Qualifications

I was elected by the ALA Council in 2020 to serve on the Executive Board which turned out to be one of the most challenging times in ALA’s history. Onboarding a new Executive Director, navigating the pandemic, and responding to significant cash flow shortages were just a few of the issues to name a few.

Serving on the Executive Board I became well acquainted with the talented and dedicated ALA Finance staff including Dina Tsourdinis, Denise Mortiz and Brad Geene. I served with former Treasurer Maggie Farrell and current Treasurer Peter Hepburn.

If elected I would join the 2025-26 Board as a known, turn-key candidate who already has a strong working relationship with the finance staff, Sam Helmick who will be President and Cindy Hohl who will be Past President.

With 19 years of experience as the director of a district library with an independent, governing board, I am extremely familiar with budgeting, forecasting and audits during good and difficult financial times. Because of my background as an MBA, I develop and manage the annual budget of $11MM from start to finish. I have also overseen construction project budgets of $7MM, $19MM and $14MM.

While I am not applying for the job of ALA Executive Director, I am very familiar with what such positions require and what support is appreciated and not appreciated in carrying out my role as Board Member and Treasurer.

My pathway to ALA came through the Public Library Association (PLA). Having been elected to the PLA Board and then again as PLA President was a tremendous honor and opportunity for career growth. It has also given me a strong division perspective of ALA, which continues in my service on PLA’s Budget and Finance Committee. My recent service on the ALA Executive Board, F&A and BARC have given me the big picture ALA view of the entire association including PLA. Understanding both perspectives will be critical as the new financial component of the Operating Agreement is implemented and to ensure that both the many parts of ALA and the organization as a whole survive and thrive.

My initial career plans focused on a career in international business using Spanish and German. My work at the library was to earn money for a student exchange program. Fortuitously, my brilliant boss and mentor (and “library mom”) Christine Lind Hage, recognized my potential and put me to work with ever increasing work challenges. When she was recruited to my current library system to build an entire public library system from the ground up, she recruited me to go with her. She then told me if I ever wanted her job someday that I needed to go back and get a library science degree. It was the best piece of career advice I have ever received. So much of my daily work leverages my MBA including finance, accounting, legal, human resources, marketing, accounting, operations management, strategic planning, and information technology. To get to merge that with library science has been a dream come true.

In 2017 I was approached by the University of Michigan School of information to help with outreach to public libraries, specifically administrators and those wanting to build skills to become administrators. The goal was to provide no-cost library management education and certification. The end product was a series of massive, open online courses (MOOCs) in public library management. Given my areas of expertise, I was asked to produce MOOCs on budgeting and finance and strategic planning. The goals of the courses were to boil down key concepts in easy-to-explain and understand terms and components. I continue to learn from this experience when explaining complex financial matters to others, not to talk down, but to ensure that I am not using jargon and clearly explaining concepts that may be new to the listener.

While public speaking is not the favorite part of my job, I have addressed the ALA Council, introduced keynote speakers in front of thousands of PLA Conference attendees, done numerous media interviews, and even led a protest on the steps of the state capitol for the Michigan Library Association.

To give you a sample of my speaking abilities, I am pleased to share an interview I did as PLA President while I was at a conference in the Netherlands: This Week in Libraries Interview 2016