Two members of the UT Austin School of Information community have been named among the recipients of the UT President's 2026 Outstanding Staff Awards: current student Elista Street and double alumna Katie Pierce Meyer. They join a select group of 30 non-teaching university employees recognized this year for making outstanding contributions to the continuing success of the university. Recipients received a certificate and a $1,500 honorarium.
Katie Pierce Meyer, who earned both her M.S. in Information Studies and Ph.D. in Information Studies from the iSchool, serves as Head of Architectural Collections at UT Libraries, where she also leads the university's digital humanities programs. An architectural historian and archivist, Pierce Meyer's research explores the preservation of architectural artifacts and born-digital records as traces of socio-technical networks. She has been supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services as a Doctoral Preservation Fellow and has presented at prominent national and international venues, including the Library of Congress and an International Confederation of Architectural Museums virtual panel on digital archives.
Elista Street is a Training Coordinator with Enterprise Technology – Learning Technology at UT Austin, where she designs and delivers training for university staff, faculty, and students on Microsoft 365 applications. Street is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Information Studies at the iSchool, bringing more than four years of experience in records and information management in the education sector to her work. She is passionate about empowering the university community with practical skills in tools like SharePoint and Microsoft Power Automate.
The Outstanding Staff Awards Program, administered through the President's Staff Awards, recognizes the contributions of non-teaching employees across the university. This year's honorees were selected from across UT Austin's schools, colleges, and units.
The iSchool congratulates Katie and Elista on this well-deserved recognition. Their work connects communities to information, archives, and technology, reflecting the School of Information's commitment to preparing and supporting professionals who serve the public good. A full list of 2026 recipients is available on the President's Staff Awards website.