Alumni Updates
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Kawanna Bright
MLIS, 2003
In 2025, Kawanna earned tenure and promotion to associate professor at East Carolina University. She was to be awarded the ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award (Senior Faculty) at the 2025 ALISE Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Elaine Chu
MLIS, 2003
As of 2017, Elaine was living in Los Angeles and working as the Director of Taxonomy at a startup called Tradesy — where women can buy and sell fashion online.
James Cooper
MSIM, 2003
From 2008-2012, James was the Chief Information Officer at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. He was hired to oversee the design and construction of their new campus, with the goal of building the most high-tech and green law school in the country. The project planning included a virtualized data center (VMWare) and a goal of moving their 300 desktop computers to run off a private cloud, reducing the volume of toxic metals needing recycling and the amount of electricity consumed. In 2011, James was honored with the Cox Business Exemplary Award, one of San Diego Magazine's Top Tech Exec Awards, for both his work building the physical campus infrastructure and the project's environmental commitment.
Memo Cordova
MLIS, 2003
Memo is an Associate Professor/Instruction Librarian at Boise State University, Albertsons Library, immersed in Humanities studies and Open Access initiatives in the library and campus community.
Doug Duncan
MSIM, 2003
The grandsons finally got to them, and in July 2014 Doug and his wife moved to Madison, WI to be closer to their family. Thanks to the wonders of technology (and his MSIM-based skills), Doug is continuing his job with Seattle University as Associate University Counsel, working remotely full time. He advises that, "for you potential remote workers: save your marriage and rent a small office. As my wife and I independently concluded, I need a place to go during the day."
Jo Gray
MLIS, 2003
As of 2023, Jo had recently been inducted to the international flying disc ultimate (ultimate Frisbee) hall of fame for leadership contributions, using MLIS skills to structure for equity in outdoor team sport worldwide, including with the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, the World Flying Disc Federation, USA Ultimate and other countries' national sport governing bodies, DiscNW, Seattle Public Schools, and many other partner organizations.
Leslie Hurst
MLIS, 2003
Leslie is head of teaching and learning at the UW Bothell library. In 2018, she was honored with the UW Distinguished Librarian award.
Aaron Louie
MLIS, 2003
In 2014, Aaron took a position as VP of Design and UX (and employee #1) at flightSpeak, a very early-stage travel app startup based in Seattle. He's working remotely full time, because in the summer of 2014 his wife, Kristen Shuyler (MLIS, 2005), got her dream job at James Madison University in Virginia. They and their daughter now live in Staunton, VA, a small town in the idyllic Shenandoah Valley, where Aaron's sister lives with her husband (a JMU math professor) and their two kids.
Aaron also sits on the MLIS Advisory Board.
Nicole (Elger) Maclean
MLIS, 2003
After seven years at The Seattle Times, Nicole joined Getty Images in April 2014 as Director of User Experience Design.
Kim Mats
MLIS, 2003
As of 2026, Kim co-authored a book, UX Skills for Business Strategy, published by O’Reilly Media in April 2026. Since then, she’s given a talk with her co-authors at the California College of the Arts Design Lecture Series and co-led a workshop on “UX Skills for Transformation” at the Button conference.