Elizabeth Arestyl is a supplemental instructor and writing consultant with the Queens College SEEK program. She is also a 2021-2022 Open Educational Resources fellow with the CUNY Office of Library Services. Currently, Elizabeth is completing her MLS at the CUNY Queens College GSLIS program.
Elvis Bakaitis is currently the Head of Reference at The Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library. They serve on the University LGBTQ Council, board of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, and as a Coordinator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Bakaitis holds an MLIS from Queens College and Certificate in Geriatric Care Management from the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College.
Emily Benoff is first-year Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) candidate at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. She specializes in archival studies, with research interests in critical archival theory, community archives, and the relationship(s) between archives and place.
Shatha Baydoun is a library faculty member at the University of Miami. She has a master’s degree in information science from Wayne State University along with a master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan. Her current research interests include academic libraries, information literacy, DEIA issues, along with the various ways libraries, museums, and archives design metadata for Arabic and Islamic cultural artifacts. She speaks Arabic and Krio (the lingua franca of Sierra Leone).
Emilee Bews, a member of Batchewana First Nations, is the Indigenous Librarian Assistant at the University of Calgary. She received her BA in English (’22) from the University of Calgary, and will be completing her MA in Education & Society (’24) at McGill, part of the second class of McCall MacBain Scholars.
William (Bill) Blick is an assistant professor /electronic resources librarian at Queensborough Community College (CUNY). His research interests are varied and he has published several articles and presented at conferences on librarianship and remediation, predatory publishing, pop culture, crime fiction, and film studies in many diverse venues.
Ava Brillat is the Program Lead for Information Literacy and Instructional Design at the University of Miami Libraries. She received her MLIS from the University of South Florida in 2010, and her MA in Liberal Studies from the University of Miami in 2019. Prior to coming to the University of Miami, she worked as an Instructional Design Librarian. Her personal research focuses on mentoring, collaboration, and diversity in librarianship. Ava identifies as a White, cis-gender, able-boded female, and this perspective impacts her work and experience.
Alexandria Brown is a queer Black librarian, local historian, writer, and author. They are an Ignyte award winning and Hugo award nominated writer and critic who covers speculative fiction and young adult literature for Tor.com, Locus Magazine, NPR Books, and elsewhere. They also write on topics such as queerness, Black history, librarianship, and pop culture.
J. Silvia Cho (she/her) is the Interlibrary Loan Manager and library liaison to the Linguistics and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) programs at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her areas of publication and research have included sharing digital collections, open access and global scholarly inclusion, the representation of immigrants in library systems, and multicultural users’ library use. She holds an MLS from Queens College and an MA in Liberal Studies with a concentration on International Migration from the Graduate Center, CUNY.
Sarah B. Cohn (she/her) is an Assistant Professor and Head of Reference at The City College of New York, CUNY.
Anastasia “Stacy” Collins (she/they) is the Curriculum & Research Coordinator at Simmons University Library. She was named a 2021 Mover & Shaker for her changework in children’s literature and librarianship and is the author of the “Language, Power, and Oppression in the LIS Diversity Void” and the Simmons Library Anti-Oppression Guide. Outside of librarianship, Stacy is a book reviewer, a book guide author, and an anti-oppression educator. Follow them online at @DarkLiterata.
Jonathan Cope has been a Reference/Instruction Librarian at the College of Staten Island (CSI), CUNY since 2007. His research has been focused on the ways in which library and information literacy work is situated within specific social, historical, cultural, economic, and disciplinary contexts. He is currently working on the intellectual history of radical librarianship in 20th century America.
Breanne Crumpton is the Information Literacy Librarian for the Humanities at Appalachian State University. She serves as the library liaison for the departments of English and History. Her research interests include DEIA work in libraries, social and racial justice to overcome systemic barriers, and critical information literacy.
Diana Dill is an Instructional Designer at the University of Pittsburgh, Oakland Campus
Erica Finch is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Utah State University, where she explores community-led approaches to scholarly communications. When it comes to her own research, she prefers to eschew the traditional research article for alternative outputs. Off the clock, Erica procrastinates over her various art projects by binge-reading books and going for long hikes.
Ellis Ging is a current student in the CUNY Queens College GSLIS program, expected to graduate later this spring. He is a scholarly communications fellow at the CUNY Office of Library Services and the current Queens College Center for Jewish Studies archives fellow as well as working in the adult reference department at the South Huntington Public Library. He also holds an MFA in Literary Translation from CUNY Queens College.
Jess deCourcy Hinds is the Library Director of Bard High School Early College Queens, one of the nation’s only tuition-free associate’s degree programs. She is presenting with students from the Abled-Disabled Alliance, which she co-advises. You can read more about Hinds’ creative and library-related writing in her free quarterly newsletter, I’m an Open Book. Hinds holds an M.S.L.I.S. from the Pratt Institute, an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College and BA from Smith College.
Cinthya Ippoliti has been a librarian for over 20 years and has held roles at a wide variety of academic institutions. Most recently, as director of the Auraria Library, Cinthya provides direct administrative leadership for library services, spaces, partnerships, and programming on the tri-institutional Auraria Campus which includes the University of Colorado, Denver; Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Community College of Denver and serves approximately 35,000 highly diverse students in an urban setting. In collaboration with the Library’s administrative team, she sets a strategic vision to develop new services, foster creativity and collaboration, and provide professional development and mentorship opportunities for all library employees. Prior to joining the Auraria Library she was the Associate Dean for Research and Learning Services at Oklahoma State University and Head of Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland Libraries. Her research interests include leadership, organizational development, and managing change.
Jenni Jacobs received her BS and MS in English Literature from Radford University in 2012 and 2015. She then received her MLIS from Valdosta State University in 2018. After graduating Jenni worked at Kennesaw State University as a Marketing and Outreach Librarian before moving to Texas Tech in 2021 to work as a STEM librarian. Her research interests include memes and marketing, social media outreach and marketing, and gamification in the library.
Renee Kiner is a Public Services Librarian at University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg Campus.
James Lowry is Acting Chair of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York, where he is an Associate Professor. He is presenting on behalf of the Information Undercommons group, which is based at the Archival Technologies Lab, Queens College.
Kaia MacLeod, a member of the James Smith Cree Nation, is the Indigenous Cataloguing Librarian at the University of Calgary. She has an MLIS from the University of Alberta as well as her BA majoring in Film Studies, which she sometimes likes to call a degree in “movie watching.”
Katie Quirin Manwiller is the Education Librarian and Assistant Professor at West Chester University. She earned her MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015, and has worked as an archivist and instruction librarian in academic settings. Katie lives with chronical illness and is dynamically disabled. Her research and advocacy focuses on improving disability inclusion in libraries. You can find her @librariankqm on Twitter or through her professional website.
Brea McQueen is the Operations Manager at the University of Cincinnati, Clermont College. She earned her MLIS from Kent State University in 2017 and has worked as a librarian and manager in Southwest Ohio, with the majority of her career centered in public librarianship. Brea lives with multiple invisible disabilities and is dynamically disabled. Her research now focuses on disability inclusion in libraries but originally began with her interest in understanding the representation of disabled, Black and other marginalized bodies in horror literature. You can find her on Twitter at @brealikecheese.
Reyzl Grace MoChridhe is a library media specialist at a private high school in the American Midwest, as well as a writer and translator in both English and Yiddish. Her research interests lie at the intersection of library science and applied linguistics, with a special focus on language revitalization and the cultural rights of minoritized populations. She is currently serving as editor for the Association of Jewish Libraries’ upcoming revision of the Jewish Library Handbook and as volunteer copy editor for Cordella Magazine. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, poetry, and teaching her son to play darts.
For 20+ years, Rachael Nevins has designed, written, and edited instructional materials and assessments for K–12 and college students. She has a master’s degree in English Education from Teachers College, is a GSLIS student at Queens College, and works as an OER Fellow with CUNY OLS and an adjunct at BMCC’s library.
Bethany Paul is currently serving as the Indigenous Learning and Engagement Librarian and the Liaison Librarian for English and International Indigenous Studies at the University of Calgary. Originally from Manitoba, Bethany is a proud member of the Manitoba Métis Nation from Treaty 1 Territory, near Winnipeg. She has an MLIS from The University of Western Ontario, a GradD in Arts from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a BA Advanced Degree from the University of Manitoba.
Leslie Poljak is the Outreach and Engagement Librarian at the University of Pittsburgh, Oakland Campus.
Kelly C. Rhodes is the Coordinator of Information Literacy & Instruction in the University Libraries at Appalachian State University. She serves as the library liaison for the departments of Art, Communication, Theatre & Dance and the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Her research interests include information literacy, assessment, and diversity in librarianship.
Rachel G. Rubin (she/her) is the Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions from Simmons University and an MLIS from Kent State University. Prior to her work in academic libraries, she spent twelve years as a public librarian and library director. Her research interests include disinformation, belonging, and sustaining healthy organizational cultures.
Eric Silberberg is a recent graduate of CUNY Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Science and currently is a scholarly communications fellow at CUNY’s Office for Library Services, the adjunct liaison librarian for Latin American and Caribbean studies at New York University, and an adjunct librarian at the Center for Worker Education at the City College of New York. Before transitioning to librarianship, Eric was an instructor and researcher in the communication and political science departments at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.
Vikki C. Terrile is an Assistant Professor and the Public Services and Assessment Librarian/Co-Coordinator of Instruction at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. She earned her MS in library science from Long Island University, and her MA in Urban Affairs from Queens College (CUNY). She is currently a doctoral candidate at SUNY, the University at Buffalo, conducting her dissertation research on how families in homeless situations and youth librarians understand and experience libraries.
Anders Tobiason is the Multimedia Development and User Experience Librarian / Assistant Professor at Boise State University. He holds both a Ph.D. in Music Theory and an M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Anders was previously a Research and Instruction librarian at Portland State University. His research interests include anti-racist library instruction, multimedia development, critical discourse analysis of library instructional standards and materials, performing arts librarianship, dis/misinformation studies, and social media use in library instruction.
Diana K. Wakimoto (she/her) is an academic librarian at California State University, East Bay. She is yonsei (4th generation), mixed race (Japanese, German, and Danish) and her areas of research include experiences of multiracial library workers and communication in libraries. She earned her PhD from Queensland University of Technology.
Leila Walker is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at Queens College. She holds a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center.
