University of Michigan School of Information
Leadership team
Elizabeth Yakel
Interim Dean, School of Information
Elizabeth Yakel, PhD, is the C. Olivia Frost Collegiate Professor of Information and Interim Dean at the University of Michigan School of Information.
Yakel is a two-time alumna of the school, and has been on the school's faculty since 2000. Prior to her appointment as Interim Dean, she was senior associate dean for academic affairs from 2015 to 2022.
Yakel is known for work advancing archival practice, the use of primary sources in archives education, studies of data reuse practices, and digital curation. She has been active in the instructional program, including teaching and mentoring master’s and doctoral students.
Elizabeth Yakel completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University in 1980. She attended the University of Michigan in 1982 where she received her Master of Arts in library science from the School of School of Information and Library Studies. In 1997, she earned a PhD from the school, newly renamed the University of Michigan School of Information. Her dissertation, “Recordkeeping in Radiology: The Relationships Between Activities and Records in Radiological Processes,” received the 1997 Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Award from Association of Library and Information Science Educators.
Yakel joined the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences from 1997 to 2000. She then returned to the University of Michigan School of Information in July of 2000 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor, with tenure, in 2005, and to professor in 2011.
Yakel became the associate dean for research and faculty affairs in 2014 and was appointed as senior associate dean for academic affairs in 2015. In 2021, she was appointed as the C. Olivia Frost Collegiate Professor of Information.
Yakel has successfully published numerous peer-reviewed articles and she currently edits the leading journal in her field, Archival Science. Her work includes more than 130 writings, cited over 2,600 times. In 2016, Yakel and Doris Malkmus co-authored a module titled “Contextualizing Archival Literacy” for Teaching with Primary Sources, a volume of the Society of American Archivists’ “Trends in Archives Practice” series.
Yakel’s research interests include digital archives and curation, specifically data reuse; teaching with primary sources; and the development of standardized metrics to enhance repository processes and the user experience. She has developed five graduate level courses at the University of Michigan, including the “Economics of Sustainable Digital Information” and “Access Systems for Archival Materials.”
Yakel is currently a co-principal investigator on two research projects. The first, “Measuring and Improving the Efficacy of Curation Activities in Data Archives,” is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and investigates how curatorial actions impact the reuse of digital collection. The second, funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates “Developing Evidence-based Data Sharing and Archiving Policies.”
Yakel’s many accolades and accomplishments include a Regents’ Fellowship in the School of Information at the University of Michigan from 1992 to 1995, a Research Fellowship for the Study of Modern Archives, Bentley Library, University of Michigan in 1994, and election as a Society of American Archivists Fellow in 1999. She was selected for the Academic Leadership Program Fellow in 2008-2009, and in 2012 was awarded the Michael D. Cohen Outstanding Service Award at the School of Information.
For her research, she received the 2013 International Digital Curation Conference Best Research Paper Award for “Trust in Digital Repositories” with Ixchel Faniel, Adam Kriesberg, and Ayoung Yoon, and the Society of American Archivists Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for the best paper in American Archivist (with Magia Krause) in 2008. In 2020, she received the Society of American Archivists Council Exemplary Service Award for the Archival Metrics Research Project, a collection of standardized user-based evaluation tools and other performance measures for archives.
Paul Resnick
Associate Dean for Research and Innovation
Paul Resnick is the Michael D. Cohen Collegiate Professor of Information, the associate dean for research and innovation, and director of the Center for Social Media Responsibility. He was a pioneer in the field of recommender systems; the GroupLens system he helped develop was awarded the 2010 ACM Software Systems Award. He also did some of the earliest work on online reputation systems, both documenting their promise for incentivizing good behavior and the limits of their effectiveness when it is easy for people to create new accounts. His 2012 book (co-authored with Robert Kraut) is titled Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-based Social Design. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and master's and PhD degrees from MIT.
Cliff Lampe
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Cliff Lampe is professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Information. His research examines how the design of social media platforms is associated with both positive and negative social interactions. His work on social media has been heavily cited, and he’s advised corporations, non-profits, and government agencies on social media issues for many years. Lampe is also active in service in the area of human-computer interaction. He’s a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and has served in many leadership roles for the Special Interest Group in Human-Computer Interaction, including as the general chair for their flagship conference. At the University of Michigan, Lampe has served in many service roles, including as director of the undergraduate program for the School of Information for the past several years. Lampe is committed to helping people use technology to create social good, and to have the university play a central role in civic, economic and social life.
Erin Krupka
Associate Dean for Faculty
Erin Krupka is the associate dean for faculty and associate professor of information at the School of Information. Krupka, who joined the faculty at UMSI in 2009, served as director of the doctoral program from 2019 to 2023, and was appointed adjunct administrator in the dean’s office in 2023.
An experimental behavioral economist, Krupka’s research focuses on motivating individuals to engage in behaviors that benefit organizations and communities, as well as bringing about shifts in values and culture within these contexts. Her most significant impact has been to transform how social norms are studied, to create techniques for identifying when a norm is shared in a population, whether it is strong or weak, how and at what moment norm change has taken place, and charting the role that norms play in shaping behavior in contexts from political, to health, to work environments. During her time at UMSI, Krupka has secured funding from prestigious institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the Donaghue Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Krupka teaches in the areas of behavioral economics, organizational management and choice architecture. She has been honored with the UMSI's Teaching Award and the Honored Instructor Award from the University of Michigan Housing. She has also been nominated twice for the University of Michigan's Golden Apple Teaching Award. As associate dean for faculty, she is excited to work collaboratively to support, mentor, and advance faculty success and professional development.
Judy Schabel
Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Judy (Lawson) Schabel serves as assistant dean for diversity, equity & inclusion. Previously she served as assistant dean for academic and student affairs and as sirector of student affairs at UMSI.
She began her career at the University of Michigan Career Center, where she worked as a career counselor and then led internship and recruitment services. She is the 2008 recipient of the university's Outstanding Leadership Award. She is co-author of The New Information Professional: Your Guide to Careers in the Digital Age, published by Neal-Schuman. She holds an MA in higher education and student affairs and a BA in psychology from The Ohio State University and holds a PhD in higher education administration from the University of Michigan.
Scott Staelgraeve
Administrative Director
Scott Staelgraeve joined UMSI in 2013 as the school’s chief administrative officer and chief of staff. He directs overall strategic planning and implementation, policy and organizational development, and resource allocation for the school. Prior to coming to UMSI, he worked for nine years for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, where among other responsibilities, he was the general manager of the Upper Peninsula State Fair. Previous employers include Cabela’s and Ducks Unlimited. He holds a BS from Michigan State University and an MBA in finance from Baker College Center for Graduate Studies.