The UNT Presidential Early Career Professor Award recognizes a faculty member who has an outstanding record of research, scholarship, or creative activity, and whose work shows the potential to be transformative. Information Science Assistant Professor, Dr. Sarah Evans, received this high recognition during the April 23rd ceremony. 

The award also includes the Early Career Professor distinction and a one-time payment of $50,000 to use towards research support. Dr. Evans plans to use some of the funds to hire a project manager to help with current National Science Foundation and The Institute of Museum and Library Services research for her “Raise Up Radio: Family and Youth Engagement in Library supported Learning via Radio” project. Evans says developing the project for rural communities means a lot to her because, “if you are a farmer or a rancher, you already live a life filled with STEM and the richness of that knowledge needs to be shared.”   
Dr. Evans also works on research for a graphic medicine health literacy project that teaches people how to put how they feel, physically or mentally, in a comic format. This helps patients better explain their challenges to medical professionals. “Finding and developing plans that explore projects that people don’t think about in informal learning” are Dr. Evans’ specialty. She enjoys putting together two things that are not normally associated together, such as comics and medicine.   

The distinction of the Early Career Professorship means a lot to Dr. Evans because “my mother always taught me that learning is the best thing in the world and the more you learn the smarter you are, and when you are smart, you have to do good things in the world. In my research, I feel proud to help make the world a better place,” she shares.