Organizing Committee

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  Ayanna Gaines

  Committee Year: 2024

  Ayanna Gaines (she/her/hers) is the Student Success Librarian at Woodbury University. She received her BA in English from Brown University, and her MLIS from Dominican University in River Forest, IL. In addition to her duties as they relate to marketing, outreach, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), and student engagement, she is also the liaison to the School of Media : Culture : Design. As a member of the Midwest Popular Culture Association, she acts as the Area Head for Print Media and Popular Culture. Her research interests have in the past spanned many areas pertaining to popular culture, but she is now focusing on the intersections between popular culture, DEI, and library issues. She has presented her work at LOEX, People of Color in Library and Information Science Summit (POCinLIS), SCELCapalooza, and MPCA. She is the author of the book chapter "That's Women's Work: Pink-Collar Professions, Gender, and the Librarian Stereotype," which appeared in the book The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Perceptions and Presentations of Information Work (2014). Ayanna has two amazing sons and is owned by two cats.

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  Liz Novosel

  Committee Year: 2024

  Liz Novosel is the Computer Science, Mathematics, & Social Sciences Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She provides support for six departments, including computer science, mathematics, applied mathematics, economics, information science, and German and Scandinavian languages and literatures. Liz’s research has focused on the intersection of disabilities and librarianship, specifically investigating the ways that academic libraries could support disabled students, faculty, and researchers in their academic communities. Liz is also interested in the ways AI is impacting librarianship and scholarly research. Away from the library, she is very busy with two kids, two dogs, and getting outside as much as possible.

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  Ashley Wilson

  Committee Year: 2024

  Ashley Wilson (she/her) has been the Social Sciences Librarian at San Diego State University since 2021. She received her MLIS from The University of Alabama in 2017. Ashley also has a BA in history and an MA in anthropology. At SDSU, she is the subject liaison to 5 academic departments where she supports undergraduates, graduates, and doctoral students. Her research interests are trauma-informed pedagogy, barriers for DEIA, and experiences of student assistants in academic libraries.

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  Sarah Christensen

  Committee Year: 2024

  Sarah Christensen (she/her) is the Visual Resources and Outreach Specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This role focuses on image collections and visual literacy concepts, as well as conceiving of and hosting sustainable programs that connect students to their community beyond campus. She is also a founder and editor of the Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement. Sarah lives with two very good boys, and enjoys gardening, reading, and home de/construction in her spare time.

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  Cat Hannula

  Committee Year: 2024

  Cat Hannula (she/her/hers) is the Social Sciences Librarian at Amherst College in western Massachusetts, where she is a member of the Research & Instruction team. Her research interests include student engagement in libraries, the first-year student experience, and trauma-informed librarianship.

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  Carolina Hernandez

  Committee Year: 2024

  Carolina Hernandez is a Student Success Librarian and Rooks Early Career Librarian Fellow at the University of Houston, where she works with co-curricular programs to integrate information literacy beyond the classroom. Her research interests currently include assessing hiring practices in academic librarianship for inequity in order to make the process more inclusive.

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  Michelle Ehrenpreis

  Committee Year: 2024

  Michelle Ehrenpreis is Electronic Resources Librarian (Assistant Professor) at Lehman College-CUNY, where she is responsible for acquisition and management of electronic collections and their budgetary oversight. She is a 2023 Institute for Research Design in Librarianship Scholar and PSC CUNY 2023 Grant recipient. Her research interests include electronic resource management and emerging technologies in libraries. Michelle’s research has been featured in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Web Librarianship, The Reference Librarian, and Urban Library Journal.

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  Sanjeet Mann, University of Redlands

  Committee Year: 2022

  Sanjeet Mann (he/him/his) is Arts and Systems Librarian at University of Redlands. He serves as a subject librarian for students and faculty in the arts, coordinates library systems and technology, and is part of the library’s interim leadership team. His research studies the implementation of technology in libraries from a critical perspective, questioning the nature of concepts like collaboration, project management and organizational learning. In elusive time away from work you might find him a) caring for parents, inlaws, or two handsome middle-aged cats; b) supporting his wife’s experiments with backyard vegetable gardening; c) biking around town to look for more ingredients for a meal; d) composing music; e) napping with said cats.