Bios
Joan Atkinson is a free-lance specialist in children’s literature. She is the former Director of the University of Alabama School of Library and Information Science, where she was on the faculty for more than 20 years.
Kathy Barco earned her MLIS from USM in 1997 and is currently a Children’s Librarian with the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System. She was Youth Services Coordinator for the New Mexico State Library from 2001-2006 and is the author of READiscover New Mexico – A Tri-Lingual Adventure in Literacy. She received the 2006 Leadership Award from the New Mexico Library Association.
Clayton Bess is the pen name of Robert Locke, an author and playwright who lives in Sacramento, California. Writing as Clayton Bess, he is the author of the picture book Truth About the Moon, and the novels Story for a Black Night, Tracks, and Big Man and the Burnout. Story for a Black Night was a 2002 Phoenix Honor Book. Locke was a member of the Peace Corps in Liberia--one of the first deployments of Peace Corps volunteers, and where two of his novels are set.
Sarah C. Campbell is a writer and photographer. Her first children’s book, Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator a fact-filled story about a day in the life of a tiny, and unexpected, predator will be published this year by Boyds Mills Press. An experienced journalist with multiple master’s degrees, Campbell’s writing and photographs have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Highlights for Children and The New York Times.
Rosemary Chance was an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Southern Miss from 2000-2004 and directed the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival for three years. Currently, she has returned to her home state of Texas and is teaching part time (online) for San Jose State University in California and for Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
Floyd Dickman is a free lance specialist in Children's literature. In 2000 he retired from the State Library of Ohio and is currently an adjunct professor at Kent State University and Ohio Dominican University. He is an active member of the Association for Library Services to Children and REFORMA. A member of the Caldecott Committee in 1986, 1994 and 2002, Floyd was named the 1990 Ohio Librarian of the Year by the Ohio Library Association.
Lori Easterwood earned her MLIS from Simmons College in Boston and holds a M.A. in American Literature from Keele University, U.K. As a teen librarian at the Sacramento Public Library she loves having a positive response to the frequently asked question, “do you rent videogames at the library?”
Carrel Gueringer is a Pre/Lower School librarian at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. She is a published author and Louisiana’s Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the organization that awards the Golden Kite Award. She also teaches Writing Children’s Literature at the University of New Orleans.
Brooke Quinn Howard is an Early Childhood Music and Movement Specialist, loving living in Hattiesburg, MS. She is a voracious reader and enjoys passing on her love for literature to her students. An accomplished vocalist, Brooke holds a BFA from USM in Theatre Performance, and currently enjoys instructing children on music fundamentals - through play! - as the owner of Kidstunes.
Daniel A. Kelin, II is the Director of Drama Education with the Honolulu Theatre for
Youth. He also serves as a Summer Drama Director with Jodrikdrik Nan Jodrikdrik Ilo
Ejmour, a Marshall Islands youth organization, a thespian group that uses Marshallese
folklore to explore and teach about social issues through drama.
June Lacanski and Rochelle Sides-Renda are perennial presenters at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival. They are graduates of the University of Alabama School of Library and Information Science and have worked as children’s specialists in the Birmingham Public Library for more than 49 years combined. They estimate that they have designed and implemented 586 summer reading programs in their combined careers.
Bettie McGiness is a third year doctoral student at the University of Texas and recipient of the IMLS grant “Youth, Community, Libraries: Empowerment for Success.” She taught fourth grade for 12 years and was an elementary school librarian for 5 years. Her research interests include school library services to marginalized groups, class and race representations in children's literature, and school librarians' roles as school leaders.
Jamie Naidoo is faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science. He just finished serving on the USBBY’s 2008 OIBC and the 2008 Pura Belpré Awards committee and is currently serving on the 2009 Caldecott committee. His primary research areas are multicultural/international children’s literature and library services to Latino children and young adults.
Ellen Ruffin is the Curator of the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. A former librarian at high school librarian, she is a graduate of USM’s Library School. She is currently a member of the 2009 Newbery Committee.
Karla Schmit is Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian and Assistant Director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book. She holds an MLIS from the University of Southern Mississippi and a BS and MS in elementary education and reading from Minnesota State University. She is a doctoral candidate at Penn State in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in language and literacy and an emphasis in children's literature.
Lindsey Patrick Wesson is a children’s librarian at the Sacramento Public Library and a recent graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Library and Information Science. Her greatest joy in her job is putting the right book in the right hand – especially when the owner of that hand would prefer to be holding a game controller.
