This article focuses on two collaborative projects selected by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee to partner in the US Department of State's Diplomacy Lab program that engages college students and faculty to study foreign policy challenges. The projects allowed information science graduate students to learn applied research in the process of developing geographic information systems for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex advocacy. The paper identifies opportunities, challenges, and best practices in content delivery, resource development, and extended relationship-building while drawing upon teaching-research-advocacy intersections in library and information science education.