JJ Pionke has been an Instructor of Information at Syracuse University since 2019.  He teaches the disability and librarianship course. His award winning research focuses on disability and accessibility in libraries for employees and patrons. Named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2020 in the Advocacy category, JJ is a fierce advocate for improving accessibility in libraries as well as for inclusion and equitable treatment of library employees with disabilities.

Librarianship is JJ’s second career. He started out as an adjunct professor of English at two community colleges in the Chicago area. After ten years, he said enough was enough, went back to school, this time for a Master in Science in Information from the University of Michigan’s School of Information. While at Michigan, he double concentrated in Librarianship and Preservation of Information. He also did three internships between his first and second year: librarianship at the National University of Singapore, cataloging at the Uganda National Archive, and exhibit creation at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

When JJ isn’t working to create a better library world for people with disabilities, he can be found playing video games, reading (of course), and playing with his two Maine Coon cats.