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The Office for Academic Personnel and Faculty is proud to celebrate Dr. Kate Starbird, a distinguished University of Washington faculty member whose career reflects excellence in scholarship, public service, and community impact. On February 15, UW Athletics recognized Dr. Starbird during halftime of the UW Women’s Basketball game against the University of Oregon, honoring both her academic achievements and her remarkable legacy in women’s basketball. 

A Leader in Crisis Informatics and Public‑Impact Research 

Dr. Starbird is a professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and a co‑founder of the Center for an Informed Public (CIP). Her research resides at the intersection of human‑computer interaction and crisis informatics, examining how social media and digital communication systems shape public understanding during emergencies and breaking news events. Her work has contributed vital insight into how rumors, misinformation, and disinformation emerge and circulate during crises—research that has become increasingly crucial in today’s fast‑moving information environment. 

In 2024, Dr. Starbird received two major honors for her impact on scholarship and society. The 2024 University Faculty Lecture Award recognized the widespread influence of her research and the profound contributions she has made to her field and to the broader public. She also received the 2024 SIGCHI Societal Impact Award, acknowledging her leadership in addressing urgent social issues through human‑computer interaction research. 

From the Court to the Classroom: Starbird’s Remarkable Athletic Legacy 

Long before joining UW’s faculty, Dr. Starbird made her mark as one of the nation’s top collegiate basketball players. As a student‑athlete at Stanford University from 1993 to 1997, she earned Naismith College Player of the Year honors and helped lead her team to three consecutive Final Four appearances from 1995 to 1997. She scored 2,215 career points, setting a Stanford program record that stood for 11 years.  

After college, she played professionally in the American Basketball League, the WNBA, and across several European leagues, competing for teams including the Seattle Reign, Sacramento Monarchs, Utah Starzz, Seattle Storm, and Indiana Fever. 

Her athletic career reflects the same qualities she brings to her scholarship—discipline, resilience, collaboration, and a drive for excellence. 

A Commitment to Public Service and Informed Communities 

Across her research, teaching, and public engagement, Dr. Starbird has dedicated her career to helping society better understand how information flows in moments of uncertainty. As faculty director of the Center for an Informed Public from 2020 to 2023, she helped shape a cross‑disciplinary effort to strengthen democratic discourse and resist strategic misinformation, advancing CIP’s mission of promoting an informed society. 

Her scholarship has been widely recognized for its societal relevance, and she continues to be a leading voice in national conversations about digital information, crisis response, and the evolving dynamics of online participation. 

Honored by UW Athletics on February 15 

On February 15, during halftime of the UW Women’s Basketball game versus the University of Oregon, UW Athletics highlighted Dr. Starbird’s extraordinary contributions as part of the UW Faculty and Staff Spotlight, presented by BECU and The Whole U. This recognition celebrates the full arc of her career—from her achievements as one of the most accomplished collegiate basketball players of her era to her influential work as a scholar and public‑impact researcher at the University of Washington. 

Her story is a powerful example of Husky excellence across disciplines, reminding us that the skills honed on the court—leadership, perseverance, teamwork—can shape and elevate an academic career with global impact. 

Celebrating a Scholar‑Athlete and a Champion for Informed Communities 

Dr. Kate Starbird’s career embodies the highest ideals of the University of Washington: rigorous scholarship, commitment to the public good, and the pursuit of excellence in all endeavors. We congratulate her on her recent honors and celebrating her accomplishments with the UW community.

 

Story filed by Courtney Laguio

Welcome to the new Promotion and Tenure (P&T) cycle! Case initiation for the 2026–2027 cycle is now open.

Getting Started

Case initiation is available on the Case Maintenance page. After completing any unit template updates, initiate your new cases through this page. Cases will appear in Interfolio RPT within two hours. This streamlined process includes Workday data with each case and eliminates the need to manually enter appointment data.

Important Reminders for 2026-2027

New standing committees may be required. If a standing committee’s membership is changing from the 2025–26 cycle, you must create a new committee. Any changes to an existing committee will update all associated cases, including 2025–26 cases. Update your template to ensure all cases are created with the correct committees.
Remember to use the Replace functionality for committees to retain step instructions and requirements.
Candidates must be notified when their cases are ready. Steps with form requirements must have a Committee Manager assigned to complete the form.

Recent Updates

Closing cases. If a case must be closed due to an error or candidate withdrawal, use the existing reason codes Error or Candidate Withdrew, respectively. Please do not create new reason codes, as we want to track closed cases for reporting purposes. If a case is closed due to the candidate’s withdrawal, please also email acadpers@uw.edu to notify our office.

External Reviewer Grid updates. In response to formatting feedback, the following updates have been made to the template on our website:

• Removed two columns used to track reminder email dates
• Combined the name fields into a single column (Last, First)
• Reordered columns to reflect content importance
• Updated formatting to narrow margins, landscape orientation, and fit-to-one-page layout

We hope these changes improve both usability and readability.

External Reviewer Nominees form. Based on feedback regarding issues with the required External Reviewer Nominees form, APF has approved removing this requirement from your template. Nominees provided by the candidate should still appear on the External Reviewer Nominee grid, but names may be collected outside of RPT. You may also share the grid directly with candidates to reduce duplicate work.

To remove the form from your template:
1. Navigate to your template.
2. From the Template Summary page, select Candidate Requirements on the right.

3. From the Candidate Requirements page, scroll down to Packet Requirements.
4. Locate the External Reviewer Nominees form and remove it from your template by clicking the X. Do not remove any other requirements.

5. Confirm the removal.

Questions?

Please submit inquiries to acadpers@uw.edu.

 

On January 1, US Citizenship and Immigration Services published internal guidance to (1) place a hold on immigration benefits requests by nationals of countries affected by the expanded December 2025 entry ban, and (2) conduct a retrospective review of approved benefits requests for nationals of those countries who entered the U.S. on or after January 20, 2021. This represents an expansion of the adjudication hold USCIS implemented in December 2025.

The hold now affects persons born in or holding citizenship from the following countries (including countries listed in the June 2025 entry ban):

Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, The Gambia, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

This guidance applies to all benefits requests, including petitions processed through ISO (like the I-129 Petition for Temporary Worker used for H-1Bs, E-3s, and TNs, or the I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker used for permanent residence sponsorship), as well as personal applications like the I-765 Application for Employment Authorization, I-485 Application to Adjust Status, and the N-400 Application for Naturalization. USCIS processing of H-1Bs and other UW-sponsored visas will be affected. J-1 exchange visitors should be unaffected unless they are applying for other immigration statuses/benefits through USCIS.

ISO has identified all in-process H visa requests that may be affected and reached out to the associated units and scholars directly to discuss possible ramifications for visa processing. Affected scholars who do not have an in-process visa request may reach out to acadvisa@uw.edu for more information.