Audrey Barbakoff is the CEO of Co/lab Capacity LLC, which provides community-centered consulting for libraries and social good organizations. During more than a decade in public libraries, her work was recognized by Library Journal Movers & Shakers, the Urban Libraries Council Top Innovators, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. Dr. Barbakoff holds an MLIS from the University of Washington and an EdD in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California. She is co-author of The 12 Steps to a Community-Led Library, and author of Adults Just Wanna Have Fun: Programs for Emerging Adults and the forthcoming picture book The Schlemiel Kids Save the Moon.
Noah Lenstra is an associate professor of library and information science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he brings a community organizing approach to the teaching and research of public librarianship. Since 2016, Dr. Lenstra has managed the Let’s Move in Libraries initiative, an online space for sharing stories and resources related to public library participation in community health initiatives related to food or physical activity. Dr. Lenstra holds doctoral and master’s degrees in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty is the director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The recently integrated Smithsonian Libraries and Archives contains nearly 3 million library volumes and over 44,000 cubic feet of archival materials chronicling the history of the Smithsonian. Evangelestia-Dougherty oversees 137 employees, a national advisory board of 15 members, an annual budget of over $16 million and 22 library branches and reading rooms located in Washington, D.C., New York City, Maryland, Virginia and the Republic of Panama.
Previously, Evangelestia-Dougherty was an associate university librarian at Cornell University where she initiated Cornell RAD, a new research hub for rare and distinctive collections. She is also a faculty member of the UCLA California Rare Book School. As director of collections and services at New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 2013 to 2014, Evangelestia-Dougherty led collection and programmatic development of five curatorial divisions. At the University of Chicago’s Black Metropolis Research Consortium, she served as executive director from 2011 to 2013 and as consulting archivist from 2007 to 2011. There, she successfully led initiatives to discover and make accessible archives related to the African American diaspora.
In addition to her extensive work with rare and distinctive collections, Evangelestia-Dougherty is a published author and public speaker who has presented nationally on topics of inclusivity and equity in bibliography, administration and primary-source literacy. She currently serves on the boards of Digital Scriptorium and the American Printing History Association.
Evangelestia-Dougherty holds a Master of Science in information science from Simmons University’s School of Library and Information Science in Boston and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Houston.
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campus’s Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
Lindsay Cronkis currently Assistant Dean for Scholarly Resources and Curation at the University of Rochester. She’s a passionate advocate and champion for libraries and library workers who served as first elected president of Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, ALA’s newest Division. Her consortial work includes the creation of NERL’s Backflip model for retroactive open access. She’s more covered in tattoos and full of strong opinions than ever before.
Maurini Strub is the Assistant Dean for Strategy & Planning at the University of Rochester. She’s a storyteller who enjoys helping organizations tell their own stories about how they are working together to fulfill their mission while optimizing limited resources; and, about the impact of their strategic changes on the community (or institution)-at-large. As a systems thinker with years of experience in academic libraries, she has a strong understanding of the strategic levers that can scale strategic and user-focused initiatives.
Ashley Krenelka Chase is a former law librarian and current Assistant Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, where she teaches research & writing. In her copious free time, Ashley writes about access to justice for incarcerated litigants, spends time pretending to be PeMento’s general counsel, and plays a lot of hide and seek with the Brute Squad (aka her three kids).
Rachel Fleming is Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where they manage the UTC Library’s Affordable Course Materials Initiative, support open campus publishing in UTC Scholar, and provide scholarly communications training and support.
Sarah R. Kostelecky is the Director of Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) for University of New Mexico Libraries. Her research focuses on outreach efforts to underrepresented communities, diversity in academic libraries and library collections, and Native American language resources. Previously at UNM, Sarah has served as the Education Librarian and Access Services Librarian in the Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP). She earned both her MA in Information Resources and Library Science and BA in Sociology from the University of Arizona. Prior to working at UNM Libraries, Sarah was the Library Director at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM, the premiere educational institution for contemporary Native American arts and cultures. Along with David A. Hurley and Paulita Aguilar, she co-edited “Sharing Knowledge and Smashing Stereotypes: Representing Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous Realities in Library Collections,” a special double issue of the journal Collection Management. Sarah has enjoyed working in a variety of libraries including university, public, tribal college, and museum. She is a member of Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.
Lori Townsend is the Learning Services Coordinator and Engineering Librarian for the University of New Mexico Libraries. Her research interests include threshold concepts and information literacy, academic librarians of color and cultural humility. Lori holds a BA in history from the University of New Mexico and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Before coming to UNM, she worked as the Electronic Collections Librarian at California State University, East Bay from 2005-2010. She is co-author, along with Amy R. Hofer and Silvia Lin Hanick, of the book Transforming Information Literacy Instruction: Threshold Concepts in Theory and Practice (Libraries Unlimited, 2018); she and Silvia Lin Hanick are Series Editors for the just-launched Libraries Unlimited Series on Teaching Information Literacy Today. Lori is a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley.
David A. Hurley is the Web and Discovery Librarian for the University Libraries. In addition to cultural humility, he writes and presents on search, reference services, and information literacy. He was previously the director of the Diné College libraries on the Navajo Nation, chief of the library development bureau at the New Mexico State Library, and branch and digital services manager for the public library of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. With Sarah R. Kostelecky and Paulita Aguilar, David co-edited “Sharing Knowledge and Smashing Stereotypes: Representing Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous Realities in Library Collections,” a special double issue of the journal Collection Management.
CJ Ivory is an Associate Professor and Librarian at the University of West Georgia, where she teaches Information Literacy & Research. With expertise in open education resources and textbook alternatives, she serves as a Library Champion for Affordable Learning Georgia, a statewide initiative. She has been awarded grants for developing open textbooks in the fields of teacher education and chemistry. Professor Ivory recently published a book with ACRL Press titled “Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice.”
Additionally, she teaches courses helping librarians develop their diversity and inclusion skills through Library Juice Academy. She has been invited to speak on these topics in academic libraries and professional organizations. Professor Ivory’s commitment to providing inclusive and equitable educational resources aligns with her passion for social justice education.
Angela Pashia has over a decade of experience as an academic librarian focusing on teaching critical information literacy, mentoring colleagues, working against structural oppression within libraries, and growing as a collaborative leader. Angela is currently a professor / learning & research support librarian at a regional comprehensive university. Angela is also an academic career and leadership development coach, supporting faculty and librarians in aligning their work with their core values, so that they can focus more on things that bring meaning to their life and less on things that are just chores that drain their energy. Angela teaches several courses at the Library Juice Academy. Learn more at https://angelapashia.com/
Mary Ann Cullen is an associate professor and Associate Department Head at Georgia State University’s Alpharetta Campus. She has been involved in the open and affordable educational resources movement since 2013, when she participated in the adaptation of an OER text for an introductory English composition course. Since then, she has assisted faculty with OER adoption and grants, and presented about librarians’ roles in OER at ACRL, the Distance Library Services Conference, and a Carterette Series webinar. She has been recognized as an Affordable Learning Georgia Featured Advocate and co-edited the Fall 2020 special edition of the academic journal, Library Trends, “OER and the Academic Library,” with Elizabeth Dill, in addition to the ACRL book, Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy, discussed in this podcast.
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. He is also the President of the Moraine Valley Faculty Association. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campuses Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
Grace M. Jackson-Brown is a professor for research and instruction at Missouri State University Libraries in Springfield, Missouri. She is chairperson of the Springfield African American Read-In and recipient of the 2014 Zora Neale Hurston Award for promoting African American literature and the Educational Partnership Award of the NAACP Springfield Chapter. Her career spans more than twenty-five years as an academic librarian, much of it devoted to library outreach diversity programming. She holds a master’s degree in library and information management from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, and a PhD in mass communication from Indiana University–Bloomington.
John Hubbard is a librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is excited to be leading the development of the main search interface: a discovery layer known as Primo.
John has worked with library technology for over twenty years, with an emphasis on taking an evidence-based and user-driven approach in order to offer the best library user experience. He has previously worked at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Haverford College, and the University of Pennsylvania. His past responsibilities include acting as a library webmaster, coordinating electronic resources, providing library reference services, performing bibliographic instruction, technical writing, and a little light cataloging. John received his library degree from Drexel University and his undergraduate degree at Macalester College.
He was once interviewed by National Public Radio about librarian stereotypes; has delivered presentations on the benefits of emerging and disruptive technologies; and currently operates the Library Link of the Day. He was also named a Library Journal “Mover & Shaker,” as one of the innovators “who are transforming libraries for the future.”
Sarah Voels is the director of Vogel Library at Wartburg College. She previously worked in collection development, where she began her research and study on diversity audits. These efforts have drawn national attention, and she has presented her findings at multiple conferences, including the Iowa Library Association, Public Library Association, and United for Libraries.
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Circulating Ideas 