Shari Lee, Ph.D., ‘04MLS, ’10APC, has reinvented herself
professionally many times — each time with outstanding
success. The narrative arc of her life spans a series of successful
careers in a variety of industries. Today, she revels in her career
as an Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science.
Testifying to her excellence in the field,
Shari received the 2011 Association for Library and Science
Information Education Eugene
Garfield Dissertation Award. Her thesis on making library space
more attractive to teens, was cited for its originality. The honor
was conferred in San Diego on January 7 at the 2011 Conference of
the Association for Library Science and Information
(ALISE).
Although Shari earned her Ph.D. at UCLA, she
considers herself “a St. John’s girl,” crediting St. John’s —
where she earned a Master’s
in Library Science (MLS) — with giving her the depth of
expertise and the confidence to become a leader in the field.
Her story starts to takes shape when she left
Jamaica at 17 to come to New York to study commercial art. She was
hired by a pennysaver newspaper, worked at a graphic arts firm
after graduating and also produced a newspaper on reggae music.
Inspired by her parents’ success in the bakery catering business,
Shari opened two Jamaican restaurants in Brooklyn, but ultimately
decided to get her college degree. “I needed the credentials to
ensure my marketability,” she said.
Majoring in hospitality management at CUNY,
Shari became fascinated by the life-changing attributes of
computers which led one of her professors to suggest that she
consider a career in library and information science. “Unlike the
other graduate programs I applied to, only St. John’s invited me to
come in for an interview the day after receiving my email,” she
said. Shari was offered a full scholarship but turned it down
because she already had a Gates
Millennium Scholarship. St. John’s also “enabled me to work
full-time and take care of my daughter — a necessity since I am a
single parent.”
Shari’s outstanding academic performance
helped her get into UCLA’s Information Studies program, which was
recruiting underrepresented candidates. The research she did for
her dissertation generated external recognition and led her to
enroll in St. John’s post-doctoral
School Media Librarianship certificate program where she
employed her usual diligence to complete two school internships
simultaneously while also organizing a symposium for
DLIS.
Impressed by her scholarship, Jeffrey Olson,
Ph.D., J.D., Director of Online Learning and Associate Professor of
Library Science and Information, offered Shari a one-year teaching
appointment to begin after completing the Librarianship. He also
asked her to teach a course based on her thesis — a course that she
is again teaching this summer. “Shari is a remarkable addition to
our faculty who teaches with insight, passion and empathy who
inspires her students to achieve more than they think themselves
capable of,” said Dr. Olson.