Presenter Biographies

R. Lynn Baker, Author, Early Childhood Trainer & Professor and Former Children’s Librarian.

Lynn is the author of Counting Down to Kindergarten: A Complete Guide to Creating a School Readiness Program for Your Community and Creating Literacy-Based Programs for Children, both published by ALA Editions. She teaches online courses for ALA E-Editions, Library Juice Academy’s Early Childhood Literacy Certificate program, and is an adjunct Library Informatics professor for Northern Kentucky University. Lynn offers training and consulting for early childhood professionals and librarians through https://bakerearlyeducationtraining.com/. She holds a Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education and a Master’s in Library and Information Science.

Sessions: Planning Meaningful Early Childhood Programs & Meeting Diverse Needs Through Sensory Storytimes

Meg Beer, Assistant Branch Manager & Head of Children's Services, Pima County Public Library

Meg Beer is the Assistant Manager and Senior Children’s Librarian at the Eckstrom-Columbus Library, a branch of the Pima County Public Library system in Tucson, Arizona. She has presented Early Literacy Storytimes for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and their families for ten years. Helping families find fabulous stories and helpful resources is the highlight of her day.

Sessions: Practical Storytime Tips

Dr. Blake Brandes is a youth motivational speaker, hip-hop educator, music producer, and student leadership expert. Blake received his PhD in Hip-Hop and Global Youth Cultures from the University of Kent. He believes in the importance of education and the power of hip-hop to connect with young people in a meaningful way.

Sessions: Wednesday Keynote: Early Literacy and the Growth Mindset

Kendra Davey, Literacy Initiatives Program Manager, Pima County Public Library,

Kendra Davey oversees system wide programs and services for children and teens ages birth to 18 and their parents. Kendra is passionate about providing the children and families of Pima County with the skills and experiences that will help them grow and thrive.

Sessions: Fostering STEAM, School Readiness

Kimberly Flack, Director of Education and Community Impact, Arizona PBS

Kimberly Flack has served as associate general manager for educational outreach at Arizona PBS since 2010. Prior to that, she was associate director for educational outreach, after joining the station in 2001 as an instructional specialist coordinator on the professional development team remotely located in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Her work has focused on embedding PBS digital resources in community-based professional development and standards-based workshops; and on instructional design and online course curriculum creation for pre-service and in-service K-12 educators. As part of Arizona PBS Educational Outreach, she has been awarded numerous state and federal grants, and she serves on the national PBS KIDS Leadership Committee.

Sessions: Early Literacy and Digital Content - PBS Presents Resources for Librarians, Educators, Parents and Children

Joanne Floth, M.Ed. is a long-time early childhood educator who has worked as a teacher, preschool director, program manager and college instructor. She is retired from First Things First, where she served as the Regional Director of the Central Maricopa (now called East Maricopa) Regional Partnership Council. She is currently the Executive Director of Read on Chandler, a collaborative of community organizations and businesses committed to ensuring that every child, birth through five, obtains the necessary literacy skills for school readiness. She also serves on the board of the Association for Supportive Childcare and is past president of the Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children.

She considers working with families and adult learners as one of the greatest joys of her career! She regards herself a life-long learner and is always up for opportunities to learn.

Sessions: School Readiness

Chris Gall is an award-winning, internationally recognized illustrator and author. His artwork has been seen in almost every publication in America, including Time, Newsweek, People, Fortune, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He is a regular contributor to Arizona Highways Magazine. He has written and illustrated 15 books for children, including the Dinotrux series, now an animated television series airing on Netflix. Chris graduated from the University of Arizona in 1985 and has been a Tucson resident ever since.

Sessions: Drawing a Bright Future for Children

Cheryl Gerken, Educational Outreach Coordinator, Arizona Public Media

Cheryl S Gerken is a former bilingual educator and school librarian with a Spanish BA from Indiana University and an MA in Language, Reading and Culture from the University of Arizona. She joined Arizona Public Media in 2018 and enjoys the opportunities that her position as Educational Outreach Coordinator provide in the community: working with children, teens, and families as well as educators and others who work with children. She is an enthusiastic advocate for science education and literacy and volunteers with a variety of organizations to support educational efforts.

Sessions: Early Literacy and Digital Content - PBS Presents Resources for Librarians, Educators, Parents and Children

Fernando González, Digital Director, Make Way for Books

Digital Director Fernando Gonzalez oversees the successful development and promotion of the Make Way for Books App, ensuring parents and caregivers have access to accurate and culturally meaningful tools to support their young children’s literacy and language development

Sessions: Digital Resources for Media Mentors - Make Way for Books

Natalia Hoffman, Impact Director, Make Way for Books

Impact Director Natalia Hoffman oversees the implementation and continuous improvement of Make Way for Books Family Education and Literacy programs, ensuring the achievement of lasting outcomes for the children and families we are privileged to serve.

Sessions: Digital Resources for Media Mentors - Make Way for Books

Kristain Johnston, Literacy Coordinator, Chandler Public Library

Kristain, a former elementary education teacher, is part of Read On Chandler/Read On Arizona, is the Library's liaison to the Chandler Unified School District and wrote the curriculum for Chandler Library's school readiness program, Ready, Set, Kindergarten!

Sessions: School Readiness

Lisa Lewis, Library Services Manager, Show Low Public Library

Lisa Lewis has been working in public libraries for over 18 years and is currently the Library Services Manager for Show Low Public Library. She previously worked for the Town of Huachuca City as the Library and Community Services Director and for the Safford City Graham County Library as the Operations Supervisor. She began her library career in a public school library for the St. David Unified School District and moved to public libraries in 2007. Lisa has had many adventures over the years but one of the biggest adventures was being invited by the U.S. Embassy to present a series of workshops to librarians in Croatia with the main focus being early literacy. This was such an honor and a once in a lifetime trip that she will never forget.

Sessions: Practical Storytime Tips

Dr. Megan McClelland is the Katherine E. Smith Professor of Healthy Children and Families at Oregon State University (OSU) where she serves as Endowed Director at the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families. Her research focuses on optimizing children's development, especially as it relates to children’s self-regulation, early learning, and school success. Her recent work has examined links between self-regulation and long-term outcomes from early childhood to adulthood, recent advances in measuring self-regulation, and intervention efforts to improve these skills in young children. She works with colleagues and collaborators around the world and is currently involved with a number of national and international projects to develop measures of self-regulation and improve school success in young children.

Sessions: Friday Morning Keynote: The Importance of Self-Regulation and Social-Emotional Skills for School Readiness & Red Light, Purple Light! Promoting Self-Regulation for School Readiness

Debe Moreno, Youth Services Librarian, Chandler Public Library

During her 20 years at Chandler Public Library she has played an integral role in the early literacy movement in Chandler. She has collaborated with Read On Chandler, First Things First, Chandler Housing, Chandler Unified School District, Valley of the Sun United Way, and other community partners to help develop programs and get information about early literacy and school readiness into the community.

Sessions: School Readiness

Dr. Dipesh Navsaria is a pediatrician working in the public interest. He blends the roles of physician, occasional children's librarian, educator, public health professional and child health advocate. With graduate degrees in public health, children’s librarianship, physician assistant studies, and medicine, he brings a unique combination of interests and experience together.

To learn more about Dr. Navsaria, www.navsaria.com, www.facebook.com/DrLibrarian, www.twitter.com/navsaria (@navsaria), www.linkedin.com/in/DipeshNavsaria

Sessions: Thursday Keynote: Experiences Elevate Everything

Dianette Plácido, Education Director, Make Way for Books

Education Director Dianette Plácido maintains a reflective and positive performance-based culture that empowers the Family Education and Literacy team to set goals, build upon strengths, and provide innovative programming of the highest quality.

Sessions: Digital Resources for Media Mentors - Make Way for Books

Michelle Weissman Randall, PhD, Early Education Advisor, Bay Area Discovery Museum

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from San Francisco State University and a Doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught both at the preschool and university level, including classes on a variety of topics in child developmental psychology. She also has extensive experience working as an evaluator helping individuals and organizations study the effectiveness of a wide variety of both formal and informal educational programs for teaching and learning. Michelle is especially interested in how children learn, the tools they use for learning, and the socio-cultural influences on learning. She blends her academic training with her varied and deep experiences in teaching and psychological and educational research to help guide and develop programs to be most successful.

Sessions: Pre-Conference: Re-Imagining School Readiness

Monica Romero, Director of Federal Programs and State Initiatives, Chandler Unified School District

Monica Romero is a Director of Federal Programs and State Initiatives at Chandler Unified School District. Born and raised in Grant County New Mexico, she began her educational journey at Western New Mexico University and completed her BA at Arizona State University. She received her Master’s Degree in Business and found that she is most passionate working in the field of Education. She has devoted twenty three year’s working as a Secondary Teacher, Administrator, Counselor, Social Worker and Business Manager for both Districts and Charters. She is especially passionate about preschool aged children and the development of the whole child. There is no barrier to wide or too deep that will keep Monica from helping students succeed in reaching their educational goals. She truly enjoys working with homeless families, Native American families, English Language Learner families and Migrant families. She is currently, a board member with Si Se Puede Foundation and has participated in National committees, as well as State ESSA committees, continually advocating for students.

Sessions: School Readiness

Retha Russel, Early Literacy Coordinator, Safford City - Graham County Library

Retha Russell presents Storytime programs for families at the Safford Library and local area childcare centers for children ages 0-5. She has worked in early childhood education nearly 20 years; 15 years as a preschool educator and 4 years at the Safford Library. She has served for two years as a member of the Graham/Greenlee First Things First Regional Partnership Council. She has also conducted workshops at SEATA (South Eastern Arizona Teachers Academy) for teachers and early childhood educators.

Sessions: Practical Storytime Tips

Katie Scherrer, Founder and Owner - Stories, Songs and Stretches!

Katie is a unique combination of librarian, yogi, and entrepreneur. In 2018, she founded Stories, Songs, and Stretches!®- a yoga-inspired and science-informed school readiness initiative. Katie’s early career as a children’s librarian was focused on providing creative, relevant outreach and programming to Latinx immigrant communities. Her passion for inclusion continues to inform her work, exploring relationships between physical literacy, early literacy, and social-emotional development. Katie has published two books with the American Library Association, teaches online with Library Juice Academy, and travels the country providing training to librarians and early childhood educators. Find more at www.storiessongsandstretches.com.

Sessions: Embodied Play 101 & Physical Literacy and Early Literacy: Exploring connections

Allyson Smith, Arizona Science Center

In the role of Director of Youth Programs, Alyson currently leads and oversees Arizona Science Center’s community outreach programs and camps. The Science on Wheels program provides STEM based programming to students across the state from PreK to 8th grade. Alyson started her career as an elementary school teacher at a title 1 school and has a strong passion for making STEM programming accessible to all.

Sessions: Little Learners Leaping into Science

Donna Throckmorton, Arizona State Library

As a Library Services Consultant with the Arizona State Library, Donna leads the Arizona Summer Reading Program, Building a New Generation of Readers and Community Engagement projects. She has worked in urban, rural and school libraries in a variety of roles, from children’s services to circulation.

Sessions: Little Learners Leaping into Science

Vicky Vela-Thai, Early Literacy Outreach Supervisor, Phoenix Public Library

Vicky Vela-Thai supervises early literacy curriculum and training for Phoenix Public Library. She has created two school readiness programs, Kindergarten Bootcamp and Tools for School, for Phoenix Public Library. Before working for the library, Vicky taught kindergarten for nine years.

Sessions: School Readiness