University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science
The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) welcomes five new faculty with appointments beginning July 1. Alexandra Chassanoff, William Payne and Joseph Winberry bring expertise in archives and digital curation, inclusive music technology, and marginalized populations and community centered solutions in libraries, respectively. They will join the SILS faculty as assistant professors and begin teaching in the fall. Karthik Adapa’s research focuses on health information technology interventions and he will hold a joint appointment as assistant professor with the School of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology. Ericka Patillo brings experience and expertise in library management and will join SILS as Professor of Practice and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Karthik Adapa has served as the Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Punjab, India and recently completed his doctoral studies in health informatics at UNC. After nearly a decade in government public health implementing health informatics projects, he is focusing on implementation research. His work has been published in a variety of journals including, BMJ Open, Journal of the
American College of Surgeons, and Journal of the American College of Radiology. He will teach courses and conduct research in health informatics with emphasis on patient safety.
Dr. Alexandra Chassanoff has been an assistant professor at North Carolina Central University. Her research focuses on born-digital cultural heritage and community-driven approaches to digital curation. Currently, she co-directs the "Hacking into History" project which explores how civic data engagement
can facilitate community empowerment and deepen historical understanding. Previously, she served as an CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellow in Software Curation at the MIT Libraries and as a Research Program Officer at the Educopia Institute. She will teach courses and conduct research in digital preservation, records management, digital cultural heritage, metadata, and community archives.
Dr. Ericka Patillo, Professor of Practice and Associate Dean for Academics Affairs, has been Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville School of Information Sciences and was formerly Associate Dean for Public Services and Engagement at Appalachian State University Library. She has been a library leader in the higher education arena for over 20 years. She has been a music librarian, a public services manager, a senior level administrator, and a teacher, advisor, and researcher.
She honors her ancestors and their ways of knowing while working to co-create an academic library culture that is inclusive, collaborative, and authentic.
Dr. William (Willie) Payne recently completed his doctoral studies at New York University. Across his Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research, he uses participatory methods to co-design and deploy creative technologies with community partners. Willie has published at highly selective computing venues, and his work has been honored with a Best Paper Award at Web4All and an Honorable Mention at CHI. During his graduate studies, Willie co-taught the undergraduate course Creative Learning Design, led an applied research course for undergraduate engineering and design students, and taught code to
high school students with his research partners The Fil' and STEM From Dance. He will teach courses and conduct research in user experience design with emphasis on IT as part of the creative process in music.
Dr. Joseph Winberry recently completed his doctoral studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research seeks to identify, understand, and combat informational and technological inequities to support the self-empowerment of marginalized populations and help advance community-centered solutions to public problems. Winberry’s research has been published in The International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion, The Journal of Documentation, and The Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, among other venues. He has received funding and recognition from the American
Library Association, the Association for Information Science and Technology, and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. He will teach courses and conduct research in critical librarianship with an emphasis on underserved populations in rural communities.