By Justin Teoh
After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill in May and toward the conclusion of her position, Avianna Wooten reflected on her experience working as a graduate research assistant (GRA) at the North Carolina Collaboratory. Since August 2023, Avianna has leaned on past experiences in information science, history, and museums to implement projects related to impact metrics, data collection, and research processes.
During her search for graduate-level roles on campus, Avianna applied for the Collaboratory’s GRA position. Avianna was excited to receive the offer to join the Collaboratory’s team, and shared, “I was compelled by its mission to address environmental and health issues within North Carolina. Taking on this role would give me the opportunity to develop a reciprocal relationship with the State and understand its history.”
Looking back on her academic journey, Avianna ascribes her interests and educational path to her upbringing. Growing up, an emphasis on the import of familial and communal history was shared with her. Avianna recalled reading her grandmother’s scrapbooks – personal archives that traced the development and narratives of the South Floridian community – during her childhood in Jacksonville, Florida. She carried this interest in local history forward by taking relevant classes from her community college and the University of California at Los Angeles, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in history.
During her time at UCLA, Avianna’s work experiences showed her the services that various institutions offer to local community groups. As a library assistant in research services at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Avianna explored how libraries can provide empowering knowledge on local stories and experiences and connect visitors with key services. Her public programs internship at the J. Paul Getty Museum taught her how people and artists relate and interact with a wide range of public-serving institutions. Lastly, from her roles at the Hammer Museum and Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, she learned how institutional resources are mobilized to support key functions and priorities.
Across these roles, Avianna worked on projects related to information science: she administered a digital asset management system, tagged relevant keywords to map content onto existing databases, and collected diversity data of artists in museum programs.
Avianna’s previous positions profoundly impacted how she views information systems and their import. “I consider information systems as processes that are put in place to assist people,” Avianna said. “I also consider how these processes can trace the intellectual legacies of ideas in certain ways, which present fascinating ethical implications on the way we approach data structure, collection, and analysis.”
At the Collaboratory, the ethos of Avianna’s work revolved around contributing to the well-being of North Carolinian communities in equitable and inclusive ways. Initially, she thought her job was limited to creating an information network for distribution to the Collaboratory’s stakeholders. “But I was delighted,” she said, “to see how the relationships here are more people-centered than that. Everyone here works to build trust with people, and information moves through the relationships that are cultivated from it.”
During her tenure at the Collaboratory, Avianna worked on three projects. First, she analyzed research impact from Collaboratory-funded projects and assessed two things: 1) who comprises external stakeholders; and 2) how research findings might impact these groups. Second, she interpreted internal data collection processes and recommended changes to make results reporting more accessible. Third, she mapped keywords from research reports into the Collaboratory’s database to improve project searchability.
These three projects were closely related to Avianna’s professional and personal interests and allowed her to apply academic knowledge to practice. “I have always been interested in studying how the way we structure information impacts what questions can be asked and answered,” she said. Through the Collaboratory’s work, Avianna was able to see how productive, reciprocal relationships can form by prompting academics to articulate the benefits that communities can gain through their research’s implications.
Upon finalizing her GRA projects, Avianna reflected on her time at the Collaboratory. “What I want to accomplish,” she remarked, “is for my work to be sustainable and intentional. I am often thinking about what makes sense for the Collaboratory’s mission to be tangible to the communities it serves.” Avianna hopes her work lives beyond her presence at the Collaboratory and Carolina.
Justin Teoh recently graduated with a bachelor’s in public policy and comparative literature. Justin has been an intern with the NC Collaboratory since the spring of 2024.