{"id":19556,"date":"2026-09-02T10:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=19556"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:46:07","slug":"melissa-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/melissa-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What brought you to URI?
<\/strong>I was looking to make a change to a university that supported research, and when I saw the position open up at URI, I knew it was time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you become interested in your field?<\/strong>
I began my career as a school library media specialist and was a school library media specialist for 13 years. I reached the point in my career where I was ready to give back to a profession I love and prepare future school librarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you most excited about in your new role?<\/strong>
Working with my new colleagues!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you currently researching?<\/strong>
My areas of research expertise include school libraries, school librarian leadership, research methods, theory building, and technology integration.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a particular project you’re especially excited about right now?<\/strong>
I am currently working on theory development for my proposed Theory of School Librarian Leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you enjoy most about teaching?<\/strong>
Helping students develop practical skills and knowledge they need to succeed as school library media specialists in today\u2019s complex educational environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there faculty or departments you’d especially like to collaborate with?<\/strong>
I am open to all collaborations! Some of the best research partners come from where you least expect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can students best approach you if they’re interested in your research?<\/strong>
Email me at mpjohnston@uri.edu<\/a>. I love to talk research!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you enjoy doing outside of academia?<\/strong>
I love to travel and have visited 40 countries across 6 continents. I also love college football and cheering on my team, the Georgia Bulldogs!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New faculty, Graduate Library and Information Studies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5153,"featured_media":19552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19557,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions\/19557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}