another round of funding and was featured in GeekWire . Simran Bhatia, ’16, moved to San Francisco for a new job as a data scientist at Apple . Chengsu Chen, ’17, is working as a Senior Product Designer at Block . Isaac Chen, ’18, is working as a software development engineer . Zubin Chopra, ’19, started working as a senior software developer at LinkedIn . Zubin reports: “It is truly a thrilling experience to work on a product that I used to get this job in the first place!” Eric Cohen, ’21, is pursuing a Master of Science in Technology Management at Columbia University in New York . He co-authored a recently published book, “Understanding Collegiate Esports: A Practitioner’s Guide to Developing Community and Competition . ” Isabella Heppe, ’22, is working as a software development engineer (UX engineer 1) at Expedia in Seattle . Jeremy Hyland, ’04, got married in May 2021, then accepted a new job as the director of cyber defense for Dow Inc ., and moved to Midland, Michigan, in November 2021 . He and his wife, Claire, celebrated the birth of their first child, a daughter named Adeline Joy Hyland . Colin Kwiecinski, ’22, moved to San Francisco to start as a software engineer at YouTube .

Casey Lum, ’19, is working as a software engineer at FreeWill, a startup that makes free estate planning software and helps non-profits fundraise . Tristan Macelli, ’20, is working for Icon Technologies, a late-stage startup that 3D prints full-size houses on-site using a proprietary mix of concrete as the building material for the wall structures . Tristan works as a software engineer developing back-end services that manage the printer state, operator app alerts, and more . Kendall Marshall, ’21, is an IT project manager at REI, focusing on IT infrastructure . She assists with managing requirements for REI’s fourth distribution center opening and is leading the IT scope for 14 store remodel projects . Michelle Pham, ’22, started at Amazon as a software engineer . Mikhail Savvateev, ’17, is director of product management at CPM Educational Program, leading initiatives to roll out a new online mathematics learning program to be used in middle and high schools across the U .S . and abroad .

Jesse Sershon, ’22, went to work at Amazon as a software development engineer working on Alexa . Sathvika Shakhamuri, ’22, began working as a software engineer on GoDaddy’s Marketing Technology team . Andre Stackhouse, ’14, is the campaign director of Whole Washington, a statewide grassroots campaign to put universal single payer health care on the ballot in Washington state . Godgiven Grogan, ’20, is working as a product manager for GMR Marketing . She works on Orchestrate, an experience management platform used for enormous sports events all over the world . She reports: “We just started prepping for the Paris Olympics!”

Kateryna Tymofeieva, ’22, started a full-time job as an associate product manager at PitchBook Data . Yiren Qu, ’20, joined Google as a software engineer III . Satvik Vats, ’20, is working at GoDaddy Payments as a product manager II . Satvik is responsible for onboarding and risk experience for all GoPay merchants and internationalizing in CA/UK markets .

Cheryl Wu, ’22, accepted a fulltime position after an internship as an associate content designer at Workiva .

MLIS

Audrey Barbakoff, ’10, founded Co/Lab Capacity LLC, providing community-centered consulting for social good . As CEO, she works with libraries and mission-driven organizations to support authentic community engagement for equity and inclusion, strategic planning, digital equity, and leadership development . Angelina Benedetti, ’96, became the director of Outreach, Programs, and Services for the King County Library System .

Jennifer Brady, ’17, followed her MLIS with her Doctorate of Education at Lindenwood University in Higher Education Administration and Instructional Design . She works as the Creighton University head librarian for the Research & Instruction Department . Gabriel Chrisman, ’10, was hired as the director of the Gibson Memorial Library in Creston, Iowa . Claire Davies, ’10, graduated from the USC Ed .D . program in Organizational Change and Leadership with a research focus on diversity in public library collections .

Hannah Edlund, ’21, started working as the government information librarian at Rice University’s Fondren Library, the Kelley Center for Government Information . The Kelley Center is home to Rice and Fondren’s Federal Depository Library Program and Patent and Trademark Resource Center .

Lauren Fleming, ’22, got a new job as a bookseller at Ravenna Third Place Books in Seattle .

Megan Fontaine, ’22, stepped into a new role as the assistant director of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries through local Seattle library consulting firm Primary Source . She worked as an administrative assistant for ARSL/ Primary Source throughout her time at the iSchool, and is excited to continue working in support of our “small but mighty” libraries nationwide . Sheila Hosner, ’78, has been working with a community in the Bududa District of eastern Uganda since 2018 to help them build a Health Center III, the Bukobero Community Health Centre . Holly Hudson, ’22, started as an instructor and health sciences librarian with the University of Illinois, Chicago, at its Rockford, Illinois, campus . Katherine Jardine, ’14, recently moved back to Seattle, where she now works as a library associate in the International District/Chinatown branch library . Alison Kubeny, ’22, moved to Bellingham to start her dream job as a children’s librarian at the central branch of Bellingham Public Library . Robbyn Gordon Lanning, ’16, is the recipient of the British Columbia Library Association’s 2022 Eureka Award . The award recognizes individuals who created an innovative approach to address a barrier, solve a problem, provide a powerful new insight, or introduce an original idea in the library field . Jacob Lackner, ’22, moved to Atlanta to start work as a teaching and learning librarian at Oxford College of Emory University . Elizabeth Miller, ’22, got her dream position at a new library shortly after graduation . She has since been working as a full-time youth services librarian in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware . Darlene Nordyke, ’00, moved to SharePoint development and software training with Sound Mental Health . Robert “Bob” Pankl, ’70, has been volunteering with the Cascades Butterfly Project . Volunteers survey butterfly populations in various parts of the Cascades to measure abundance from year to year . Isaac Pattis, ’12, moved with his wife and two boys to the Cotswolds outside of London . He found work with Oxford University Press, building lexical datasets for various industries .

Leah Rayvon, ’14, is working in the retirement planning field with Fidelity, serving as a Virtual Education Consultant, hosting online retirement education seminars for plan participants . Stephen Richards, MLIS Law ’18, was appointed the director for the Marin County Law Library . Daniel Schrader, ’15, is working as a principal UX researcher at Slate .ai . Gina Strack, ’09, was honored with the 2022 CIMA Service Award from the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists, an association of archivists, conservators, historians, and archival professionals from Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and New Mexico .

Conrrado Saldivar, ’21, was elected as Vice President of the Wyoming Library Association . He then started a new job as Outreach and Development Librarian at the Wyoming State Library at the end of 2021 . In January 2022, the president of the WLA stepped down and he became acting president . Christa Strickler, ’12, started a new position as a collection metadata integrity and management librarian at the University of Notre Dame . Veronica Tabares, ’00, published her newest novel, “Stone Woman .

Julie Tanaka, ’12, returned to her home state of California and started as the new director of Special Collections and College Archives at Occidental College in Los Angeles . Amy Vecchione, ’07, completed a book on collaborating for student success . She also took a new position as associate director for research and innovation of the eCampus Center at Boise State .

Michael Wallenfels, ’16, is the communications manager for the Washington State Arts Agency . He is also the public records officer for the agency . He reports: “I have helped the agency launch a podcast and a new statewide program for veterans . ” Michael Wagner, ’18, entered his fourth year in Amazon’s Product Knowledge org and recently was promoted to Ontologist II . Miriam Wnuk, ’13, was awarded the 2022 RUSA STARS Virginia Boucher Distinguished ILL Librarian award, presented by OCLC at ALA Annual in Washington, D .C . She received the award for her work as the chairperson of the Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference . She has also been promoted to Librarian II at Vanderbilt University .

Stephanie Zero, ’07, transitioned from being a KCLS teen services librarian at Redmond Library to being a KCLS operations manager at Crossroads Library . She became chair of the CAYAS section of WLA (Children and Young Adult Services) .

MSIM

Fei Guo, ’15, moved from Finance to Experiences + Devices (Office, Exchange, Surface) at Microsoft and was promoted to senior product manager . Chan Im, ’17, started working for Salesforce as a senior security GRC analyst . Harsh Keswani, ’17, is leading the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Observability team as a principal product manager for their logging and security products . Amy Lee, ’13, is working as a group product manager at Zendesk . Zheng Li, ’13, is working as a solutions architect at Snowflake .

Jacob Nelson, ’13, went from being an MSIM grad to being featured in Japan as a global design expert . He founded a company at the end of 2021 to provide personal and professional development services and education for design, brand, marketing, growth and products . Clint Posey, ’19, is a program manager on the Reporting & Insights

Zoshua Colah, ’22, works for Zesty .io (a CMS) as a senior product designer and product manager . His primary role is to help them redesign their interface to make it more intuitive . In his free time, he serves as a product design mentor at Pathrise, where he helps people in the job search . Rachel Ivy Clarke, Ph.D. ’16, was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies . Her research focuses on the application of design theories and methods to facilitate the systematic, purposeful design of library services and education .

team of Microsoft’s Worldwide Learning group . He creates reports and runs statistical models for his business partners, including data science models that show business impact . Umang Sehgal, ’19, joined Microsoft as a product manager . Maureen Shaughnessy, ’21, is working at Microsoft as a program manager and using skills from the MSIM program in UX design and information architecture to improve the onboarding experience for new employees . Ashley Varma, ’22, is working as a program analyst at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, working on cost, schedule and risk analysis for human space flight missions . Matt Woicik, ’05, started a digital marketing agency called ML2 Solutions, helping small-business owners who are struggling with their digital marketing . Phillip Wood, ’13, is working as a senior product manager at Google’s Austin office, working on finance and deal performance software . Mason Wrolstad, ’13, is working at a start-up after almost three years at Tableau and six years at Boeing before that . He is working on web crawling at scale, machine learning and Google-like search to help inform companies on marketing intelligence via publicly available data .

with software engineer Smai Fullerton. DemocracyLab is a nonprofit that pairs skilled volunteers and socially responsible companies with worthwhile projects.

“I’m a big believer that sunlight’s the best disinfectant,” Frischmuth said. “If you want government to be effective and accountable, then the best place to start is by making it possible and easier to see what’s actually happening. And I think that this project does a great job of that.”

Frischmuth, who moved to Montana a year ago from Seattle, knew Brown when they both were organizers of a group called Open Seattle, a Code for America brigade that advocates for open data and civic technology. Frischmuth said that the earlier versions of the Council Data Project were clunky, or as he recalls Brown describing it, having “a front-end interface only a back-end developer could love.”

“The big, big leap that they made a few years ago was making it something that was dead simple to use,” Frischmuth said.

The Council Data Project continues to develop new tools to make city council data accessible. For instance, a new feature being rolled out allows broadcast journalists to download a video or audio clip of a portion of the transcript to use on the air, offering those journalists easy access to testimony at meetings that they may not have attended.

About 1,500 local governments operate in the U.S. between cities, counties, legislatures and other jurisdictions. Most follow open meeting laws that require meetings to be open to the public and deliberations as well as decisions to be recorded for future access by the public. Most also use software called Legistar that compiles the votes.

The Council Data Project obtains most of its data from Legistar and pairs it with the recordings of the meetings. With machine learning techniques using open-source tools, the project team was able to take recorded speeches at council meetings and transform them into written texts.

“Ninety-nine percent of it is automated,” Brown said. “I just go to a dashboard every day to see if everything is running OK. Then, I close it and I go