2017 MLGSCA Officer Candidates
Posted on March 14, 2017 by Bethany Myers | No Comments
Candidates submitted by your MLGSCA 2016-2017 Nominating Committee:
- Danielle Linden, Chair (2016-2017)
- Amy Chatfield (CA), (2015-2017)
- Norma Layton (CA), (2015-2017)
- April Aguinaga (AZ), (2016-2018)
- Sunny McGowan (CA), (2016-2018)
President Elect
Yamila El-Khayat
Bio:
Yamila is the Outreach Services Librarian for the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library. As a medical librarian she has been determined to increase health literacy by better serving the needs of the underserved populations by improving access to Native American, Hispanic, border, Evidence Based Practice, Cross-Cultural, bilingual and culturally appropriate consumer health related information. She has experience leading information training for clinicians, students and community members including health promoters. She is trilingual, English, Spanish, and Portuguese and comes from a culturally diverse household.
Yamila received both her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Arizona. As a Library school student, she was a part of the Knowledge River Program, cohort 7, where she gained tremendous knowledge on the need for health information for marginalized communities. Given her language skill set, she was determined to serve these communities and work to bridge the gap between healthcare and minority communities. She now holds a sub contract with the Regional Library where she reaches different groups (Native American, U.S. Mexico Border, K-12) in the state of Arizona and many times in Southern California, offering information literacy courses in Spanish and English. She has been a member of MLGSCA since 2011 and served as a member of the Scholarship and Awards Committee for a number of years.
Statement of Aims:
It is a privilege to be considered for the President-Elect officer position for MLGSCA.
Throughout my career as a medical librarian, I have found that continuing education (CE) has helped shape and many times re-think how I do the work I do with various communities. I am a lifelong learner and love being on the cutting edge of information technology, helping mold innovative approaches to our field and helping expand our reach. Because of my enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, this has helped keep me be on the leading edge of information technology trends envisioning equal access to healthcare information for all, allowing for everyone to advocate for their own health. I strongly believe that CE is an essential part of MLGSCA and would love to be on the forefront bringing innovative and creative CE’s to light, looking at new state-of-the-art technologies or even approaches we never thought of for information professionals.
As an organization, I think MLGSCA has the power to create a community of professionals that can share with one another skills or tactics to help us all grow, but we also have the ability to help influence and guide the new generation of medical librarians, helping recruit individuals to the field and sharing our knowledge creation with them. I envision these relationships developing into not only mentorship opportunities, but partnerships, where large scale projects can be accomplished with the support of many.
Kelli Hines
Bio:
Kelli Hines is a Scholarly Communications Librarian and liaison to the Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, Pharmacy, and Biomedical Sciences at Western University of Health Sciences. She provides reference and research services and guest lectures on database searching and evidence-based practice. Her previous role was Librarian at Casa Loma College, a small nursing and allied health school. She received a B.A. in English from Pepperdine University in 2004 and an MLIS from San Jose State University in 2011.
Kelli has been actively involved in MLGSCA as a member of the Professional Issues and Membership Committees from 2013-2014 and chair of the Web/Blog Committee chair from 2013-2017. As chair, she oversaw the website migration from Dreamweaver to Joomla and helped consolidate MLGSCA’s social media platforms.
Statement of Aims:
I am honored to be considered for the role of President-Elect. Over the past four years of working with MLGSCA, I have observed strengths, challenges, and areas for growth. My goals are to:
- Increase communication between the Advisory Council and MLGSCA membership
- Work with MLA to provide resources, education, and training that will allow MLGSCA members to improve their skills and demonstrate their value to their institutions
- Create outlets for members to engage with issues of concern to the profession and seek solutions
- Pursue local and regional partnerships to increase the reach of our services and improve access to affordable, quality health information (and training in the skills to interpret it)
- I believe MLGSCA is well-positioned to make a meaningful difference to its members and the clinicians, patients, faculty, and students they work with. Please vote for the person you think will make (or keep) MLGSCA an organization that will make you proud.
Secretary
Sydni Abrahamsen
Bio:
Hello! I am new to the medical library profession. I began working as a consumer health librarian at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ in August of 2016. Prior to that, I worked at Arizona State University in various para-professional roles for 11 years. I completed my MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona in 2014 with a concentration in medical librarianship. I’ve been a member of MLGSCA and MLA since 2014 and have had provisional AHIP certification since 2015. I presented a poster at the Joint Meeting in 2016 and enjoyed meeting many of the MLGSCA members there. I have a variety of committee/workgroup experience from my time at ASU including as secretary and co-president of the library employee association. I would love to be more involved in MLGSCA and would be honored to serve as your secretary.
Melissa Johnson
Bio:
As an early career librarian, I am seeking to make contributions to and connections within the health sciences librarianship community, which is why I am running for MLGSCA’s 2017-2018 Secretary position. Over the last year and a half, I have served as a health sciences librarian at Northern Arizona University’s Phoenix Biomedical Campus, supporting graduate students and faculty in teaching, learning, and research in four allied health programs.
As for professional service, in 2016, I served as a volunteer abstract reviewer of proposals for the MLA’17 Annual Meeting. I also reviewed an MLA publication, The MLA Guide to Answering Questions about the Affordable Care Act. I earned my provisional AHIP credential and am currently participating in the mentorship program as well. In addition, I attended my first MLGSCA/NCNMLG Joint Meeting last year at Stanford University where I learned about Health Sciences Librarian Leadership among many other subjects; I will also be attending MLA’17. Besides MLA and MLGSCA, I am also a member of Central Arizona Biomedical Libraries (CABL); ALA’s Library Information Technology Association (LITA) and the Arizona State Library Association (AzLA), both of which I have volunteered for; and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).
As a semi-solo librarian at a satellite campus, I am familiar and comfortable with working remotely in teams to accomplish goals through Skype, phone, and other teleconferencing means. I also have experience as a former Secretary for a community college’s professional staff association. Thank you for considering me for MLGSCA’s 2017-2018 Secretary position.
Hannah Schilperoort
Bio:
I am an information services and Nursing liaison librarian at the Norris Medical Library at University of Southern California. Prior to USC, I worked as a health sciences librarian at Stanbridge University (formerly Stanbridge College), a part-time information literacy instructor at Duquesne University, and a library assistant at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. While earning my MLIS at San Jose State University, I served as secretary for the ALA Student Chapter during the 2014-2015 academic year. I am new to MLGSCA, MLA, and medical librarianship; I want to become more involved in the wider community, and am enthusiastic about the prospect of serving as MLGSCA secretary.
Treasurer
Jennifer Dinalo
Bio:
Jennifer Dinalo completed her B.S. in biochemistry and mathematics at Regis University. She then earned a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 2007 and moved on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford studying antibiotics and the human microbiome. A shift in career paths led to a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State in 2013. Jennifer started as an information services librarian at Norris Medical Library and the library liaison to the Keck School of Medicine at USC in November, 2015. Prior to coming to USC, she was an academic liaison librarian at San Jose State University for six departments: biology; chemistry; physics; meteorology and climate science; geology; and biomedical, chemical and materials engineering. Jennifer has been an active member of professional organizations since library school working on committees for national organizations, ALA, ACRL and MLA and local organizations such as the Northern California/Nevada Medical Library Group (NCNMLG) and the SJSU ALA Student Chapter. She was the treasurer for the SJSU ALASC for two years, managing the budget and accounts for the organization. She has been a member of MLGSCA since December 2015 and is currently serving as chair of the MLGSCA government relations/bylaw committee.
Angela Murrell
Bio:
Angela Murrell is the Senior Librarian and manager of the library at Bastyr University, California campus. In her role, she is responsible for planning and monitoring the budget and expenses of the library. Previously, she served as the medical librarian for the Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Clinic for 10 years. Angela has been a member of MLGSCA since 2005 and served on the MLGSCA CE Committee and Connection Committee from 2009 to 2011. Attending the MLGSCA joint meetings have helped her build and maintain connections within southern California, and eventually to her facilitating a local networking group, San Diego Health Science Librarians. Her interests also focus on instruction, and she was Vice-Chair/Chair from 2012-2014 of another southern California group, Lifelong Information Literacy interest (LILi) group, also serving on the By Laws Revision Committee 2012-2013, the Conference Planning committee 2013-2014 and serval other committees in that group. In addition to her professional involvement, Angela has served on her Home Owners Association Board and assisted with budget and financial matters while on the Board. She has always had a love for “crunching numbers” and keeping careful track of expenditures.
Angela would like the opportunity to give back to the MLGSCA through service as the next Treasurer.
Nominating Committee
Rebecca Davis
Bio:
My name is Rebecca Davis and I have been working as the Information Services Library for the Jennifer Ann Wilson Dental Library at the University of Southern California for a little over a year. I am a member of MLGSCA, MLA, and the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). In addition to being a member MLA, I am also a member of Oral History Committee and the Dental Section. I have had the opportunity to present the research that I am working on with my colleagues Lynn Kysh and Nancy Olmos on microaggressions in the Medical Library Community at the 2016 NCNMLG/MLGSCA Joint Meeting, Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium Colloquium (SCELC), 2016 MLA Annual Meeting, and the 2016 National Diversity in Libraries Conference (NDLC). I have my BA in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MSLS from the University of Kentucky, and Ph.D. in Communication and Information from The University of Tennessee.
Linda Murphy
Bio:
I have a Master’s degree in Library Information Study from UC Berkeley, and a BS degree in Health Sciences, Community Health Education from San Jose State University. I have been a Research librarian in Health Sciences with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Libraries since September 1987.
During my tenure at UCI, I have planned, developed, and implemented various workshops and seminars to enhance faculty, staff, residents, students, and the general public’s skills in information literacy and competency and in the area of Evidence-Based Medicine. I co-presented at various accredited CME workshops locally and nationally with medical educators. My research interests include health information literacy, culture competency, health disparities, evidence-based medicine, bioinformatics, information retrievals, bibliometrics, and predatory publishers. I have co-authored numerous of research papers in some of these areas (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CN5skVcAAAAJ&hl=en).
In addition, I have served as an editorial member of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (http://westjem.com/editors-editorial-board) since 2010.
Throughout my professional career, I have been very active with MLGSCA and have severed on various committees. The duty of a nominating committee is to find the best candidate for each office. With my active role and experience serving MLGSCA, I believe that I am the best candidate for the position. Listed below are the recent MLGSCA committees that I have served.
• Planning Committee for the NCNMLG/MLGSCA 2016 Joint meeting
• Served as one of the three members of the speaker committee for the 2013 NCNMLG/MLGSCA Joint Meeting.
• Served as a member of the Public Relations Committee, 2006-2008.
Ivan Portillo
Bio:
Ivan Portillo, MLIS, AHIP, is a pharmacy librarian at the M.B. Ketchum Memorial Library at Marshall B. Ketchum University. He is also the library’s liaison to the College of Pharmacy.
Ivan is an active member the Library and Information Science section of AACP. He is a contributor for AACP’s Basic Resources and Core Journals List for Pharmacy Education and a member of the Programming and Communications committee. He is also an active member of AVSL, where he serves on the website committee.
Ivan graduated from San Jose State University with a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
Janene Wandersee
Bio:
Janene Wandersee is a librarian at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, with 2016 marking fifteen years with the hospital and as a Phoenician. Previously she worked in the social sciences and started in libraries as a library assistant. She earned her library degree from the University of Arizona in 2006 and joined MLGSCA, MLA, and CABL (Central Arizona Biomedical Libraries) while she was in library school. She is currently CABL’s treasurer and was Membership Chair of MLGSCA in 2012. She is also a current and past member (2008-2009, 2014-) of MLGSCA’s research committee. One of the most enjoyable roles she served with MLGSCA was as co-chair of the contributed paper committee for the 2010 Joint Meeting in Glendale, which was a great way to interact with people across the whole chapter and learn about their libraries. She looks forward to continued involvement with MLGSCA.
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