Alumni Updates
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Christopher Kerns
MLIS, 2001
Christopher is the Library Systems Manager for the Boeing Company's corporate library.
Lisa Sanders
MLIS, 2001
Lisa is a librarian of the newly founded Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum opening in January 2016.
Jen Stutesman
MLIS, 2001
After a couple of years of job searching, Jen celebrated her 20th year as a librarian in 2021 at a new job as a branch manager at Walla Walla County Rural Library District, College Place Branch.
Mike Buschman
MLIS, 2000
In 2011, Mike co-founded Plum Analytics, which tracks, harvests, and displays metrics from online sources to measure the influence of researchers, groups, and institutions. In 2014, the company was acquired by EBSCO Information Services.
Lola Estelle
MLIS, 2000
As of 2024, Lola was a Senior Implementation Consultant for FOLIO services at EBSCO.
Gwendolyn Haley
MLIS, 2000
Gwendolyn works as a Library Services Manager for the Spokane County Library District and is in charge of Explore and Discover service priority--a job that encompasses programming for members in elementary school, middle, high school, and beyond. She and her team work closely with community partners to provide programs, classes and events that allow our community to explore and discover their interests, passions, and hobbies, as well as engage with their community.
In 2014, Gwendolyn was elected as Vice-President/President-Elect of the Pacific Northwest Library Association.
Cassandra Kvenild
MLIS, 2000
Cass was appointed Dean of the University Libraries at the University of Wyoming in March 2024.
Frans Leppanen
MLIS, 2000
As of 2026, Frans has returned to work part-time, on call, for the Seattle Public Library, after retiring in 2022 following 20 years as an adult services librarian with San Diego County Library and moving back to Seattle. He’s filled in at the information desk at 21 locations across the city so far.
Darlene Nordyke
MLIS, 2000
After working at the Seattle Public Library as a youth services librarian focusing on outreach to youth experiencing homelessness, Darlene transitioned to SharePoint development and software training with Sound Mental Health. Since 2013, she has been working at Premera Blue Cross as a Process and Procedure Analyst, promoted to Senior Process and Procedure Analyst in 2018. She volunteered with the Oasis LGBTQIA+ Youth Center for four years as Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator until the 2020 pandemic, and is looking forward to volunteering with Oasis in the future.
Katy Shaw
MLIS, 2000
After an 11-year career at Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager, Katy left the company in 2019 to pursue her dream of traveling around the world. She has spent the past 2.5 years circling the globe with her husband to various countries including Thailand, Spain, Turkey and Croatia. The pair were in Italy when the coronavirus outbreak occurred, so they transitioned to driving around America in a motorhome. Once international travel resumed, they headed to Lisbon and kept going. You can follow Katy’s journey on her website A Rambling Unicorn.