Denisse Solis is the Digital Collections Librarian at the University of Denver (DU). Prior to this position, she was DU's first residency librarian. She began her career in her alma mater of Florida International University as a cataloger and has since occupied both public and technical positions within academic libraries. Born and raised in Miami,…

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an assistant curator and associate dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries where she serves as the Faculty Diversity Search Liaison. Shawn is also an adjunct assistant professor at Pratt School of information, teaching Reference & Instruction. Shawn is a co-coordinator at the …

Treshani is a cataloging librarian at an academic library in the Southeast region and has been employed in academic libraries since 2014. Her research interests include critical cataloging and diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic libraries and higher education. Treshani enjoys mentoring students of color in LIS and higher education, in gene…

Sofia is a librarian, facilitator, and educator, settled on the unceded ancestral lands of the Massachusett and Wampanoag peoples, current home of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. She's an editor at up//root and co-edited Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies Through Critical Race Theory with Jorge López-McKnight. She is interes…

Katrina Spencer worked as the Librarian for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She is also an active writer whose works include “Uprooted, Nomadic & Displaced: The Unspoken Costs of the Upward Climb,” “The Comprehensive Guide to Resisting Overcommitment,” and various contributions to WOC + lib and…

Nicky Andrews is the Open Education Librarian at the University of San Francisco. Originally from Aotearoa, they are of Māori and Pākehā descent and an enrolled member of the Ngāti Pāoa iwi. They graduated with a BA in Social Sciences from Auckland University of Technology, a Master of Library & Information Science from the University of Washington…

Crystal Chen is the Digital Educator Support Manager & Archivist at Facing History & Ourselves. She received her MSLIS from Pratt Institute and is an active member of the Chinese American Librarians Association and Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. She also serves as a community admin for We Here (wehere. space), a supportive community…

Isabel Espinal is a Research Services Librarian for Afro-American Studies, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, and Native American & Indigenous Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was born in New York City, two years after her parents immigrated from the Cibao countryside in the Dominican Republi…

Petrina Jackson began as the Lia Gelin Poorvu Executive Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America and Librarian for the Harvard Radcliffe Institute in November 2021. She was the director of the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Syracuse University Libraries, where she oversaw the Belfer Audio Laboratory and …

Ashley Watts currently serves as the Assistant Library Director of the Altadena Library District since January 2022. Prior to this position, she served as the Senior Library Supervisor of Children's Services and the Branch Manager of the Pacific Park Library of Glendale Library, Arts & Culture since May 2018. Before moving to California in 2018, As…

John Light, Jr. is a Librarian from Richmond, Virginia. "Mister John" started his Librarian journey when he worked in Perry Library at Old Dominion University. Mister John graduated from ODU and then went to work at Virginia Beach Central Library. He worked in the Circulation Department for 7 years. Mister John then relocated and left the library p…

K.C. Boyd is currently a school librarian with the District of Columbia Public Schools System. She has previously worked as the Lead Librarian for the East St. Louis School District #189 in East St. Louis, IL., as an Area Library Coordinator for Chicago Public Schools, and as a District Coordinator for the Mayor Daley Book Club for Middle School St…

Loida Garcia-Febo, International Library Consultant expert in library services to diverse populations and human rights. President of the American Library Association 2018-2019. At IFLA: Governing Board 2013-2017, Co-Founder of New Professionals, two-term Member/Expert resource person of FAIFE, two-term member of CPDWL. Currently: CPDWL Consultant, …

Jimmy Zavala is the Teaching & Learning Librarian for UCLA Library Special Collections. Prior to joining UCLA, Jimmy was the Project Coordinator Librarian for Transforming Knowledge, Transforming Libraries, a three-year IMLS-funded research project analyzing the intersection of Ethnic Studies and Community Archives at UC Irvine. He received his MLI…

Rhiannon Sorrell (Diné) is an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts, Humanities, and English and is the Instruction and Digital Services Librarian at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. Born to Red House People and Tangle People Clans, Rhiannon has an interdisciplinary background in information literacy instruction, creativ…

Ricardo “Ricky” Punzalan, Associate Professor of Information and steering committee member of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Michigan, is a scholar of archives and digital curation. In particular, he studies the access and use of digitized anthropological archives and ethnographic data on academic and Indigenous researchers. He bel…

Dr. Stanton F. Biddle holds a bachelors degree in government (Howard University, 1965), a masters degree in Library Service (Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, 1966), a masters degree in Public Administration (New York University, New York, NY 1973), and a doctorate in Library and Information Studies (The University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley,…

Jennifer Brown is a Black speculative fiction writer & Undergraduate Learning & Research Librarian at UC Berkeley. Critical pedagogies not only guide her day-to-day librarianship, but they also bedrock her work as one of the Community Managers for We Here, an organization that provides a safe & supportive community for Black and Indigenous folks, a…

Madeline Peña is the Digital Content Manager at the Los Angeles Public Library. She comes from a background in graphic design, marketing, and TV production and has worked in public libraries for over 12 years. An active member of REFORMA, The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, she s…

Nichelle M. Hayes MPA, MLS, is Vice-President of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and works as the Leader of the Center for Black Literature & Culture (CBLC) ~ Indianapolis Public Library. She is a lover of poetry and a lifelong learner, she blogs at https://thetiesthatbind.blog, where she discusses genealogy and keeping familie…

Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Information Studies, where she serves as the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She also holds appointments in African American Studies and Gender Studies. She is a Research Assoc…

Natalie + Mieka are two black cis women who are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends to many. We both work + live in North Philly and absolutely love connecting with the patrons within the library in authentic and transparent ways. We truly believe that at the heart of library work, there is learning and growing with the community we serve as w…

Ziba attended graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, receiving a Master of Science in Library and Information Science, 2012. In graduate school, Ziba received a certificate of specialization in archives and special collections while interning at the American Film Institute's Louis B. Mayer Library Special Collections and th…

Holly A. Smith is the College Archivist at Spelman College. She received her B.A. in History and Black Studies from The College of William and Mary, an M.A. in History from Yale University, and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. She co-authored the article “This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Em…

Shannon Jones (she/her/hers) is the Director of Libraries for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Prior to her arrival at MUSC, Shannon worked as the Associate Director for Research and Education for Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Shannon focuses her research on st…

LaQuanda T. Onyemeh is from Western New York and currently resides in Houston, TX. She is a Training & Consulting partner at ProQuest. LaQuanda is the Co-Founder of WOC+Lib and serves as the Director of Marketing & Outreach. Prior to her current roles, LaQuanda was employed as a mental health professional, teacher, and academic librarian. LaQuanda’…

Jina DuVernay is the Program Director for Engagement & African American Collections at Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library. Jina was the Collection Development Archivist for African American Collections at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. Prior to that, she was the Special Collect…

April M. Hathcock is the director of scholarly communications and information policy at New York University on Manhattan, an ancestral island of the Lenni Lenape. Her work involves educating the campus community on issues of ownership, access, and rights in the research life cycle. She has a JD and LLM in international and comparative law from Duke…

Joyce (pronouns: they/them) is the brand spankin' new Head Archivist of Lambda Archives of San Diego, a community-driven organization that preserves and shares LGBTQ+ history.They co-created and are an inaugural editor for up//root, a new publication/media space for Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC) to share research and meditations on kn…

Rose L. Chou (she/her/hers) is Budget Officer at the American University Budget Office, where she works with academic and administrative units on budget oversight and development. Previously, Rose worked in a number of roles at AU Library: Budget & Personnel Manager, Budget Coordinator, Reference Librarian, and Circulation Specialist. She was also …

Dr. Renate Chancellor is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America. Her research focuses on human information behavior, organizational leadership, and social justice in LIS. She has presented her research in both national and international venues. Her recent publications…

Eboni Henry was born and raised in New York City. She attended Tuskegee University and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English, as well as Clark Atlanta University where she received her Masters in Library Science and Information. She has worked as a librarian for sixteen years and is an active member of ALA, BCALA, DCLA, AASL, and ALSC. She current…

Laura Tadena (she/her/hers) is an Inclusive Services Consultant at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, Texas. She is Tejana from South Texas and a former school and diversity resident librarian. She is also one of the site admins of a national resident Slack Workspace that provides a safe community space for individuals curre…

Lalitha Nataraj is the Social Sciences Librarian at California State University San Marcos. She holds an MLIS from UCLA and a BA in English Literature and Women’s Studies from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include: feminist pedagogy, relational-cultural theory in LIS, South Asian Americans in librarianship, mindfulness practices and contempla…

Nisha is a South Asian American librarian, writer, podcaster, and coach. She is a Chicago native and LA transplant. Nisha has also worked as an IT consultant, IT recruiter, voiceover artist, and speech therapist. She writes creative non-fiction and is a host of MigrAsians, a podcast that invites creative and political Asians to talk about their sto…

Dr. Raymond Pun (he/him) is an academic/school librarian in the Bay Area, California. He has been in the profession for over 15 years. He is an active member of ALA and the ethnic affiliates. He is currently a member of the ALA Policy Corps., and has published and presented extensively in the field. He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, M…

Nataly Blas is a Latinx librarian, first generation student, and coffee enthusiast. She is interested in mentorship in LIS and women of color in leadership. Nataly is currently the Business Librarian at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. Jennifer Masunaga identifies as a mixed race, Mexicanese (Mexican American-Japanese American) libra…

Derrick Jefferson is a member of the library faculty at American University in Washington, DC. His research is focused on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion issues, specifically in higher education libraries, and mentoring new librarians to the profession. Representation matters and he is keen on encouraging marginalized and underrepresented …

Trevor A. Dawes is the Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian at the University of Delaware. In this role, he oversees the operations of the campus libraries, museums, and the University of Delaware Press. Prior to assuming this post, Dawes was an associate university librarian at Washington University in St. Lou…

Kaetrena Davis Kendrick earned her MSLS from the historic Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies. She is co-editor of The Small and Rural Academic Library: Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Limitations (ACRL 2016) and the author of two annotated bibliographies: The Kaleidoscopic Concern (ACRL 2009) and Global Evolution…

Our next voice is Dr. Nicole Cooke!Dr. Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching interests include human information behavior, mis/disinformation, critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. She was the 20…

Our first voice is Jennifer A. Ferretti! Jennifer A. Ferretti (she/her/hers) is an artist and Digital Initiatives Librarian at the Maryland Institute College of Art on Piscataway Land (Baltimore, Maryland). She is a first-generation American Latina/Mestiza whose librarianship is guided by critical perspectives, not neutrality. With a firm belief th…

Welcome Listeners! LibVoices is a podcast sharing the voices and stories of librarians of color. In this episode, you’ll meet the co-hosts, Amanda M. Leftwich, Jamia Williams, and Jamillah R. Gabriel. This podcast was created to amplify the voices of librarians of color. We look forward to sharing these stories with you. Enjoy!…

Thanks for Joining Us - LibVoices by Brandon BrittBy Brandon Britt