Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Scholarship and Research

Simmons University

Today, I officially begin an additional appointment as the Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Scholarship and Research in the Center for Faculty Excellence at Simmons University. I am incredibly excited and honored to begin this position to help “craft and implement a vision for supporting faculty research and scholarship at Simmons University as part of a strategic visioning team.”

Here is a bit more from the overview of the position.

“The Fellow will help Simmons enact that vision by aligning work with priorities identified through the strategic plan, listening to and advocating for faculty needs in partnership with the Provost’s office and key stakeholders across campus, seeking external resources to support faculty scholarship as needed, and designing and implementing professional development programs and services for faculty related to research and scholarship, across career stages and position types.”

I look forward to working with the President, the Provost, and the wonderful team in the Center for Faculty Excellence on this exciting opportunity at Simmons.

Improving Digital Inclusion and Broadband Infrastructure in Native Communities

IMLS logo

I am incredibly honored and excited to announce that our Community Informatics Lab at Simmons University has received a two-year grant (award #LG-250043-OLS-21) from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to work with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums.

Here is the description of the project that is available on the IMLS website:

“Simmons University, together with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, will examine how a participatory community informatics approach, guided by Indigenous ways of knowing about technology and an affirmation of tribal sovereignty, can support the digital inclusion and broadband infrastructure needs and aspirations of tribal libraries. The research team will work with tribal libraries to co-design the following: an update to the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums’ 2014 report, ‘Digital Inclusion in Native Communities: The Role of Tribal Libraries’; a Digital Inclusion Lab ‘how-to’ guide for Tribal libraries; and a final report with findings from the research. The project also will gather broadband measurement data to inform federal information policies aimed at improving digital inclusion and broadband infrastructure in Tribal libraries.”

Follow updates about the project on our CI Lab website.

ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award

The Association for Information Science & Technology

I am incredibly humbled to share the news that I have received this year’s ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award.

My students always inspire me. I am grateful to them for this award. In particular, I want to thank my former rock star students who wrote absolutely incredible letters of support for my nomination, including: Alessandra Seiter, Lena Gluck, Teddy Schneider, Hilary Mauro, and Melissa Seldon.

Thank you also to my Dean Marie desJardins, Director Sanda Erdelez, Communications Coordinator Alisa Libby, and to the ASIS&T nominating Committee for this incredible award.

Here is the link to the ASIS&T press release and here is the Simmons University announcement.

Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor

Yesterday, the Dean of my College and Provost of my University visited my office with a bottle of champagne, as is Simmons tradition, and informed me that I received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. It’s been quite a ride in academia so far, and recognizing how grateful I am to a magnitude of people who helped me get to this point in my life, I decided to share 10 things on Twitter yesterday in celebration of this moment with many of those folks. Here’s a screen capture below of the first of ten, which can be found online here.

2019 Ernest A. Lynton Award Finalist

Campus CompactI am incredibly honored to share the news that I was selected as a finalist for this year’s Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty. Santamaría Graff, Assistant Professor of Urban Teacher Education at IUPUI was this year’s recipient, which was jointly awarded by Campus Compact and Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service.

Brown University

As the Swearer Center’s website explains,

“The Lynton Award emphasizes community-engaged scholarly work across faculty roles. The scholarship of engagement represents an integrated view of faculty roles in which teaching, research/creative activity and service overlap and are mutually reinforcing, is characterized by scholarly work tied to a faculty member’s academic expertise, is of benefit to the external community, is visible and shared with community stakeholders and reflects the mission of the institution.”

The press release also explained that “the recipients of the 2019 Lynton and Ehrlich Awards will be recognized at Campus Compact’s Compact20 national conference, which will be held in Seattle, WA from March 29 to April 1, 2020.”