Alumni Award Winners
Each year, the School of Information makes a special effort to recognize the alumni who are transforming the global information environment and making us proud to call them our own.
Below are the awards and award winners who have received our acclaim for 2025. (Here are our past winners.)
2025 Alumni Award Winners
John Sharp
KSU iSchool Friend of the Year Award
John Sharp, MSSA, FHIMS, developed a course on Clinical Analytics for the Kent State Health Informatics program in 2012 and a second course Clinical Analytics II. He taught these courses annually as an adjunct until 2024.
At the time, he was the manager of Clinical Research Informatics at the Cleveland Clinic and later the Director of Thought Leadership at HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society).
He was an active member of HIMSS and the American Medical Informatics Association and presented at both of their conferences as well as at professional meetings in Canada and Europe. He is the author of 58 articles and book chapters and a coauthor of the book Making a Difference: Careers in Health Informatics.
Dawn Sedor
iSchool M.S. Alumni of the Year Award
Dawn Sedor is an accomplished knowledge management professional with a passion for connecting people, processes and technology to drive strategic outcomes. A proud 2019 graduate of Kent State University鈥檚 Master of Knowledge Management program, she co-founded the inaugural Graduate Student Advisory Council and previously received the Thomas B. Froehlich Award for academic excellence and leadership in KM.
Dawn is recognized for building sustainable KM frameworks, fostering collaboration and translating complex challenges into practical solutions. As a Global Knowledge Manager at Deloitte, she advances strategic priorities by building strong relationships and promoting knowledge assets, solutions and tools. Previously, she worked at NASA, where she developed a scalable knowledge platform and founded a community of practice to promote cross-agency sharing.
A strong advocate for continuous learning and community engagement, Dawn serves on Kent State鈥檚 KM Advisory Board, mentors college students with disabilities and volunteers locally with a focus on youth and public education.
Mary Yates
Dan Maclachlan School Library Media Award
Before earning her M.L.I.S degree from Kent State, Mary Yates received her B.A. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After completing her undergraduate degree, she served for two years with City Year Columbus before becoming an Instructional Assistant at Columbus City Schools. A life-long lover of libraries, Mary felt that once she was placed in a middle school library for her job that everything kind of clicked into place. Her colleagues and principal pushed her to pursue the M.L.I.S degree, and she says she will be forever thankful that they did. Currently, Mary works at that same middle school, but now as the Librarian.
Brendan Erb
Dan Maclachlan School Library Media Award
Brendan Erb graduated from Kent State University in 2024 with an M.L.I.S. and K-12 School Library Media Licensure. He serves as a library media specialist in Dublin City Schools, where he is delighted to work with middle school students in all their world-exploring, relationship-propelled splendor. Brendan approaches his role as a teacher first, partnering with classroom teachers to guide students through metacognitive processes regarding the value of information and to effectively leverage tools that can match students with the information they truly need, from books to research articles, in an age of information abundance. His best advisors are students, who show him and tell him how the library can improve its services. He is currently enrolled in a Master鈥檚 Certificate in Restorative Justice in Education at Eastern Mennonite University.
Allison McPherson
H.F. Group Preservation Award
Allison McPherson earned her M.L.I.S. with a concentration in Archival Studies from Kent State University in 2024. Growing up, her grandmother saved and documented everything about their farm and family. Watching this planted a passion for history and preserving it for future generations.
During her studies she sought opportunities that grew archival skills through practical application and built a strong base network of professionals in the field. Through internships at Columbus Metropolitan Library Local History and Genealogy, and Ohio State University Libraries she learned a range of physical and digital preservation skills.
She has recently accepted a position at The Ohio State University Libraries as a Technical Services Archivist, and is excited to continue growing her preservation skills to help the field progress. Between starting a new position and pursuing continuing education any free time is spent either outside with her husband or inside with a book and her cat.
Hannah Plank
H.F. Group Preservation Award
Hannah Plank is the Digital Image Specialist in the Visual Resources Library of the art history department at Emory University. In her role at Emory, she manages a digital image collection that is used for research and teaching in art history, and works to digitize 35mm slides, negatives and other materials. She also supports digital humanities projects in art history through digitization and project management. Hannah graduated from Kent State University in 2024 with an M.L.I.S. and she also holds an M.A. in art history from Texas Christian University and a B.A. in art history for Agnes Scott College. She is an active member of the Visual Resources Association and the Art Libraries Society of North America. Outside of work, Hannah enjoys caring for her collection of houseplants and following NCAA sports, especially volleyball and women鈥檚 basketball.
Melissa Meadwell
Janice Smuda Children's Librarianship Award
Melissa Meadwell holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in social work from Cleveland State University and recently earned two master鈥檚 degrees, one in library and information science and one in educational technology from Kent State University.
Melissa serves as the District Librarian/Media Specialist at Cuyahoga Heights Schools. Her journey at CHS began when she was working as a Library Assistant, partnered with an incredible librarian and mentor who recently retired. Now, she's excited to continue supporting the school's amazing students and staff in her role!
When she's not working or studying, Melissa can be found camping and cheering at school sports events with her husband, Jason, her two sons, Jason and Tyler, and the family's beagle/terrier mix, Lexi. She's a big fan of concerts, movies and (of course!) reading. In fact, one of her favorite things is recommending great books to friends, family, students or anyone who will listen. As Melissa says, "There鈥檚 nothing better than helping others discover the magic of a good story!"
Matt Reihing
Thomas J. Froelich Award
Matt Reihing graduated from Kent State鈥檚 User Experience (UX) graduate program in 2024. He is passionate about using writing and UX to make information findable and usable and was a recipient of the iSchool鈥檚 Best Papers of 2024 award. Matt鈥檚 work has included writing educational material, designing knowledge bases, optimizing websites and content and researching the findability and accessibility of information online. He is passionate about user advocacy and disability awareness, especially concerning hearing loss and hearing aid adoption. After graduating from KSU, he successfully switched industries to UX after working as a technical writer. He currently works on the design system at GAP Inc.
Christina Turner
Thomas J. Froelich Award
Christina Turner graduated with an M.S. in User Experience from Kent State University鈥檚 iSchool in 2024. Years of public library service, gallery curation and management, freelance design and fine arts practice have informed her evolving design practice.
Christina is passionate about building community and empowering people through empathic, human-centered technology, systems and service design and implementation. She would particularly like to thank Dr. Catherine Smith and Dr. Kendra Albright for their support, feedback, and encouragement in pursuing and presenting research in the ways people discover local and community-specific information. Christina serves on the board of local professional development organization UX Akron.
