Dr. David Loertscher

Professor, San José State University; President, Hi Willow Research & Publishing LMC Source

Dr. David Loertscher holds degrees from the University of Utah, the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. He has been a school library media specialist at the elementary and secondary levels and has taught at several universities, including Purdue University and the University of Oklahoma. Currently a professor at San Jose State University, he previously served as head of the editorial department at Libraries Unlimited and is President of Hi Willow Research & Publishing LMC Source. He is a past president of the American Association of School Librarians.

Mary Ann Harlan

Teacher Librarian Program Coordinator, San José State University; Research Cochair, 2025 AASL National Conference Committee; Former Middle and High School Librarian; Leader in California School Library Association and American Association of School Librarians

Mary Ann Harlan is an Associate Professor at the School of Information at San Jose State. She has over 30 years of experience in public education, 25 of those years in school libraries. Her research interests are varied but primarily arise from an interest in information practices in contexts, and the sociocultural ways practices are negotiated and lead to change and growth. She teaches a course in school library management and one in school library materials and oversees the fieldwork of Teacher Librarian candidates.

Misha Knutson

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Susan D. Ballard

Independent Consultant and Educator; Past President of AASL, the NH School Library Media Association, and the New England School Library Association

Susan is a past president of AASL, the NH School Library Media Association, and the New England School Library Association. A former district director of Library, Media, and Technology, Susan guided her district to the AASL National School Library of the Year Award recognition. She has served as an adjunct professor and lecturer in school librarian preparation programs and as a member of the Standards and Guidelines Editorial Board for the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Susan has published numerous articles in a variety of professional and scholarly journals and is the co-author (with Sara Kelly Johns) of Elevating the School Library: Building Positive Perceptions through Brand Behavior. Among various awards, she was the first-ever recipient of the NH Excellence in Education Award (EDie) for Library Media Services and a charter inductee to the New England School Library Hall of Fame.

Brenda Boyer

Information Literacy Coordinator and Department Chair, Kutztown Area High School, Pennsylvania; Adjunct Faculty, Rutgers University

Brenda Boyer is an instructor of graduate LIS students in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. Dr. Boyer has an M.L.S. from Villanova University and a Ph.D. in Instructional Design from Capella University. Throughout her career, Dr. Boyer's focus has been on the instructional role of librarians. With over 3 decades of experience as a school librarian, she has developed a wide variety of gamified library and information fluency instruction for secondary learners. Her experiences as an instructional designer include authoring and developing numerous online courses in the field of library science and information literacy along with online graduate and professional development courses for educators. Dr. B’s research interests include instructional design, information literacy and the high school to college transition. She has articles published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Teacher-Librarian, Knowledge Quest, School Library Journal, School Library Connection, and Internet@Schools.

Violet Harada

Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa, where she coordinated the school library specialization in the Library and Information Science Graduate Program

Violet H. Harada is a professor emeritus in the Library and Information Science Graduate Program at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa where she coordinated the school library specialization. She has jointly authored and edited nine books and countless articles on the instructional role of school librarians as critical partners in learning with teachers. She has also shared her work at various state, national, and international conferences. Harada is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of School Librarians. She also received the Distinguished Librarian Award from the Hawai‘i Library Association. Throughout her career, she has served in various leadership capacities on the UHM campus, in state level library organizations, and with national library initiatives.

Sara Kelly Johns

Adjunct Instructor, Syracuse University iSchool; Past President, AASL and NYLA

Sara Kelly Johns is an adjunct instructor for the Syracuse University iSchool School Library Media Program, teaching Literacy through School Libraries. Johns is a long-time school librarian and was a grade 6-12 librarian during her in-building career. She is a past president of the American Association of School Librarians, the New York Library Association (NYLA), and the School Library Section of NYLA (NYLA/SSL). Currently, Sara serves as a Councilor-at-Large for the American Library Association (ALA), the ALA Publishing Committee, is a member and past-chair of the ALA Ecosystem Subcommittee of the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy, and has been the chair or co-chair of the NYLA/SSL Educational Leadership Committee since 1991. A member of the 2018 AASL national standards for learners, librarians, and libraries Implementation Team, Sara is co-author of Elevating School Libraries: Positive Perceptions through Brand Behavior and Strengthening Library Ecosystems: Collaborate for Advocacy and Impact, both ALA, 2024.

Brian Johnson

National Board Certified Teacher Librarian, Lakeside Junior High School, Arkansas; Adjunct Professor and Educational Researcher

Dr. Brian T. Johnson is a Teacher Librarian, researcher, technology innovator and adjunct professor with over thirty years of experience in education. He serves as the National Board Certified Teacher Librarian at Lakeside Junior High School in Springdale, Arkansas. He holds an EdD in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Memphis. Dr. Johnson is passionate about instructional design, collaboration and providing outstanding inquiry-based and information literacy instruction as a means to promote equity and opportunity for all learners. His research interests include the intersection of inquiry-based learning and information literacy, makerspaces, instructional technology integration and the influences of poverty on education.

Deb Kachel

Affiliate Faculty at Antioch University Seattle; Former high school librarian and district library coordinator

Deb Kachel is an online Affiliate Faculty member of Antioch University Seattle and has over 30 years’ experience as a high school librarian and district library coordinator in southeastern PA. In addition to teaching school library certification courses for Antioch, she has taught for Drexel University, Mansfield University, and McDaniel College (MD). Deb wrote and administered several federal scholarship grant programs for teachers earning school library certification through Mansfield University from 2005 through 2015, totally over $4.5 million. She was the Project Director of a three-year, federally funded grant project called SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation--Decline or Evolution? examining the status of school librarian employment nationwide. As a Core Planning Team member of the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians, she has authored its White Paper and a report, Restoring School Librarians: Challenges and Strategies that examines how urban school districts are adding school librarians. She is an active member of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association’s Advocacy Committee and earned American Association of School Librarian’s Distinguished Service Award in 2014.

Fran Kompar

Educational Consultant, Special Projects; Former Director of Digital Learning, Wilton Public Schools, Connecticut

Fran Kompar is a 25-year veteran in Library Media and Digital Learning, recently retired as the Director of Digital Learning for Wilton Public Schools, CT. She led a district-wide digital learning transformation and reimagined school libraries as Library Learning Commons. She has been recognized with the CASL Administrator of the Year Award (2007) and the Hilda and John Jay Award (2015) for her contributions to the profession. Now an educational consultant, she focuses on the evolving role of Library Media Specialists in the age of AI.

Keith C. Lance

Research Consultant, School of Information, San José State University; Research Associate, RSL Research Group

Keith Curry Lance, Ph.D., is Research Consultant to the School of Information at San Jose State University. Most recently, he was Principal Investigator for the 2000-03 IMLS-funded project, SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation—Decline or Evolution? He was the founding Director of the Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library from 1987 to 2007. Since 1990, he has been involved in school library research at the national level and in more than a dozen states--now including California--resulting in dozens of reports, articles, and presentations. For such work, he received the 2013 Distinguished Service Award of the American Association of School Librarians as well as the 2006 Leadership Achievement Award of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies. In 2002, he was a featured speaker at the White House Conference on School Libraries.

Charlene Peterson

Elementary School Librarian, Rio Rancho, NM; Educational Consultant; Former High School Teacher and Middle School Librarian

Charlene Peterson is a former high school language arts teacher with teaching experience in New Mexico, Virginia, and Colorado from 1993 to 2023. While pursuing a Master of Education and Principal Licensure at Colorado State University, she discovered a passion for school library education. This led to her serving as a middle school librarian in Fort Collins, Colorado, for seven years. Her experience in that role inspired her to enroll in the Master of Library and Information Science program at San José State University, where she was actively involved as the ALiVE! Library Initiative coordinator, graduate assistant to Dr. David Loertscher, president of the iSchool's Library Advocacy Group, and co-project manager of the Reading Nation Waterfall Sunrise Project. Charlene graduated from the MLIS program in the spring of 2024 and now serves as an elementary school librarian in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Darryl Toerien

Head of Inquiry-Based Learning at Blanchelande College, Guernsey; Founding Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Inquiry (IAI)

Darryl Toerien is the Head of Inquiry-Based Learning at Blanchelande College and the Founding Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Inquiry (IAI). He is the originator of the Framework Of Skills for Inquiry Learning (FOSIL) and leads the FOSIL Group, an international inquiry-based learning community. A professionally qualified librarian since 2003, Darryl has served on various professional library and education committees, including the UK School Library Association (SLA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

Ann Carlson Weeks

Professor of the Practice Emerita, College of Information Studies (iSchool), University of Maryland

College of Information Studies (iSchool), University of Maryland (UMD)/College Park Ann Carlson Weeks was Professor of the Practice, Director of the School Library Specialization, Director of Professional Education, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs during her nineteen years at the University of Maryland’s iSchool. She was a founding director of the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) and co-creator of The Lilead Project, a national leadership and professional learning initiative for school district library supervisors. Ann was the recipient of the UMD Provost’s Award for Service, the ALISE Teaching Excellence Award, a Research Fellowship at the International Youth Library/Munich, and the AASL Crystal Apple Award. Prior to her appointment at the iSchool, she was Director of Library and Information Services for the Chicago Public Schools, Executive Director the three youth divisions of the American Library Association (ALA), and Coordinator of the National Library Power Program, a major initiative of the DeWitt Wallace, Reader’s Digest Fund.

Janet Wile

Supervisor of Library Services and Adjunct Faculty Member at Fresno Pacific University

Janet Wile is a dedicated library services supervisor and an adjunct faculty member at Fresno Pacific University. She has served on the CDE Recommended Literature Committee and contributed significantly to the CYRM Committee as a Co-Administrator (2020-2024) and member (2015-2020). A Lilead Fellow, Janet is passionate about expanding library access and fostering literacy.

Dr. Blanche Woolls

Professor Emerita at San José State University; Former Director of the School of Library and Information Science

Dr. Blanche Woolls is a distinguished librarian and educator with a doctorate in library and information science from Indiana University. She has held leadership roles in school librarianship and academia, serving as Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University until her retirement. A past president of the American Association of School Librarians and the International Association of School Librarianship, she has contributed extensively to the field through research, leadership, and editorial work.