July 20, 2011
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 Distance 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.