Webcast Speakers
Jonna Paden
Archivist, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and President, American Indian Library Association (AILA)
Jonna C. Paden is an enrolled member of Acoma Pueblo. She is the Archivist at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM and the American Indian Library Association (AILA) President. She is an active member of two Special Interest Groups (SIG) of the New Mexico Library Association: Archives & Archivists and Native American Libraries, of which she was a four-term Chair, as well as a member of the Tribal Library Council and the Native Emerging Professionals Network (NEPN) for the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM).
Genasis Kalawe
Digital Technician, Moaʻe Molokaʻi Digital Repository
Genasis Kalawe, born and raised on the island of Molokaʻi, has always been deeply connected to Hawaiian language and culture. After earning her bachelor’s degree in ʻIke Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Studies) and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language) from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, she returned to Molokaʻi to contribute to her community. Not long after, she joined an opportunity to digitize primary and secondary material related to Molokai’s heritage and found herself learning about record management and digital preservation.
Susan Gehr
Librarian, College of the Redwoods
Susan Gehr is an enrolled descendant of the Karuk Tribe, and her family comes from Inaam and Athithúfvuunupma. Formerly a director for the Karuk Tribe’s Language Program, she co-published a dictionary of the Karuk language. She was a member of the SJSU Circle of Learning scholarship program and completed her MLIS in December of 2013. Her MLIS thesis “Breath of Life: Revitalizing California’s Native Languages Through Archives”, was an oral history of the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and a study of the role archivists can have in Native languages revitalization.
Brandon Castle
Native American & Indigenous Studies Librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Brandon Castle is an enrolled member of the Ketchikan Indian Community and is originally from Ketchikan, Alaska. He completed his MLIS degree at SJSU May 2024 and was part of the Bridging Knowledge scholarship program that aimed to support Indigenous scholars into the field of librarianship. He is currently the Native American & Indigenous Studies Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Cindy Hohl
President, American Library Association
Cindy Hohl is a member of the Santee Sioux Nation and is the President of the American Library Association. She is the project manager of the Bridging Knowledge Scholarship at SJSU, sponsored by the IMLS. She is also a past president of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and works with librarians to share information across the globe as a member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Indigenous Matters Section and in her work as Co-Chair on the Tribal Library Council for the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM).
Alexandra Rivera
REFORMA President
She is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Organizational Development at Michigan State University Libraries. She has been in this role since Dec. 2021 and coordinates a division that includes Communications, User Experience, Accessibility, Organizational Development and Outreach and Engagement. She was recently the student success and community engagement librarian at the University of Michigan Library.
José Luis Benavides, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Journalism Director, Tom & Ethel Bradley Center California State University, Northridge
He is the Director of the Bradley Center, who champions the collection of Latinx heritage through the collection of oral histories, photos and ephemera for the Bradley Center collection. Presently, Jose Luis, through the Bradley Center, is collecting history of the United Farm Workers, among others. He works closely with the CSUN library to make the collections available to all via the Bradley Center website.
Manuel Julio Duran Mendez
Graduate Assistant, University Archives, Special Collections & University Archives PhD Student, University of Maryland College Park
He is the Chair for the DC AfroLatino Caucus, is originally from the Dominican Republic and moved to Washington, D.C., at the age of nine. After graduating from Bell Multicultural High School, Mendez received his bachelor’s degree in African Studies and Communication at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Fortunate to have a host of mentors in his adolescence, Mendez’s passion for supporting positive youth development and the issues that plague the people of the African Diaspora are ever-apparent themes in his pursuit of affecting progressive change in his community.
Becky Calzada
First Latina President of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
Becky Calzada is the 24/25 President of the American Association of School Librarians. District Library Coordinator in Leander, Texas and is a co-founding member of Texas #FReadom Fighters, a grass-roots led group of librarians launched back in October of 2021 in support of intellectual freedom and to highlight the positive work of school librarians. She is a member of the ALA Policy Corp Proactive Advocacy on Book Banning cadre and is a past member of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee.
Oksana Shestakova
Deputy Director for Library Affairs, Oles Honchar Regional Universal Scientific Library of Kherson
Oksana Shestakova, Deputy Director “Oles Honchar Regional Universal Scientific Library of Kherson” of the Kherson Regional Council
I am a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature whereas my second degree is in school library science.
Valentyna Yaroshchuk
Director of Rivne Regional Universal Scientific Library
Valentyna Petrivna Yaroshchuk
Director of the municipal institution “Rivne Regional Universal
Scientific Library” of the Rivne Regional Council
I am a professional librarian. In 1978, I graduated from the Kyiv State Institute of Culture, in 1997 I defended my PhD thesis and received the degree in Historical Sciences. In 2006, I was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine.
Mondo Vaden
DeafBlackTrans Intersectional Librarian, Artist, and Activist
Mondo Vaden (He/They) is a DeafBlackTrans Intersectional librarian, artist, and activist.
Taryn Reiner
Student Support Specialist
Taryn Reiner is the Student Support Specialist for the iSchool. Supporting students in their journey for a masters degree. Her Masters of Arts degree is in Counseling and Bachelors of Arts is in Social and Behavioral Sciences.
As a School Counselor for 20 years in the States of California, New Mexico, and Hawaii. She worked at the elementary, high school, continuation high school, and now college levels.
Taryn’s School Counselor experience includes supporting neurodiverse students, AP Coordinator, and AVID certified counselor.
nicholae cline
Librarian for Media Studies, Gender Studies, & Philosophy, Indiana University Bloomington Libraries
nicholae (they/them) is a mixed-race Indigenous (Coharie), queer, nonbinary/gendervoid, disabled knowledge worker at Indiana University, where they are the Librarian for Media Studies, Gender Studies, and Philosophy and liaison to the Race, Migration, & Indigeneity and Native American & Indigenous Studies programs.
JJ Pionke
Instructor of Information, Syracuse University
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.
Adriana Lebrón White
Children's Librarian, Seguin Public Library
Adriana Lebrón White is a librarian at the Seguin Public Library. After being diagnosed with autism in her 30s, she now advocates for more inclusive and accessible libraries.
Much of her work focuses on what librarians can learn from neurodivergent patrons and staff. She has led professional development sessions on topics such as autism-friendly programs and procedures, how to support neurodivergent library staff, and authentic representations of neurodiversity and disability in children’s books.
Brea McQueen
Student Success Librarian, Miami University - Hamilton
Brea McQueen (she/her) [pronounced like “bree”] is the Student Success Librarian at Miami University – Hamilton, of which she is an alum. She spent the first seven years of her career working with youth in public libraries across Cincinnati but is thrilled to have returned to her alma mater in this student-centered support role.
Theodore Szpakowski
Student Assistant, Musselman Library, Gettysburg College
Theodore Szpakowski works in Musselman Library’s User Services and Scholarly Communications departments. During his tenure, he has completed a variety of projects related to disability justice. These include a disabled authors display, an accessibility audit of the library building and services, and the library’s accessibility information webpage. He is currently working to address some of the barriers identified by the audit in conjunction with the User Services department and the library’s DEIB committee.
Chancey Fleet
Assistive Technology Coordinator, New York Public Library
Chancey Fleet is a Blind tech educator and activist based in Brooklyn. She is the founding Assistive Technology Coordinator at the New York Public Library, where she runs a free- peer-powered tech coaching service that connects library patrons with print-reading disabilities to 150 hours of one-to-one coaching each month; curates a rotating selection of workshops on tech topics with accessibility in mind; and runs the Dimensions Lab for free and open tactile graphics creation.
Bri M. Watson
PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia
Bri Watson (@brimwats) is a disabled, white, queer & nonbinary settler hailing from N’dakina in Aln8ba8dwaw8gan (colonially: New Hampshire), now living in Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ.
They are a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar and fourth-year PhD. Candidate at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool. Their research focuses on the multiple histories of information and the contemporary practices of equitable cataloging in galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and special collections.