Alumni Updates
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Robbyn Gordon Lanning
MLIS, 2016
Robbyn 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.
Robbyn was recognized for the “Going with the Flow” menstrual equity initiative. Launched in 2019 and receiving full funding in 2022, the project brings free menstrual products to Camosun College, addressing the integral relationships between physical and mental health, inclusion and accessibility, and educational success.
Alexis Gregerson
Informatics, 2016
As of 2020, Alexis was working as a UX Designer at NWEA, a Not-For-Profit education assessment organization in Portland, Oregon. Alexis was transitioning to work as a UX Designer for Kroger starting in October 2020.
Nicole Gustavsen
MLIS, 2016
As of 2021, Nicole was the STEM liaison librarian at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Nicole started in 2019, right before the pandemic.
Kate Hanske
MLIS, 2016
After a few months of travel, job searching, and volunteer work with the Seattle Opera and Seattle Art Museum, Kate began working part-time at ProQuest on a new content support team. She reports she is in good company, with many other iSchool alums at ProQuest. She also continues to volunteer with the Seattle arts organizations.
Alison Horner
MLIS, 2016
Alison is working as a reference librarian at a public library in Massachusetts.
Daniel Huie
Informatics, 2016
Daniel is currently a Web Developer at Nike in Portland, Oregon. He is on the SNKRS Web Launch team, which builds the front-end experience for high heat sneaker releases. As the platform has gone global, he recently had the opportunity to go to Shanghai, China, for one month to ramp up the new Nike Digital Engineering Department for its Greater China Headquarters.
Nasise Jira
Informatics, 2016
As of 2024 Nasise was in her home country Ethiopia where she served as the Minister of Tourism after serving as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.
Aditya Kaul
MSIM, 2016
As of September 2021, Aditya was working as a Business Intelligence Engineer at Google.
Sami Kerzel
MLIS, 2016
In 2021, Sami, a Community Librarian at Deschutes Public Library, was selected as one of the MIT Media Lab’s first-ever cohort of Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX) Creative Learning Ambassadors, in recognition of her achievements and promise within the library community.
Sami will advocate for creative STEM learning in public libraries in Central Oregon, and nationally. The Ambassadors program is made possible with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program and includes an honorarium, materials, and equipment to support their efforts.
The 25 Ambassadors chosen represent a wide range of library professionals — in the roles they perform, the size and setting of their libraries (some tiny rural branches, others huge urban systems), their personal identities, and the depth of experience in librarianship and/or STEM topics. They all share abundant enthusiasm for PLIX and its potential to transform library programming with its unique approach to hands-on, creative STEM learning.
Ambassadors will take on a leadership role in local communities as well as online in the PLIX Community of Practice. Collaborating with PLIX, they’ll co-facilitate online courses, co-host community meetings and workshops, and conduct professional development workshops for their library systems or regions.
Amelia Klaus
MLIS, 2016
Amelia 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.