Bios and photos for the WebJunction Round 3 Spanish Language Outreach Trainers Yolanda Cuesta – Institute Facilitator/Curriculum Developer Ms. Cuesta is a nationally-recognized expert in outreach to multicultural communities and specializes in helping libraries and other non-profit organizations serve ethnic and culturally diverse communities. Her work emphasizes community-based needs assessments, building partnerships and community coalitions, marketing and public relations, and program planning and evaluation. Prior to starting her own business, Ms. Cuesta was Chief of Library Development Services and Ethnic Services Consultant for the California State Library. She is a certified trainer for the Public Library Association’s Planning for Results and Managing for Results process. She is a member of ALA; the California Library Association, The American Marketing Association, REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish-Speaking, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Her publications include “From Survival to Sophistication: Hispanic Needs = Library Needs,” “Guidelines for Library Services to the Spanish-Speaking,” both published in Library Journal , and “Marketing to Latinos: It’s About Building Trust,” published in Information Today. She has authored a chapter, “Developing Outreach Skills in Library Staff” in the upcoming ALA Editions book, “From Outreach to Equity.” Minerva Alaniz Minerva Alaniz is the subject librarian for Education, Children's Literature, and Texas State Adopted Textbooks in the Information Services Department at Texas Tech University. She also provides reference service which includes computer-based research advisory at the library's main Reference Desk. She teaches a library instruction class which teaches students how to do research at the library. Minerva is involved in the collection development process for her area which includes ordering books. She is involved in the outreach program that emphasizes promoting information literacy campus-wide. She also contributes to the planning, development, and assessment of departmental policies. Minerva Alaniz received her bachelor of arts in Communication Studies with a minor in Spanish in August 2000. She decided to pursue her master's in library science after working in the library as a student and then as staff. She really enjoyed working as support staff and decided to study to be a librarian. Minerva received her master's in December 2004. She has been a subject librarian since April 2005. Minerva has really enjoyed her job as a librarian. Dana Applegate Dana Applegate has been a librarian for 15 years. She has worked in Academic, Community College, and Public libraries and has had jobs ranging from Children's Librarian to Grant Writer. For the past seven years, she has also been pursuing training as a passion and focus. She is a lead trainer for the State Library of North Carolina Master Trainer program, a program that has been "growing" trainers in NC libraries for the past ten years. She has also been involved as a trainer in past Gates Foundation funded programs including the Computers in Public Libraries and Rural Library Sustainability Programs. She currently lives in Panama most of the year where she is learning Spanish "muy despacio". Susanna Baumann Susana Baumann is the Director of LCSWorldwide Language and Cultural Services, a company she started in 1996 as a home-based part-time business. Baumann has gained recognition in the public library environment for her specialized work with the diverse Latino community. Her approach comes from the Communications and Marketing environments, bringing a new vision to Latino outreach for libraries. A former college professor, Baumann has designed several workshops such as the popular "12 Magic Phrases Library Personnel Need to Know in Spanish," "Getting to Know and Serve our Latino Patrons," and the recently training launched for California's Infopeople "Marketing to Latinos: An Action Plan," with great success. Baumann is currently working on her manuscript "¡Hola, amigos! A Plan for Latino Outreach" to be published by Libraries Unlimited CT in 2008. Located in New Brunswick, NJ, LCSWorldwide Language and Cultural Services also offers training to non-profit and government organizations interacting with Latinos in Healthcare, Education, Emergency Response and Law Enforcement. Despite her German maiden name, Baumann's first language is Spanish. She was born in Argentina -many, many years ago- and emigrated to the United States in 1990. Laurel Best Laurel Best has worked in public libraries for over 30 years starting as a page in high school. She's been a library director in Connecticut, Georgia and now Tennessee. As Director of Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro, TN (the heart of Tennessee) Laurel oversaw a grant for outreach services to the Hispanic Community in 2004. Because of Linebaugh's success in outreach Laurel was asked to be the state coordinator for the Gates Foundation OCLC grant. Laurel and her husband Art Abdinoor have a blended family of five children and five wonderful grandchildren. Marian Bohumil Marian Bohumil, a professional development specialist with North Central Missouri College, has 14 years of experience in adult education and literacy. Prior to that, she had 20 years experience working for the federal government in positions that required her to meet and work with people from all walks of life from ordinary citizens to professionals at the height of their careers. Marian earned a Bachelor of Science (zoology) from Brigham Young University and a fifth year secondary teaching certificate from the University of Utah. She and Carl, her husband of 27 years, have a 23 year old daughter and have lived in Clinton, Missouri, for 19 years. Pam Bradshaw Pamela Bradshaw is the Program Supervisor and member of the Management Team for the Idaho Commission for Libraries. As Program Supervisor, Pam collaborates with agency staff to make sure they have the resources they need to carryout successful projects. In the fall of 2006, Pam coordinated a statewide project which identified themes and trends related to Digital Native's needs and desires in local library services. Digital Natives are those identified as the generation (12-25 years old) growing up with computers and the Internet since infancy. The complete report can be found at Pam's career with the Idaho Commission for Libraries began in 1987 and she has held several positions during her tenure. Before moving back to her home state Pam worked for Oregon State University. Pam is an avid knitter and crafter and enjoys teaching others. She and her husband also enjoy spending time with their three grandchildren and at their mountain cabin. Kathy Buntin Kathy Buntin is a library consultant who has been with the Mississippi Library Commission since 1999. Currently, she is assigned to work with eleven variously sized public library systems in the northern tier of the state which translates to about thirty counties and representing over 60 branch locations. She is heavily involved in various programs that originate from within her agency, chief among them anything to do with continuing education. Kathy is very active in her state library association and currently serves as the Exhibits Committee co-chair. In her free time, she enjoys her pets, home improvement, and various outdoor (rafting, tubing and camping) and cultural activities with her friends. Josephine Caisse Josephine Caisse is with the Deschutes Public Library District as the Outreach Services Manager. For most of her 20 plus years working in libraries, she has worked in public libraries in both Oregon and Washington. During much of her career, she has worked in youth services and outreach services. Josephine has served on ALSC and YALSA committees over the years and currently is a committee member on YALSA's Quick Picks for Young Adults. Cheryl Carpenter Cheryl Carpenter has been recently promoted to Branch Manager for the Thompson Lane Branch of the Nashville Public Library. She was the Popular Materials librarian at the main branch of Nashville Public Library. After decades of working in the corporate world, she went back to school through the Distance Education program at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, fulfilling a dream from 4th grade to be a librarian. Her final class was through the University of North Carolina in Prague. She was awarded her Masters of Information Sciences in 2003. Cheryl facilitates several book clubs, one being the Double Yarn Club of reading knitters. Her newest venture is the Short Story Lunch Hour. Cheryl has lived in Nashville most of her life. She has two daughters, Christy and Suzan. Christy is pursuing her Masters in Social Work and Suzan is an Admissions Counselor with the University of South Carolina Upstate. Kulcey L. Cassidy is the Children's Librarian for the Florence County Library System in Florence, SC. She earned her B.A. in Mass Communications and English from Winthrop University. Her path to becoming a librarian included working in both government and telecommunications fields. It was during this time, she decided to pursue her MLIS degree. In 2004, she realized her dream by receiving her degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She spent the first two years of her professional career working as a Children's Librarian with the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County before joining the Florence County Library System. Her professional goals are to promote both Early and Family Literacy through innovative programming and initiatives. In 2005, she planned and built a parenting and lending library for the Chesterfield County (SC) Family Literacy Center, designed to provide support and materials for parents and their children. She firmly believes that creating opportunities that allow underserved populations to utilize library resources is an important goal. Susan Chandler For the past 3 ½ years, Susan has been Coordinator of Extension Services at Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown, TX. At least a third of the population is Hispanic in this gulf coast city. Susan has worked to increase services through purchasing current Spanish language materials for children and adults, providing bookmobile service to ten ESL and literacy locations, offering monthly story time programs to literacy program sites and continually looking for ways to collaborate with community organizations. One way she has found to enhance programming is through writing small grants. This fall, her staff will be implementing an innovative book discussion group for literacy students funded by a Texas Reads grant. Susan received teaching certification in ESL in 1995 and taught new immigrants in junior high. Marriage and moving to a new city changed her career direction to public libraries where she has focused her work in outreach and literacy. Last fall, she was asked to present a program entitled "Outreach to the Hispanic Community" at the National Association for Bookmobiles and Outreach Services and Association of Rural and Small Libraries Joint Conference in Columbus, Ohio. Luis Chaparro Luis Chaparro is a friendly, easygoing, fun loving guy. Born in the border city of Juarez, Mexico, reared by a single mother in precarious economic conditions, he tasted poverty as a child and quickly decided that it was to his liking. He also realized that the path out of poverty is education. (Or so he naively thought at that time). With this quixotic notion in his head, he embarked in a long journey that took him to the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe. During those adventurous travels, he was enriched by many experiences that yielded-- as byproduct almost-- a couple of Masters Degrees from the University of British Colombia. Luis found his passion in the profession after returning to the United States and finding out that library services in the fair City of El Paso were not equal or fair to the largely Spanish Speaking population. Together with other Chicanos of like mind, he was instrumental in confronting the Powers-that-Be to force radical change. Thus, in a nutshell, a library advocate was born. Jackie Choate All Jackie ever wanted to be was a math teacher so when she graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (was USL in 1971) with a BS in Math Education, she went straight into a Public Library. This was the public library Jackie has worked at the Vermilion Parish Library since 1978. Up until 1993, she was the Children’s Librarian/Assistant Director. In 1990 she entered LSU to work on her MLIS. She graduated in December 1993 and became the Director of the Vermilion Parish Library in January. Jackie oversees the parish system which LaDonna Clark LaDonna Clark is one of three trainers representing Kansas for the Spanish Outreach program. She has been in this position for only 1 ½ years as the North Central Kansas Libraries System, Technology Trainer. Before that for 15 years, she worked in the IT Department for a large company. So, since she is so new to the library scene, she feels she still has lots to learn. In her position as Technology Trainer, LaDonna Clark creates curriculum and conduct training. She has a portable lab of six laptops that travel to the twelve county regions in order to train the library directors and their staff on anything from the Microsoft Office products, to library specific software. One thing you wouldn't know about her is that she played and organized, year around volleyball from the 7th grade until about two years ago. LaDonna also likes to play tennis and spend all the time she can with her best friend and companion who happens to be a German shepherd and her husband. They love to work, travel, and do as much as we can together. LaDonna looks forward to taking on this project and meeting everyone in Seattle! Jerome Cummings Jerome Cummings began his library career as a circulation page at Alachua County Public Library in Gainesville, Florida. He received his MLIS from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida in 2001. Jerome’s first professional library job was as the Interlibrary Loan/Distance Education Librarian at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana where he served as Department Head at the rank of Assistant Professor. His other professor experience included serving as the Librarian IV for Administrative and Extension Services for the Lafayette Public Library System in Lafayette, Louisiana. Currently, Jerome is serving as the Continuing Education and Training Consultant for the Library Development Division for the State Library of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. Jerome says of his new project as State Coordinator for the Spanish Language Outreach Program “I look forward to bringing awareness and training to the State of Louisiana as libraries seek to create new and incorporate current services in order to reach the Hispanic and Latino populations within our communities.” Besides being a supporter of continuing education Jerome enjoys jazz festivals, watching sports on TV (especially college basketball), and reading the latest from Walter Mosley. Jerome resides in Lafayette, Louisiana. MaryKay Dahlgreen After nine years as the youth services consultant at the Oregon State Library, MaryKay became the Program Manager for Library Development Services in March 2005. From 1988-1995 she held a variety of positions at the King County (WA) Library System including Reference Librarian, Children's Librarian and Children's Services Outreach Librarian. From 1984-1988 served as Supervising Children's Librarian at the Albany (OR) Public Library. Received a BA in Liberal Studies from Western Washington State College (Bellingham, WA) in 1977 and a Masters of Librarianship from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) in 1984. Carolyn Davidson Carolyn Davidson is the Assistant Director of the North Texas Regional Library System (NTRLS) located in Fort Worth, Texas. NTRLS provides consulting services and continuing education for a twenty county area. Carolyn coordinates the CE program - which included 95 workshops this year. Carolyn has also been the grant manager for two grants specifically geared to Spanish speaking library users. ¡Gozala! was a grant that provided funds to purchase bilingual books and DVD's in English and Spanish. This program involved 20 libraries receiving over 4000 items combined. The other grant funded the R.E.A.C.H. (Reading Enrichment and Cultural History) project. This project provided the funds for performances in public libraries spotlighting different cultures. Before coming to NTRLS, Carolyn worked as a public services librarian for Dallas Public Library, Fort Worth Public Library and Keller Public Library. She has also worked as a corporate and academic librarian. She received her MLS from the University of North Texas. Prior to completing her MLS, Carolyn worked for 8 years as a social worker. All combined, she has spent over twenty years working with the diverse public. Tom DeBlauw Tom DeBlauw is a Professional Development Specialist at North Central Missouri College. He grew up in a community that was very diverse in rural Nebraska. Due to this experience, Tom has spent a lot of his professional career working with diverse individuals as an Admissions Counselor and Hall Director. His professional interests include technology, outreach, and intercultural awareness and understanding. Among his personal interests are running, sports, reading, and spending time with my wife. Karen Drevo For almost twenty years, Karen Drevo has been the Youth Services Librarian at Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, NE. She believes bringing kids and books together is the best job in the world! She does a wide range of collection development and programming-from cradle-high school. Almost 10% of the library customers are Hispanic. The biggest challenge of her career has been to find ways to adequately welcome and serve the Spanish-speaking/English-learning population. She welcomes every opportunity possible to learn more about Spanish Language Outreach. For two decades, Karen has been active in the Nebraska Library Association-serving on many different committees and as Chair of the School, Children and Young People's section of NLA. She has also served as Chair of the Nebraska State Advisory Council on Libraries. For over a decade, Karen has worked with the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP). She is currently Chair the CSLP Vendor Committee. Nancy Escamilla Nancy Escamilla graduated from Scottsbluff High School in 1978. She has attended Western Nebraska Community College working on her degree in Elementary Education. While a sophomore in high school she began working at the Scottsbluff Public Library as a student page. She worked in this position for four years. After getting married and being lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mommy for seven years, she returned to work at the Scottsbluff Library. Her job at the library for the next twenty-one years has given her the opportunity to work in both the public and technical sections of the building. Her different job titles have included Library Desk Clerk, Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Assistant Children's Librarian, and Young Adult Librarian. She is also a member of the State Advisory Council for Libraries in Nebraska and served as chairperson of the council in 2005. Nancy's favorite thing about her job is the opportunity to work with people of all ages. While she assists the children's librarian with all juvenile programming throughout the year, she also plans, organizes, and implements all programming done at the library for teens and young adults. This includes bi-monthly teen library events and a summer reading program, which is attended by over 200 teens each summer. Nancy's list of library accomplishments include beginning an Adult Literary Book Club, helping to start a summer reading "tweeners" club, creating a new "Teen Corner" area in the library and organizing the one of the most successful Teen Advisory Council groups in the State of Nebraska. Also, this year she began a monthly outreach program to the youth incarcerated in the Juvenile Detention Center. Her all time favorite project is organizing the annual "Battle of the Bands" rock concert. This will be the fifth summer it will be held. Last summers concert, which was held at Five Rocks Amphitheater, had over 500 teens attend. Besides library activities, Nancy spends time participating in many other organizations. She has been a member of the Panhandle Library System Board, the State Advisory Council Board of the Nebraska Library Commission and is also employed as a scholar for the Nebraska Humanities Council Family Primetime Reading Program. She is also a former member of the Gering School Board and for the last five years the Chairperson on the Valley View Christian School Board. Nancy is also a member of BPW and recently was selected to serve on the Scottsbluff-Gering Chamber Board of Directors. Nancy Fletcher Nancy Fletcher has been the special needs librarian at the Waukesha County Federated Library System for 15 years. She has received numerous LSTA grants to lower library barriers to individuals with cognitive and physical challenges as well as those dealing with literacy, economic, and cultural diversity issues. Nancy recieved her B.A. from the University of Colorado at Denver and her MLIS at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has taught numerous classes in libraries and conducted a wide variety of workshops for librarians and library staff members. Norma Gonzalez Norma S. Gonzalez is from Corpus Christi Texas. She presently works for the South Texas Library System as a Public Services Consultant. The South Texas Library System is based out of Corpus Christi and works with 54 member libraries in the 26 southernmost counties of Texas. She provides continuing education and consulting services. Norma has only just begun her current position but has over ten years of library experience in the public library field as well as the public school system. Prior to her current position, she was employed by the Corpus Christi Public Libraries and held the position as web manager for about seven years. Norma's background includes reference services, computer workshop training for adults, children's services, media library, local history and genealogy. She received her B.S. from Texas A & M University Corpus Christi and her M.L.S. from Texas Woman's University. Krista Griffiths Krista graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Spanish from Humboldt State University. During her undergraduate studies she spent a semester studying abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico. A love of archives, museums and reading lead her to study library science and in 2004 she received her Masters in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona. Since her graduation, she has worked at the Utah State Library where she is a reader's advisor and outreach librarian for the Program for the Blind and Disabled. Krista also has acted as the Utah coordinator of WebJunction's Rural Library Sustainability Project. In her spare time, Krista enjoys traveling with her husband, white-water rafting, sculpting, designing/making jewelry and playing with her dog Alba. Shirley Hansen Shirley Hansen, Librarian, works for the Idaho Commission for Libraries in Boise, Idaho. She recently received her MLS from Texas Woman's University via their online degree program. With experience in secondary education, business and library technical services, her third career pathway is proving to be an exciting time in the field of librarianship. She looks forward to collaborating with others to identify innovative means by which libraries can be front runners in this wonderful age of information. Susan Hayden Susan Hayden is a native West Virginian and has a diverse professional background in libraries, marketing, retail, publishing, and grassroots activism. She has studied at Vanderbilt University and the National Center for Family Literacy. Susan holds a MLS degree, is a certified literacy tutor, a LeadershipPlenty trainer, and strongly advocates the importance of the library's role in our democratic society. As the Adult Library Consultant at the West Virginia Library Commission, Susan advises public libraries about developing programs and services for adults. She develops relationships and serves as a communication link between WVLC and other agencies and organizations for the development of adult library and literacy programming. She also advises public libraries on methods for establishing literacy programs and how to be collaborators with existing literacy organizations while publicizing the problems of illiteracy, the programs in place to address these difficulties, and the need for new ways to address these on a local, state, and national level. Cindi Hickey Cindi Hickey is the WebJunction Coordinator for the State Library of Kansas. Her work with WebJunction includes the launch of the WebJunction Kansas Community Partner website and delivery of the Rural Library Sustainability project (RLS) to the Kansas library community. As part of the RLS project, Cindi maintains the Building a Sustainable Future blog. (http://rls-ks.blogspot.com) Barbara Huntington is the Youth and Special Needs Consultant on the Public Library Development Team, within the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Prior to starting with the state seven years ago, she worked as a regional consultant in a similar capacity for about eleven years. Her public library background includes experience as the head of youth services in a medium-sized, rural public library. But she also was a middle school librarian for three years. Before Barbara became a librarian, she was a kindergarten teacher in northern Michigan and later owned her own nursery school for several years when her own daughters were young. She served for a year as the Director of Early Childhood Education at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin. Barbara has been a volunteer ESL literacy tutor, primarily for Spanish speaking families and adults, for about seventeen years through the local literacy council. This volunteer work has kept her in regular contact with organizations serving the Hispanic community and aware of the needs of immigrant families on a very personal level. Tutors often help their students with personal issues. This has included finding or explaining medical care, getting preschool children tested for special services, assistance with school parent teacher conferences, resolving employment related issues, explaining rental leases, and securing services in emergency situations. Barbara's family has been involved with numerous Spanish-speaking foreign exchange students over the years, including one from Venezuela, whom they hosted through Rotary International. One of her sons-in-law has duo citizenship in the U.S. and Costa Rica, and both he and her daughter use Spanish fluently. Lucy Iraola Lucy Iraola works as an Outreach Bilingual Librarian for Washington County Cooperative Library Services in Hillsboro, OR. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Lucy has a BA in Communications from the University of the Sacred Heart in San Juan, P.R. and wishes to earn an MLS in the near future. When she first came to Oregon, almost six years ago, she started working with the Hillsboro Public Library as a storyteller for the Spanish Family story time. In 2003 when the position from the county was available her dreams to work almost full time at the library came true. She was first hired with an LSTA grant mainly to work with the ¡Sí! Program. The ¡Sí! program, gave Lucy the opportunity to visit Spanish-speaking child care providers to educate them about the importance of the early literacy skills development and to become familiar with books. She also did crafts activities with the children in their care, modeled how to do a story time and offered books to the provider to share with the kids. Lucy has gained a lot of experience participating in many trainings and workshops mainly focusing in families and children. Some of these workshops are the Early Words curriculum, Every Child Ready to Read and most recently the Prime Time Family Reading Time program. Based on the successes reaching to the Spanish-speaking community through classes, presentations and events throughout Washington County, Lucy is now a regular employee and works full time. Janelle Jarboe Janelle Jarboe is the Trainer/Assistant Technology Consultant for the Southwest Kansas Library System (SWKLS) in Dodge City, Kansas; she has held that position since early 2006. Janelle is one of three Spanish Outreach Trainers in Kansas, representing the western part of the State. Janelle's primary responsibility is to teach area librarians about current technology and its applications within their libraries. She also provides Computer Technology Support to member libraries. Prior to working for the system Janelle was employed by the Finney County Public Library in Garden City, Kansas. She worked there for four years as the System Administrator, maintaining the library's computers and network. She also taught technology classes for patrons and the general public. Janelle holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, in Computer Information Systems from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kansas. During her college years Janelle took two semesters of Spanish along with two years in high school. She is hoping her language background and exposure to the Hispanic culture growing up in Southwest Kansas will come in handy as a Spanish Outreach Trainer. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her boyfriend and her dog Ladybug, reading, watching more TV than she likes to admit, surfing the Internet, and relaxing with her friends. Pam Jaskot Pam Jaskot is a library consultant for the State Library of North Carolina, working with a team of six other consultants to provide service to libraries throughout the state. As the consultant for communications Pam spends the majority of her time coordinating statewide publicity campaigns, training and advising library staff on marketing and coordinating State Library communication publications. In addition, she works as a consultant with several public library directors, visiting annually, keeping them abreast of state news, and responding to their inquiries. Pam has been at the State Library for almost five years. Prior to joining the State Library she worked at the Durham Public Library, in Durham, NC for 22 years. During her tenure she served as Director of the Outreach Department, overseeing bookmobile services, outreach to shut-ins and the volunteer program. For 12 years she served as the Public Relations Librarian developing strong ties with local media to ensure regular coverage of library issues and events. Under her direction library staff successfully completed a bond referendum campaign resulting in the passage of a $10.7 million bond for branch development. She increased awareness of the library and its services through a number of major undertakings including the Library's Centennial celebration. Pam's also directed fundraising, which included working with the Friends of the Library and raising funds for a new bookmobile. Pam lives in Durham with her husband and her dog Lilly. She has two sons, both enrolled in North Carolina state colleges. Originally from New York, she has lived in NC for over 20 years. She enjoys the beautiful weather and spends a great deal of time boating, waterskiing, hiking, and biking. Yolanda Jasso Having worked as library associate at the Hollis & Helen Baright Public Library in Ralston, Nebraska for just over a year, Yolanda Jasso is a new to the Library world. During the past year, partnering with the Ralston Public Schools, she has planned various outreach programs for the Spanish-speaking community. Among them, a Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros event in April, and an upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month event in September. Since last October, Yolanda has assisted with Spanish language translation for the library's bilingual computer classes. A native Texan with a Hispanic heritage, Yolanda's first language was Spanish. After marrying a career military man, however, she has lived a nomadic military life for the last 23 years. She and her husband have three children - one in college, one in high school, and one in middle school. Putting her education and career on hold, Yolanda home schooled her children for twelve years. Now that her husband's retirement draws near, and no more relocations or deployments are anticipated, Yolanda has returned to school and is working on a Liberal Arts degree. Jennifer Kelley Jennifer Kelley is the Publicity and Outreach Librarian at the Kershaw County Library, headquartered in Camden, SC. She received her MLIS in December of 2006, and began her new career in public libraries just a few months ago. In her position as Outreach Librarian she is in charge of getting several programs better established, including serving the homebound, literacy programs, the bookmobile, and, of course, service to the growing Hispanic population in the area. Prior to receiving her MLIS, Jennifer was in retail customer service and management, including twelve years as a bookstore manager. She is glad to have finally decided what she wants to do when she grows up. Having lived in Puerto Rico for two years as a preteen, Jennifer developed and interest in Hispanic history and culture, but unfortunately has forgotten most of the Spanish she learned! Jennifer lives in the small town of Bethune, SC with her husband Bill and their cat, Bear. The town has a population of only about 350, but does have a small but wonderful library. Molly Kliss Molly Kliss is a Reference Librarian at the Missoula Public Library in Montana. She is in charge of adult nonfiction collection development, runs two monthly book discussions and participates in a wide variety of programming and outreach activities at the library. Molly received her BA in German Literature and Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. She continued on to the library program at the UW-Madison, graduating with her MLS in 2006. During her six years of study, Molly worked in a variety of university and local community college libraries. She began working at the Missoula Public Library in July of 2006. In her free time, Molly enjoys gardening, cooking, knitting, hiking, snowshoeing, camping, and playing the piano. She is excited to be part of the Spanish Language Outreach Program and looks forward to helping the library connect with Missoula's Spanish-speaking community. Claudia Koenig Claudia Koenig is the Outreach Advisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and Bureau of Library Development. She works mainly with special populations across the state. Claudia was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but raised in New Jersey. She received her BS in Elementary Education from Castleton State College, VT, her MLS from SUNY, Albany in 1992 and she has worked in various types of libraries for the past 33 years. Before her position with the state, she was a public library director for over six years in a small town near the Wilkes-Barre - Scranton Area in Pennsylvania. Currently, as Outreach Advisor with Commonwealth Libraries, she works with five districts across the state, the Older Adults Task Force, the Regional Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and she coordinates the multicultural programming for public libraries. During the early 1990's, Claudia had the opportunity of a lifetime to be the librarian for a new state correctional institution. She was so excited to be able to build the library from the ground floor up. One of the important aspects of the library was the creation of the multicultural collection. Because of this experience, she has been interested in the great cultural diversity in her state and has been involved in helping Pennsylvania's librarians become aware of that diversity within their own communities. Leah Langby Ever since she was six, Leah Langby has considered being a librarian, though when she confided this to the children's librarian at her public library, he laughed. Despite this setback and various detours along the way, she is very happy to be a librarian now. Leah is the Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator at the Indianhead Federated Library System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She coordinates the continuing education efforts of the system, along with providing resources and consulting for librarians in west-central Wisconsin to help them serve youth and underserved populations. Other jobs have included working as a children's librarian, a family center coordinator, a wedding musician, a mom, and an intern at a community-based literacy program. She is currently administering grants to provide materials for county jails and to help libraries serve people with hearing loss more effectively, and she is passionate about helping libraries become more accessible and relevant to the entire community. Leah spent a semester in Ecuador during college and volunteered in a bi-lingual preschool in Washington, DC, but that was many years ago. Now she has lost most of her Spanish skills, but she is interested in looking for an opportunity to build them up again. Juan Tomás Lee Juan Tomás Lee has been working at the State Library in Utah for the last 18 months as the State Data Coordinator, a Library Development Consultant, and the SLO Project Trainer. He began his library career with Salt Lake City Public Library and after receiving the MLS degree from Emporia State University, he spent a couple of fun-filled years with a Migrant Head Start program establishing library collections in seven rural Head Start centers. He's served as President of the local chapter of Reforma and through the association with this dedicated group of professionals, he's learned much about library service to the Spanish-speaking community. Still, he recognizes the wealth of knowledge the SLO project brings together and is excited to be able to learn from your experiences. Tina Liston Tina Liston is a Professional Development Specialist for North Central Missouri College in Trenton, MO, teaches GED classes for St. Charles (MO) Community College, and is a contracted trainer for Cooper Management Training & Consulting in Troy, MO. Tina has a Master of Arts in Behavioral Studies from Lael College and Graduate School in St. Louis and a Master of Arts in Counseling from Midwest University in Wentzville, MO. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Counseling degree at Midwest, as well. She also holds a Bachelor's degree in Business and an Associate degree in Tina is married to Michael, an insurance agent, and is the mother of two teenagers, Joshua, and Courtney. Jamie Matczak Jamie Matczak works for the Nicolet Federated Library System in Green Bay, WI. She helps coordinate continuing education, public relations, youth programming, special needs and certification for 42 libraries in Northeast Wisconsin. She has been with the system since April of 2006. Jamie received her BA in Advertising from UW-Eau Claire and her MS in Applied Leadership for Teaching and Learning from UW-Green Bay. Before working at Nicolet, Jamie was an academic adviser at Lakeland College, recruiting and advising adult students seeking their bachelor degrees. Jamie was also the education coordinator at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts in Green Bay, which annually exposed over 50,000 area school children to the performing arts. During this time she volunteered as a writing mentor to high school students in In her spare time, Jamie enjoys reading, working out, walking her dog, cooking, traveling and spending time with friends and family. Tina Mauney Tina Mauney is currently in charge of youth services for the Morton Public Library. She has worked in the library for six years. The Morton Public Library is part of the Central Mississippi Regional Library System, 21 branch libraries serving four counties. The Morton library is a small community library, so Tina performs circ, reference and other library duties in addition to youth services. Erin McCusker Erin McCusker is a Library Consultant with the Idaho Commission for Libraries based in Boise, Idaho. She works with librarians, staff and trustees to develop library service for all people in Idaho in line with the Commission's mission of "assisting libraries to build the capacity to better serve their clientele." From the perspective of over 15 years working in libraries, Erin has seen the power of outreach to connect services to those who could best use them. While out consulting with and training in the library community, she hears about successful and not so successful outreach efforts. Erin is excited to offer the Spanish Language Outreach training to give Idaho librarians new tools for their valuable work. Erin, her husband and two sons leave their Idaho home to indulge in their love of travel as often as they can. When at home, Erin enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, yoga, beading and sewing, and, of course, reading! Burke McFerrin Burke McFerrin is Youth Services Coordinator for the Jefferson Parish Library. She is responsible for managing two children's departments and two teen centers. She also oversees children's collection development and youth services in Jefferson Parish's thirteen branch libraries. Grants, Summer Reading, promotional outreach are also duties of the Youth Services Coordinator. McFerrin is originally from Greenville, Alabama. She attended the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, a public boarding school focused on math and science. She attended Hamilton College, where she received a BA in English and Creative Writing. She then pursued an MLIS at the University of Alabama. Upon attaining her degree, she moved to New York where she worked as a research librarian for a pharmaceutical advertising firm. McFerrin moved to New Orleans in 2001 to take a position as the Children's Librarian at the West Bank Regional Library in Jefferson Parish. She subsequently worked as the Reference Department Head at the West Bank Regional Library and then as Rosedale Branch Manager before being promoted to her current position. In 2005 Miss McFerrin was named library employee of the year, parish employee of the year, and was selected by Gambit Weekly as one of the 40 under 40 to watch in the New Orleans area. Catherine McMullen Catherine McMullen works as a Library Assistant at the Bozeman Public Library in Bozeman, Montana. She works in many departments, providing services to patrons from the Reference desk, Computer Services desk, and Inter-library loan. Catherine is pursing her Masters in Library and Information Science from the iSchool at the University of Washington. She is looking forward to graduation in March 2008. Before she moved to Montana, Catherine lived in Davis, CA and often spoke Spanish in her community. She also had the unique opportunity to study literature and culture in Havana, Cuba for a short time. She is excited to dust off her Spanish and match it up with computer expertise to help Montana librarians bring the state's growing Spanish-speaking community into the library. Catherine has a wonderful husband and a young son, pictured here with her on top of the Space Needle during a winter trip to Seattle. Raye Oldham Raye Oldham is the Continuing Education Consultant at the State Library of North Carolina in Raleigh. She earned her undergraduate degree in History and Social Science at California State University, Stanislaus; and her MLIS at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Raye's library career began at a community college where she was the Circulation Services Supervisor for 5 years. While in that position Raye provided instruction to students on how to use library resources effectively. Because of this role she applied to participate in the Master Trainer Program offered by the State Library. One thing led to another and as soon as Raye completed library school she accepted a position at the State Library of North Carolina and is now the project manager for the Master Trainer Program. Since that time, Raye has been increasingly interested in training that focuses on the learner and helping learners through their own discovery process. Margery Orell As a Master Trainer of North Carolina, Margery Orell works with librarians, students, faculty and the public in a learner-centered, active-learning environment. The subject matter may vary and the delivery may be online or in-person, but the activities are centered around the learner. She worked for Central Piedmont Community College for many years where she was, through the years, Head of Reference, Systems Librarian, Webmaster, Associate Dean for College Libraries and Senior Librarian for Training and Library Instruction. For the past two years, she also worked with NCKnows, a 24/7 reference service for North Carolinians. That experience reinforced her love of training, bringing information skills to learners, one at a time. Kathy Pagles Kathy has been the President of the Tennessee Library Association and the East Tennessee Library Association. She has served as public library representative to Tenn-Share, a consortium of TennShare, an organization of about 600 members committed to resource sharing, particularly those which are digitized and she has served on the Tennessee Advisory Council for Libraries associated with the Tennessee State Library and Archives. She is currently Vice-President/President Elect of the Maryville Kiwanis, sits on the Blount County Historical Museum Board and the Blount County Education Foundation Board. She is active with the United Way and her church. She is most proud, however, of the role her library has come to play as a community center, averaging about 1200 visitors a day who enjoy annual festivals, frequent musical performances, and fanciful competitions, such as Edible Books. She looks forward to the day when the Hispanic community also looks to the Library for resources to help bridge the digital divide and close the information gap. Looking forward to retirement, somewhere down the road, Kathy has begun to collect books and to increase her yarn and fabric stashes, sure that some day she will have "the time." Until then, she plans to enjoy her family and friends and the beautiful surroundings of Blount County - and read and knit when she can. Abby Patterson Growing up as the child and niece of two librarians, Abby swore she would "never become a librarian!" She currently holds the Young Adult and Adult Services Librarian position for the Vermilion Parish Library System in Abbeville, Louisiana. In her current position, she is responsible for public programming for adults, young adults, and occasionally for children. As such, she organizes and implements all programming for these audiences, including workshops, hiring local and national performers and artists, organizing the teen and adult summer reading programs, reading groups, event planning, and crafts. She is also responsible for coordinating facilities, making local arrangements, grant writing, and publicizing all events. Abby graduated with a BA in Public Relations from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in December 2006. She has managed several public relations and marketing campaigns for both businesses and non-profit organizations. She uses her knowledge and experience to promote the Vermilion Parish Library and its services. She enjoys working with her Teen Advisory Board, active adult patrons, and dependable staff. Jennifer Patterson Jennifer Patterson has had an extremely varied career. She began at Houston Public Library in 1971, and attended University of Texas GSLS in 73-74, where she received her MLS. She founded an information brokerage called Freelance Research Service in 1977. Services included online research, document delivery, and the reorganization of corporate libraries and records centers. Jennifer later worked for HAM/TMC Medical Library, Information Handling Services (IHS), Episcopal High School, and Texas State Library, where she was Manager of CE and Consulting. She joined Austin Public Library as Organizational Development Coordinator in 1993 and later served as Manager of Windsor Park Branch. In 2005, she joined Central Texas Library System, Inc. At CTLS, Jennifer coordinates Continuing Education and provides management consulting services to members. John Pecoraro Gina Persichini In her life outside the library world, and Gina promises that it exists, she likes to spend her free time with friends and family playing cards. She's a new golfer and also loves to cook. She's said, "If this library thing doesn't work out, I'm off to culinary school to become a chef." In the meantime, she is blissfully enjoying working with Idaho libraries and content to cook some Shelley Quezada Life took another turn and Shelley moved with her family to Mexico where she lived for four years and was a High School Librarian in an American School in Monterrey, N.L. Upon returning to Massachusetts she briefly taught French and Spanish at Chelmsford High School and then took her current position as Consultant for Library Services to the Unserved at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners where she has worked for the past 23 years. Shelley started teaching at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science as an adjunct in l987 where she has been offering a version of a course on Literacy and outreach to special populations for 20 years. She has also taught courses on Readers' Advisory services and children's literature since 2002. In her work at the state library agency she works within library development using LSTA funds to provide support for outreach to limited proficient populations including Spanish and Portuguese speakers. She also works to support services for libraries serving people with disabilities, services to incarcerated individuals and outreach to the homeless. Shelley had an amazing experience last summer when she did consulting for the Sabre Foundation to do an evaluation of their book donation program that operates in eighty countries around the world. This took her for a week to Sierra Leone where she bounced around 500 miles of country that had recently been overwhelmed by a tragic civil war. Then, a few weeks later she found herself in Indonesia where she traveled from Java to Borneo to Sumatra interviewing librarians in this vast country of islands about their experiences with the book program. Who says library work will not take you to interesting places? She loves the unique nature of her job and looks forward to the training this fall and the ability to bring the outreach program to libraries in the Commonwealth. Nancy Rea Previous to her current position, Nancy was Director of the Haverhill Public Library in Haverhill, MA. This library is in a small city just north of Boston with a very diverse population, many of whom are Spanish speaking. The library is the site of an active literacy program, The Greater Haverhill Adult Learning Program (GHALP), which is a volunteer tutor program designed to help adults improve their English Language proficiency, reading, writing and math skills, and study for the GED. Before coming to Massachusetts in 2003, Nancy worked for the Anne Arundel County Public Library in Maryland for 20 years in various branch management and administrative positions. Her last position in Maryland was Staff Development Coordinator for the library system, so Nancy has experience and a commitment to staff training. Elizabeth Reso After receiving a MLIS from Louisiana State University in December of 1995, Elizabeth Reso returned to her hometown of Thibodaux, Louisiana to manage the main branch of the Lafourche Parish Public Library. After moving to New Orleans in November of 2000, she was hired as the Circulation Librarian for the Jefferson Parish Library’s East Bank Regional facility and was quickly promoted to Assistant Branch Supervisor in July of 2002. In this position, Ms. Reso assists with overseeing the management of all facets of operations for 13 branches, one E-Branch and the two Outreach services. She was recently selected as the “point person” for Solinet’s Gulf Coast Libraries Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through which Jefferson Parish received two full-functioning temporary library facilities which are located in the parking lots of two branches destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Ann Roberts Ann Roberts is the Adult Services Consultant and the coordinator for Spanish Language Outreach at the Missouri State Library. Ann has an MLS from the University of Pittsburgh and graduate and undergraduate degrees in music. She is a Certified Archivist, having worked as a graduate student at the Stephen Foster Memorial in Pittsburgh, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the Missouri State Archives. Ann also served as the assistant director of the Lincoln Parish Library in north central Louisiana, prior to moving to Missouri in 2000. Ann’s most recent accomplishment, of which she is very proud, is a book she wrote for Libraries Unlimited. Even though the book isn’t due out until November, you can already find it listed on Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles. The book is part of the “Crash Course” series published by LU and it deals with caring for special collections in small libraries. Even though she has only been in her current position since May of this year, Ann is very happy to have joined the Missouri State Library staff just in the nick of time to be a part of this great Spanish Language Outreach project, although she has changed the name to “Library Outreach to Spanish Speakers” in Missouri, just to avoid anyone showing up to the workshops to learn Spanish! Ann is a classically trained opera singer, teaches voice in her spare time and sings when the opportunity arises. Kathryn Robins Miriam Rodriquez, Assistant Director of the Dallas Public Library, emigrated from Cuba in 1983. Rodriguez began her career as a 16-year old library page in Havana, Cuba. She graduated from Havana University with a degree in Library and Information Sciences. Her passion for libraries and the fact that her degree was not recognized by the American Library Association led her back to school, in 1997 Rodriguez graduated with a Master in Library Sciences degree from the University of North Texas. Honors and Awards: Martha Rossi Ineavelle Ruiz Ineavelle was Born in Brooklyn, New York. She is fluent in English and Spanish. Her parents were constantly relocating from Puerto Rico to New York. Though she identifies with and understands first hand how difficult the transition between two different worlds and cultures can be, she feels she has been privileged. Being Latina has opened up the best of two worlds. She came to Reading, PA as a newlywed in 1986 and fell in love with the small town. She attended PACE Institute where she studied to become a Secretary in 1988. Her career in libraries started in 1997 when she took on the position of Children's Assistant at the Reading Public Library. Since then, her passion for reading to children and for outreach programs led her to become the Migrant Program Coordinator for the library. She works closely with the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program (Berks County Chapter) and plans and implements outreach during the summer at the Migrant Summer Camp. She is the liaison between the Spanish-speaking community and the Northeast branch where she has been in charge of establishing the Migrant Resource Center. The center houses Bilingual and Spanish materials and numerous ESL resources. When she was approached with the idea of SLO she decided it was a wonderful opportunity to connect libraries and the Spanish-speaking community. Cindi Sapp After a visit to Cozumel, Mexico in 2000, she became interested in the Latino culture. Since then, she has been involved in researching and educating others about the importance of promoting library services to our underserved populations, particularly our Spanish speaking immigrants. Cindi is the current president of the Carolina Chapter of REFORMA. In 2006, she was a co-presenter of the program "Ask a Reformista: Latinos and Libraries 101" at the South Carolina Library Association Conference. She will be involved with upcoming presentations scheduled for the library association conferences in both North and South Carolina. Marcia Sarnowski Marcia has instituted and coordinated collection delivery services to the county jails and the juvenile detention center within the system area. She is a trained Motheread® instructor and has received several grants for adult literacy projects in the jails, including one which introduced Motheread® classes in the La Crosse County Women's Jail. She has been active in the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) and currently serves as a member of the WLA Board. She is also a member of the Wisconsin State Superintendent's Adolescent Literacy Task Force, and the board of the Learning Together Family Literacy Center, a local program which offers GED and ESL instruction for adult students, and developmental learning activities for their infant and preschool children. Kathy Sheppard Hagar Shirman Hagar's life dramatically changed in 2001, when she met her (now) husband, and subsequently spent a year living with him and his family in the Caribbean. During this time she became fluent in Spanish and became familiar with the local culture. This adventure, combined with her childhood experience of immigrating to the US, and later, her husband's experiences, helped develop her interest in working with diverse, and especially immigrant populations. After graduation, Hagar hopes to stay in the Boston area and find a position that will allow her to put her passion into practice. Sally Snyder Sally is one of four main programmers for a weekly half-hour show, BookTalk, on low-wattage local radio station KZUM. She selects the topic and locates a guest speaker for one show a month. The catch phrase for BookTalk is, "a show for people who like to read and like to talk about what they read." Discussion of the selected book includes reading excerpts on the air. Her interests outside work include spending time with her husband, Dennis, and their cats, JD Sparks and Bart, going to the movies, storytelling and reading. Eleanor Stafford In her role as LFF's Massachusetts EqualAccess Program Manager, she collaborates extensively with the staff at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) to carry out the EqualAccess Libraries program in Massachusetts. EqualAccess is a professional development program spearheaded by LFF that trains public librarians in how to address their community's most pressing needs through assessment and information gathering, the development of strategic partnerships with local organizations, and the creation of innovative work plans. EqualAccess training focuses specifically on three target audiences: youth, health consumers, and older adults. In Massachusetts, the MBLC has dedicated $300,000 in LSTA grant funds to participating EqualAccess libraries. Magaly Vallazza Dorothy Vance Dorothy M. Vance has worked for the Central Mississippi Regional Library System for over 10 years, as substitute, branch manager of a very small library then a medium sized library; and now as Public Relations Coordinator for the 21 branch, 4 county library system. Planning campaigns for the branches as well as creating graphics, presentations, materials, and press releases for programming and campaigns is a full and rewarding job. Readers' advisory services and the system's web page are two of Vance's favorite aspects of her job. Lorie Vik Lorie's BA and MLIS come from the University of Washington, Seattle. She spent four years in Seville, Spain, as an English teacher and administrative assistant. She delayed her move back to Seattle by way of France, spending a year in Strasbourg to study French and marvel at what being in the center of Europe does for long weekend adventures. After returning to Seattle, she worked at a winery, an international non-profit, and a stint in Corporate America before attending graduate school. Delighted to stay in the Pacific Northwest, Lorie was hired as an Adult Services Librarian at Eugene Public Library in Oregon, a position with a variety of responsibilities (reference, collection development, programming, outreach) and, for her, the ideal job upon completing her degree. During graduate school, Lorie spent a month in Honduras working in a rural public library. Lorie has been a member of NW REFORMA since the chapter was founded several years ago, and recently finished her term as Chapter President. She's participated in panel workshops at state conferences, and twice traveled to the Feria Internacional del Libro in Guadalajara, Mexico, to purchase materials for her library's Spanish language collection. Barbara Wallace She's been a librarian for about six years but during that time she's had a number of different jobs with the system. She started as a part-time library assistant where she learned the ropes. (Memphis Public Library has an excellent staff development program since there is no nearby library school.) She then moved to a full time position as a young adult services librarian and now she is working at the Central Library as a reference librarian in the Business and Sciences department. Seeking new challenges has been one of her key job requirements! She has always enjoyed practicing her Spanish at every opportunity and have had lots of opportunities to do that during her career as a librarian. While her Spanish is nowhere near being fluent at this point, she can make herself understood. Being able to help Spanish-speaking neighbors at the library has been one of the most persistent pleasures in her career. To conclude, she is a native southerner, born in New Orleans and raised in the Mississippi delta. Her husband Chuck and she have been married for 26 years. They live in an old bungalow in midtown Memphis with their Scottish Terrier Bobby. They've raised both of their two children here - her stepdaughter Ryan who's 28 and their son Tom who's 24. Myra Zatopek Myra is proud to say that she was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up immersed in her Latino culture. She currently lives in Austin, Texas with her loving husband and two scaredey cats. Myra has been told she is a repressed artist, but for now she enjoys giving art museum tours in Spanish to elementary school children. One of her biggest passions is traveling and this summer she survived whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River in Colorado. Stephanie Zimmerman Her BA is in Social Work with a minor in Spanish. She also studied Computer Information Systems. Lancaster has a very large Latino population that She worked with for many years as a social worker. However, it has been almost 10 years since her focus on software training took over, so her Spanish is a little rusty. She has trained on federal and county government applications as well as private industry software. Stephanie has been happily married for 8 years, and recently she and her husband were given the miracle of a beautiful daughter. She's almost 8 months old now. Stephanie is very excited to be part of the Spanish Language Outreach program as its focus seems to bring all of her skills together. She loves to help people, loves the Latino culture, loves technology and loves to present information. She never thought she would have this kind of opportunity after landing in the library world. 
http://libraries.idaho.gov/
Recently, the Deschutes Public Library District, which is located in Central Oregon, was awarded a LSTA grant to plan for future library services to the Latino community. Josephine is the project coordinator on the LSTA Grant. She was thrilled for the opportunity to become a trainer for the WebJunction's SLO program since it meshes so well with the LSTA grant. She believes is it a great opportunity and great timing!
Luis's life long professional goal has been the improvement of library services to the diverse and growing Latino communities of this great nation. As a life member of Reforma, Luis has held numerous leadership positions in this organization. Currently, he is Vice President/President -elect. In that capacity, he will continue to pursue the organization's goals of equity of access, development of relevant Spanish language collections in the nation's libraries, recruitment of bilingual multicultural professionals and advocacy on behalf of the information and library needs of the Latino Community. During his tenure as President, he will address the recruitment and education findings of the ALA's Diversity Counts report. By exploring and creating strategic partnerships with library schools, corporations, foundations and the Institute of Museums and Libraries, he hopes to jump start the process for the education of future Latino leaders in the library profession.
system in her home parish and she has been in library work ever since. You ask – what did I miss in this? She spent the summer before her student teaching in a public library and signed a contract to go back after graduation. And did. And has never regretted it for a minute.
includes 6 branches and a soon to be Mobile Library. She purchases materials of all kinds, plans and maintains the annual budget and acts as the face and voice of the Library.
WebJunction supports Cindi's overall charge to explore, develop and deliver electronic educational opportunities to Kansas librarians. This duty is a natural fit with her experience teaching and developing courses for librarians delivered in a variety of formats including interactive television, online courses, online conferencing, and training on a mobile computer network (starting in the days of modems.
She has been a member of ALA, OLA and Reforma NW. One interesting fact about Lucy is that she lived in front of a public library in Puerto Rico. 
Communications.
Milwaukee and read to ESL students at a local elementary school. She was also awarded a grant to work with first graders on correlating literature skills and the performing arts, based on the book, Miss Nelson is Missing.
Prior to library service, Tina was employed in the mortgage banking industry. After a sabbatical as a stay-at-home mom, Tina rejoined the work force when her youngest child started Kindergarten. A lifetime avid reader, she truly enjoys her work in the library.
Tina is married with two sons. Her husband, Gary, is a self-employed insurance adjuster. One son, Austin, plays trumpet in the high school marching band and is teaching himself to play the electric guitar in his spare time. Her youngest son, Harlon, is in beginning band, plays city league football and loves to draw.
Raye has been married for 26 years, has 3 grown children and she's dreaming of an empty nest. She enjoys quilting and is interested in stained glass and glass mosaics. She has recently discovered a secret drummer within herself and has begun pursuing that interest. Some speculate this is related to dreams of an empty nest; only time will tell.
Margery's passion is training. Through the NC Master Trainer program, she incorporated learning theory and learner-centered objectives to her existing experiences with training. Currently, she works with a training team that conducts the Master Training Program in North Carolina. A pure joy!
She grew up in rural Montana, graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in English and from the University of Washington with a M. Librarianship. She has lived with her husband in San Jose, Seattle, Manhattan Kansas, Indianapolis and Charlotte. She has 3 grown children and one beautiful granddaughter.
Kathy has been the director of the Blount County Public Library in Maryville, TN for the past seventeen years. She has watched her community change and grow and the library along with it, until it is now one of the largest, busiest, non-metropolitan libraries in the state, serving the entire county of nearly 115,000 folks. Kathy spent several years in teaching and banking before taking the plunge into librarianship. The world of libraries offered her the chance to remain a generalist - able to pursue many areas of study which continue to interest her - and to advocate on behalf of all to whom the library is a primary source of information and lifelong learning. The opportunity to become an advocate for outreach to the growing number of Hispanic speaking persons who are coming to east Tennessee is one she is grateful to have.
John Pecoraro is the Coordinator of the Big Country Library System (BCLS) in Abilene, Texas. BCLS is one of 10 library systems funded through a grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to provide consulting and continuing education services to public libraries in the state. BCLS serves 43 libraries in 32 counties. It also extends continuing education opportunities to all types of libraries in the area. Before assuming his current position in February 2005, John managed the South Branch of the Abilene Public Library (APL) for seven years, and before that worked in various public services positions also at APL. John also held the position of Director of Learning Resources at Ranger College in Ranger, Texas. John started his library career in Colorado at the Pikes Peak Library District while an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. After graduate school at the University of Arizona, John found his way to Texas. John is a native of California, father of 2, and grandfather of 1.
Gina is the Networking Consultant at the Idaho State Library. She joined the team at the Idaho Commission for libraries in October 2001, after spending 7 years with multi-type library consortia in Florida. Gina received her Master's Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida in 1995. Her professional interests are focused on resource sharing, training, and cooperative arrangements among libraries.
dinners at home.
Shelley Quezada has been a librarian for many years! She started out at the San Francisco Public Library as a children's librarian and later worked at the Los Angeles Public Library where she had some great experiences on the Bookmobile in the federal housing projects in Watts, East LA and Chinatown. She then moved to Brazil where she lived for six years and continued to work as a librarian in a special library. When Shelley returned to the U.S., she became Head of Children's Services for the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts.
Nancy Rea is the Deputy Director/Head of Library Development at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. She is responsible for the department that coordinates all LSTA and other grant funds administered by the agency, including three other Gates Foundation grants. This department also administers all construction bond funding. Nancy is relatively new at MBLC, having come to the agency in October 2006.
Kathryn Robins is a reference librarian at Parmly Billings Library in Billings, Montana and a distance MLIS student at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has a BS in Information Systems from Montana State University - Billings. After spending 22 years in the information technology field in which her concentration was database design and education, Kathy embarked on a career in library services. Her knowledge of information systems and focus on customer service has proved to be very helpful to library patrons. In addition to reference responsibilities, Kathy purchases adult non-fiction for the library, serves on the adult programming committee and volunteers for the Friends of the Library.
Martha Rossi (her friends call her Marty) is the Educational Specialist for Library Services & Media at Education Service Center, Region 20 in San Antonio, TX. In this position, she is charged with supporting and promoting librarians and library services throughout the 15 counties served by Region 20 as well as helping to manage the integration and administration of statewide database programs for K-12 schools. She started her career as a database administrator and has worked in various arenas such as hospitality, education, and health care. Marty has worked in school libraries at the secondary level and served as a medial library director. She holds a Master's degree in Information Science and her library interests include human/computer interaction, information seeking behavior, and the evolution and use of diverse technology applications in libraries; in other words, she's a self-proclaimed library geek. Marty dedicates most of her spare time to trying to keep up with her teenager. Her success in this pursuit remains undetermined - wish her luck.
Ineavelle Ruiz is the Migrant Program Coordinator/Assistant at the Northeast Branch of the Reading Public Library in Berks County, PA.
Ineavelle is currently enrolled in the Arts program at Reading Area Community College with a concentration in Psychology and plans to transfer to Kutztown University to obtain her degree.
She currently lives with her husband Jose and their two children Stephanie and Julian.
Cindi Sapp has been employed with the Spartanburg County Public Libraries in South Carolina for over 15 years. Her current position is in Human Resources, where she is involved with staff training.
Marcia Sarnowski is the library consultant for the Winding Rivers Library System, a seven-county public library system in western Wisconsin, headquartered in La Crosse. She received her MLS from the University of Pittsburgh and has worked for the library system since 1990. She began as the Extension Services Librarian, supervising the bookmobile program, and became the system's consultant on services to children and to persons with special needs.
Kathy Sheppard is a library development consultant with the South Carolina State Library. She has been at SCSL for a little over a year. As one of a team of consultants who provide information, training and technical assistance to South Carolina librarians, she does a little bit of everything. Kathy received her MLIS from the University of South Carolina in 1978, and has worked in special and public libraries around the country, most recently in California. She worked for 18 years at the Glendale Public Library, where she supervised the Technical Services Division, wrote grants, managed projects, liaisoned with the Friends of the Library, and coordinated the public training program. Glendale is a truly multicultural city, and she enjoyed working there with Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, Armenian and Russian library audiences. Kathy looks forward to assisting South Carolina's libraries in serving the Latino residents.
Sally Snyder is Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services at the Nebraska Library Commission, a state agency with the mission of statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library services. She has worked at the Library Commission in various capacities for 22 years, during which time she has assisted with children's programs and book reviews. She holds a Master's in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Masterof Arts in Library Science (MA) from the University of Missouri - Columbia.
Eleanor Stafford works for Libraries for the Future (LFF), a non-profit organization whose goal is to champion the role of public libraries in American life and to promote new approaches to sustaining and developing libraries: http://www.lff.org/index.html
In addition to her work at LFF, Eleanor has extensive experience in curriculum development, training, and teaching. Prior to joining the LFF team in November 2005, she was a college learning disabilities specialist and a public school teacher. She also currently serves as the lead trainer for Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts (LVM) and as the MTEL writing instructor at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, where she earned her M.Ed. in 1998. She received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1993.
The daughter of a fun-loving and community-responsive library director, Eleanor is an avid reader and writer. She just completed writing a novel for children.
Magaly Vallazza is a native of La Paz Bolivia and has an MLS degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her work in libraries began more than 20 years ago at the Kansas City Kansas Public Library. Later she moved to the Kansas City Missouri Public Library where she managed the Ruiz, Westport, and Trails West branches. She currently works as Branch Manager of the Oak Park Library of the Johnson County Library in Kansas. One of her major goals as a Latino Librarian is to connect the Latino community with the public library and over the years she has developed Spanish collections, programs, and services for the Latino community. She is currently an active member of the REFORMA-Heartland Chapter.
Married to a high school band director and minister of music, the couple has one daughter who is an LIS student at the University of Southern Mississippi. Vance plans to pursue an MLS in 2008, after finishing a marketing degree. Interests include reading (duh), genealogy, sewing, traveling to spend time with family, and church.
Vance and her family lived in Louisiana and Texas while her husband pursued his teaching career, before moving back to Mississippi to be near family. Everywhere they moved they first checked out the local library, all three being avid readers, and knowing the library to be THE source of information in most every community.
The Spanish Language Outreach program is a chance for Vance to promote the libraries to a much-underserved community and gather new recruits to what Vance feels to be society's greatest asset - the public library!
Lorie Vik has been working in libraries for four years, embarking upon this career path after making an educated guess that it would be good fit. A love of books (of course), a degree in English (no surprise), a variety of work experiences and career aptitude tests comprise the educated part of the guess.
Barbara has done a little of everything. She took some time off from college (many many years ago) to travel in Mexico where she spent about six months, most of it in Yucatan. That was the closest that she's come to real fluency in Spanish. She came home and completed her undergraduate degree in Spanish and history, followed by an MAT degree in curriculum and instruction with emphasis on educational research. She taught school (both elementary and high school), worked in business research for a large hospital, and then went back to the Board of Education to be a Title 1 program evaluator.
Myra Arredondo Zatopek is the Special Services Consultant for the Library Development Division of the Texas State Library & Archives Commission. She has a Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She has experience working in all types of libraries including academic, special, public and school libraries. As a consultant with the Texas State Library, she manages training programs for libraries throughout the state of Texas. Her areas of expertise include grants and outreach. She has served as a reviewer on many grant opportunities such as the Texas Book Festival Library Grants and the Department of Education's Improving Literacy through School Libraries Grant. One of her most rewarding positions was managing a migrant farm worker health and research library.
Documents
| Spanish Language Outreach Program Round 3 Trainer Spotlights |
Read up on the talented and interesting trainers taking part in Round 3 of the Spanish Language Outreach Program.
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Selected to attend the TALL Texans Leadership Institute sponsored by the Texas Library Association, June 6-13, 2001
One of 25 librarians nationwide to receive the "Mover and Shaker" award from the Library Journal, 2005
2007 Distinguished Alumni, School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas.
Selected to attend the 2008 Class of "Leadership Dallas"
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