Alumni Updates
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Manu Parhar
MSIM, 1997
As of 2023, Manu works as seasoned Director of Product Marketing at Cisco Inc., leading an industry-recognized Webex Suite portfolio of products.
Christine Perkins
MLIS, 1997
Christine is the Executive Director of the Whatcom County Library System. Previously, she worked as the Assistant Director of the Bellingham Public Library and the Director of the Burlington Public Library. Christine won Library Journal's Fiction Reviewer of the Year Award in 2005.
Bob Thomas
MLIS, 1997
Bob retired from the library profession in August 2016. He spent the last 10 years as Head of Cataloging at Western Washington University, following periods at the University of Virginia and WLN/OCLC. He and his wife, Gail, will begin full-time cruising around North America on their boat, with plans to eventually end up back in the Puget Sound.
Debra Westwood
MLIS, 1997
Debra is the Library Cluster Manager for three branches of the King County Library System: Bellevue, Lake Hills and Crossroads.
Angelina Benedetti
MLIS, 1996
In 2022, Angelina became the Director of Outreach, Programs, and Services for the King County Library System.
Greg Careaga
MLIS, 1996
Greg is Head of Assessment and Planning for the University Library at UC Santa Cruz. This summer, he contributed a chapter to Assessing Library Space for Learning and presented a paper at the 12th International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries.
Jim Cheng
MLIS, 1996
Jim is the director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University and is known for promoting archival films about East Asia. In 2012, he and his staff organized a symposium at Columbia, The Korean War and Its Aftermath: Cinematic Memories from the Theodore Conant Collection.
Ruth Griffith
MLIS, 1995
Ruth 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.
"Thanks, UW School of Library Science, for making it possible for me to have my dream career!"
Jon Norris
M.Lib, 1995
In 2025, Jon had recently became co-owner of the oldest microbrewery in Washington, Big Time Brewery in the U District. He also works at Microsoft.
Jonathan Potter
MLIS, 1995
As of 2025, Jonathan has published The Sweet Spot in the Chaos (Korrektiv Press, 2025) — his sixth poetry collection.