Faculty and Staff

iSchool faculty at the 2025 college retreat.

iSchool Accolades

We want to recognize the hard work and accomplishments of our faculty and staff during the academic year. Watch as the listings on this page increase.

2025 - 2026 Academic Year

Darin Freeburg

Darin Freeburg received the iSchool Teaching award in recognition of his exceptional teaching and meaningful impact on students. Widely regarded as approachable, supportive, and deeply engaged, he creates a classroom environment where students feel comfortable and motivated to learn. His genuine enthusiasm for teaching is evident in every course he leads, and it consistently resonates with students across all levels.

Students frequently seek out his classes semester after semester, drawn not only by his teaching style but by his ability to make even challenging or less popular topics engaging and accessible. As one student noted, despite not enjoying the subject matter, his approach made the class both manageable and worthwhile—a testament to his skill as an educator. His passion, care for students, and ability to keep learning exciting help prevent burnout and foster lasting academic interest, making him a truly deserving recipient of this award.

Valerie Byrd Fort

Valerie Byrd Fort was accepted into the second cohort of the American Library Association’s Law for Librarians program. This train-the-trainer initiative provides training and resources to help library workers understand the legal issues that shape library service. Participants in the program are equipped to bring this knowledge back to their own communities.

Valerie Byrd Fort receives coveted I Love My Librarian Award
The American Library Association's award honors 10 exceptional librarians from academic, public and school libraries for expertise, dedication and profound impact on the people in their communities. Byrd Fort receives a $5,000 cash prize

Vanessa Kitzie

Congratulations to Vanessa Kitzie and Travis Wagner (alum), honored with the Innovation Award from the ASIS&T SIG-USE) for their paper "If I were given the opportunity in today's world at 18 to go be in a seedy, dirty gay bar to meet community, I would": Informational functions, loss, and transformation of queer spaces.

The paper is to be presented at the ASIS&T 2025 Conference, Washington, D.C., Nov. 14-18.

Jenna Spiering

Jenna Spiering won two research paper awards from the American Association of School Librarians for her pieces – Contesting Queer Books: Analyzing the Discourses in Public Comment Sections at School Board Meetings (co-authored with alum Rhys Dreezen Bowman) and From Book Rating to Book Bans: A Critical Content Analysis of BookLooks.org’s Report Cards on LGBTQIA+ Titles.

Nicole Cooke

Augusta Baker Endowed Chair Nicole Cooke was elected as the new president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education. She will formally begin this role in October of 2025 at the ALISE annual conference.

Received the Leadership in Scholarship Award from the CIC. She received the award for her far-reaching and sustained impact on both families and students, demonstrated through her leadership, scholarship, and service. Her work spans local, national, and international contexts, reflecting both depth and breadth in her contributions. As principal investigator on multiple federally funded grants, she has advanced important research agendas, particularly in critical pedagogy, diversity within the profession, and misinformation — areas she has meaningfully developed over more than 14 years. In addition to her scholarly achievements, she has shown a strong commitment to program sustainability, successfully raising over $14,000 to support the Augusta Baker Chair program. Together, these accomplishments highlight her lasting influence and dedication, making her a deserving recipient of this award.

Margaret Cook Jackson

Dean's Award for Outstanding Leadership.

Margaret Cook Jackson received this award in recognition of her extraordinary leadership and impact in advancing literacy and community engagement. Through her efforts, she recently secured a $10,000 donation from Dominion Energy and, in collaboration with Lyda Fontes McCartin and the development team, helped raise over $150,000 this year from partners, including Boeing and numerous individual contributors.

Her program’s reach and impact continue to grow significantly. In the past year alone, her team served more than 14,000 students, visited 33 schools and community sites, and distributed over 21,000 books. Looking ahead, she has set an ambitious goal of giving away 20,000 books in 2026, further expanding access to reading and learning opportunities.

Her work not only provides tangible resources but also creates meaningful, memorable experiences for children and volunteers alike. This sustained growth and deep community impact make her a highly deserving recipient of this award.

Director's Award for Excellence

Elizabeth Hartnett, Randy Heath and Margaret Cook Jackson received the 2026 Director's Award for Excellence. This award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the school.

Staff Awards

Sabrina McClure photo with text saying she won the Staff Spotlight award

As an academic advisor, she goes above and beyond to support students with care, encouragement and guidance.
Her positivity and teamwork inspire those around her, making her an invaluable part of our team.

This past June, Sabrina served as one of the staff members on the CIC's study abroad program to Barcelona, Spain. She was an incredibly valuable addition to the team.

Matilda exemplifies the spirit of the College of Information and Communications through her positivity, initiative, and deep care for our community. She consistently brings a great attitude to work every day, which has a profoundly positive impact on morale. Matilda’s humor, warmth, and can-do spirit create an atmosphere where others feel valued and supported, helping to foster a genuinely positive and inclusive workplace culture.

Ellyn Domanico received the CIC Innovation Excellence Award specifically for her work in creating an online orientation for CIC graduate students that supports four master’s programs and graduate certificates. This past year, she voluntarily participated in the USC organizational change leadership program designed to build capacity in change management. Through the program Ellyn conceptualized and designed a comprehensive online orientation experience for graduate students - a resource that had not previously existed. What makes this contribution particularly notable is that she engaged the entire college graduate advising staff in the development and rollout process, rather than just focusing on the iSchool. Her decision ensures that orientation reflects diverse advising perspectives and meets the real needs of incoming students for all CIC graduate programs.

This initiative demonstrates several dimensions of excellence. It reflects a genuine commitment to learning and applying new methods. It produced a tangible, lasting program where none existed before. And it meaningfully removed barriers for graduate students navigating a complex onboarding process, improving the experience of a population that benefits enormously from early, clear guidance. Ellyn’s work resulted in a program that will serve CIC students and staff for years to come. This is precisely the kind of initiative-driven, student-centered innovation this award was created to recognize.

Previous Academic Terms

Accreditation

The School of Information Science has been granted continuous accreditation by the American Library Association through 2032.

This represents an unbroken streak of accreditation for the MLIS program dating back to 1974 and confirms that the iSchool maintains compliance with the demanding standards established by the ALA.

Fifteen months of effort went into compiling the portfolio necessary for the reaccreditation assessment.

Congratulations to all of the faculty and staff who contributed to the successful completion of this process!

Awards

Vanessa Kitzie — a 2025 Garnet Apple Award winner for teaching innovation

Vanessa Kitzie's teaching reflects a dynamic, inclusive and critically engaged approach rooted in constructionist, participatory and queer pedagogies. Drawing on critical pedagogy, feminist theory and digital literacy research, she centers students as creators of knowledge through interactive, research-based learning experiences.

Feili Tu-Keefner — recipient of the Leadership in Scholarship Award

This award recognizes a faculty member who excels in research and scholarship and utilizes a synergistic approach to promote and inspire excellence in research or creative scholarship and perform these activities beyond the scope of their expected duties.

Lyda Fontes McCartin — recipient of the Dean's Award for Excellence in Leadership

Fontes McCartin was recognized for a number of achievements, including: forged new partnership with Fusion Cyber; successful preparation for reaccreditation visit / report; built a staff team from scratch within the school; and created a new strategic plan for the school; CRE’s 20th anniversary.

Rising Star Award - Rachel Williams, Ph.D

This faculty award is for a record of research, creative and/or scholarly work that exceeds expectations in the field, demonstrates exceptional potential, and makes clear contributions to research and scholarship during a short time at USC. This award acknowledges contribution to the CIC and university.

Amie Freeman was the recipient of the iSchool Adjunct Teaching Award. The honor was announced at the annual Deans' and Directors' Lecture and is given to an adjunct faculty who excels in the classroom and in the profession.

Vanessa Kitzie and Travis Wagner (Ph.D. alum) won the Association of Library and Information Science Education's (ALISE) Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Competition for their paper "In Many Ways, You're This Person Who's Providing Light”: Theorizing Embodied Responses to Information Absence within LGBTQIA+ Communities." They will present the paper at the ALISE 2024 Conference in Portland, Oregon in October.

Rachel Williams won the ALISE Pratt Severn Faculty Innovation Award, which honors innovation by full-time faculty members, or a group of full-time faculty members, who incorporate evolving information technologies in the curricula of accredited master’s degree programs in library and information studies. The award was established in 1996 and includes a $1,000 cash award. Williams' project focused on using VR training to teach library science students mental health first aid through learning deescalation techniques.

USC Propel Research Mentorship Program

Ehsan Mohammadi was accepted into the USC Propel Research Mentorship Program. This one-year training program is designed to prepare faculty for securing federal grants. The application process is highly competitive, and acceptance into this program signifies the university’s recognition of exceptional research capabilities.

Research and Grants Funded

Jenna Spiering (PI) - Extending School Librarian Preparation Through Transitional Mentorship with Early Career School Librarians - $374,194

Vanessa Kitzie (PI) - Leveraging National Library Partnerships to Develop a Community-Driven Online LGBTQIA+ Consumer Health Guide - $249,980

Feili Tu-Keefner (PI), Brett Robertson (Co-PI) - Project Library PREPARE: Planning, Response, Emergency Preparedness, and Resilience Education - $249,721

Dick Kawooya (PI) - Fostering Information and Knowledge Access in the Digital Environment: A Situational Analysis of Legal-regulatory Frameworks in ARIPO Region University of Cape Town, South Africa, grant from the International Development Research Centre - $100,000

CIC Internal Grants Funded

Cultivating Strategic Partnerships Between Libraries and LGBTQIA+ Organizations for LGBTQIA+ Youth Collections, Programming, and Services
Vanessa Kitzie, Jenna Spiering
Award amount: $3,000

Developing an Intervention to Reduce Pressures for Code Switching Among Black Physicians in South Carolina
Darin Johson, Feili Tu-Keefner
Award amount: $ 3,000

College of Information and Communications

iSchool Accolades