Webcast Speakers
Patty Wong
ALA President and City Librarian, Santa Clara City Library
Patricia “Patty” Wong is the city librarian of Santa Clara, California. Wong is the president of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2021-2022 term and is the first Asian American president of the ALA. She has been on the faculty at the San Jose State University iSchool since 2006, teaching subjects such as equitable access to library services, library management, and library services to young people.
Gayathri Kanth
Director, City of Palo Alto Library Services
Gayathri Kanth is the library services director of the Palo Alto Library. Gayathri is also a MidPeninsula Media Center board member. Prior to this assignment, Gayathri was the community librarian of the Cupertino and the Saratoga Libraries. Gayathri is a fellow of the 2017 national leadership cohort in the Public Library Association and a 2020 fellow of the Palo Alto Leadership group. Gayathri believes that the library’s critical role is to provide accurate information and library resources to the community.
Jeanette Contreras
Director, Placentia Library District
Jeanette Contreras the library director at Placentia Library District, the first Asian American to hold the position in the District’s 102 years. During her 14 years of leadership, Placentia Library District has received many recognitions, including the CSDA Innovative Awards, the California Library Association PRExcellence Award, and the Chamber of Commerce Employer of the Year Distinction.
Nancy Kim Phillips
Community Engagement Manager, Skokie Public Library
Nancy Kim Phillips is the community engagement manager at Skokie Public Library, where she and her team collaborate with other library departments and partner organizations in response to community interests and needs. These efforts include programs, services, and projects around early childhood development, school services, immigrant services, accessibility, aging, economic well-being, health, neighborhood engagement, and equity. Prior to librarianship, Phillips worked extensively with nonprofit organizations in the areas of collaboration and strategic planning.
Alan Shoho
Dean and Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education
Dr. Alan R. Shoho is the dean and professor emeritus of School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). He led the School of Education through a turbulent period of fiscal challenges, including declining enrollments for 10 years, a structural deficit of $1M/year, and a carry-forward deficit of $2.4M. The structural deficit and debt were eliminated within two years. Despite grappling with the budget challenges, the School of Education’s fundraising efforts increased significantly during his tenure.
Heidi Kim
PhD, Director, UNC Chapel Hill Asian American Center and Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Heidi Kim is a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the director of the Asian American Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research ranges through nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature and Asian American studies. She is the author of two monographs about the literature by and about Asian Americans during the Cold War: Illegal Immigrants/Model Minorities: The Cold War of Chinese American Literature (Temple University Press, 2021 and Invisible Subjects: Asian Americans in Postwar Literature (Oxford UP, 2016).
Michael Lambert
Director, San Francisco Public Library
Michael Lambert is the city librarian for the City and County of San Francisco. He was appointed to the position in March 2019, by Mayor London Breed. During his tenure, the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) was named the 2018 National Library of the Year by Library Journal. Lambert has championed increased and equitable access to libraries through expanded hours and a fine-free library system.
Marti Goddard
Access Services Manager at the San Francisco Public Library
Marti Goddard was a teacher at the New Mexico School for the Deaf before curiosity took her to library school at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. With her MLS in hand, she worked as a reference librarian at Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado before returning to NMSD as the school librarian.
In 1989, Goddard became the Deaf services program manager at the San Francisco Public Library. From 1998 until March of 2022, she served as SFPL’s access services manager and ADA coordinator for public programs and services.
Danica Rice
Head Librarian, Luce J. LeBlanc Memorial Library
Danica Rice was born Deaf. She graduated from RIT/NTID in 2007 with a BS in Professional & Technical Communications. During her time as a federal government employee, she became a student at San José State University where she obtained her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science in 2017.
Rosa Rodriguez
Head of the Deaf Literacy Center, Pinellas County Public Library
Rosa Rodriguez is the head of the Deaf Literacy Center at Pinellas County Public Library in Florida. The Deaf Literacy Center provides a bilingual/bicultural learning environment for Deaf community.
Alice L. Hagemeyer
Founding President of Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action
Alice L. Hagemeyer is the founding president of Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action, whose mission is to promote library access and quality deaf cultural resources for the deaf community, and for all, nationally and globally. She was the former librarian at the DC Public Library. She spearheaded the National Deaf History Month, March 13 – April 15 and Clerc-Gallaudet Week, December 3 – 10. She is the current leader of Bridging Deaf Cultures, an interest group of the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services.
Joan Naturale
Reference Librarian for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology Libraries
Joan Naturale is a reference librarian for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology Libraries. She has a BA in English from Gallaudet University; a Master’s in Education from McDaniel College; an MILS in Library Sciences from the University of RI, and an Ed.D from St. John Fisher College. Naturale has worked in the field of Deaf Education as an instructor and librarian since 1984 in a variety of settings.
Shirley Lew
Dean, School of Arts and Sciences at Vancouver Community College
Shirley Lew has been a librarian for over 20 years with a focus on library systems and leadership. Her current position is dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Vancouver Community College in Vancouver, Canada. She co-edited the collection “Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership” and contributed one of the essays. She is vice-chair of the BC Libraries Cooperative and is currently pursuing her doctorate in education at the University of British Columbia.
Shana Higgins
Shana Higgins is the director of the library and learning commons, and a doctoral candidate in the Leadership for Educational Justice program at University of Redlands.
Higgins’ research interests include critical information literacy teaching and learning, social justice issues in librarianship, educational justice, and feminist leadership practices in higher education.
Janine Spears
Associate Professor at Cleveland State University
Janine Spears is an associate professor in information systems. She is on faculty at Cleveland State University in the College of Business where she teaches cybersecurity courses. She holds a PhD from Penn State University. Her research interests include IS security risk assessment; security workforce development; consumer privacy; and digital media literacy. Dr. Spears previously served on the faculty of DePaul University in Chicago. Prior to her academic career, she worked in IT at two major motion picture studios in Los Angeles.
Fobazi Ettarh
Fobazi Ettarh’s research is concerned with the relationships and tensions between the espoused values of librarianship and the realities present in the experiences of marginalized librarians and library users.
Sue Feldman
Professor, Director of Graduate Studies at University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sue Feldman, RN, MEd, PhD, currently serves as director of graduate programs in health informatics in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is also a senior scientist in the Informatics Institute at the Heersink School of Medicine. Her research focuses on health information systems for social good – from development to evaluation.
Daphne Wood
Director, Planning & Organizational Development Vancouver Public Library, Canada
Daphne Wood is the director of library services, planning and engagement at Greater Victoria Public Library on Vancouver Island, Canada. Prior to this position, she was director of planning and development at the Vancouver Public Library, where she oversaw operations at five library branches, policy and planning functions, and the library’s marketing and communications initiatives. Infrastructure planning is an area of professional interest and expertise.
Kelvin Watson
Executive Director, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District
Kelvin Watson is the executive director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, Kelvin Watson oversees 25 branches run by 600+ employees, spanning 8,000 square miles, with a budget of $77 million and a collection of 3.2 million items. Kelvin has brought innovative, award-winning leadership to Nevada’s largest library system and his deep experience in fundraising, technology, program development, and demonstrated success in addressing the digital divide, has brought a new era to this library system.
