2024 Library Symposium

Featured Speakers

Dr. Chelsea Clinton

As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to improve lives and inspire emerging leaders across the United States and around the world. This includes the Foundation’s early child initiative Too Small to Fail, which supports families with the resources they need to promote early brain and language development; and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a global program that empowers student leaders to turn their ideas into action. A longtime public health advocate, Chelsea also serves as vice chair of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and uses her platform to increase awareness around issues such as vaccine hesitancy, childhood obesity, and health equity.

In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, She Persisted in Science, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference; Don’t Let Them Disappear; It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going; and Welcome to the Big Kids Club. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar. Chelsea’s podcast, In Fact with Chelsea Clinton, premiered in 2021 and is the co-founder of HiddenLight Productions.

Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc, their children Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper in New York City.

Tony Marx

Anthony W. Marx is President of The New York Public Library, the nation’s largest library system, with 88 neighborhood libraries and four scholarly research centers. Since joining NYPL in 2011, Marx has strengthened the Library’s role as an essential provider of educational resources and opportunities for all ages. Under his leadership, the Library has created new early literacy and after-school programs for children and teens, dramatically increased free English language classes and citizenship support for immigrants, and improved services for scholars and students who rely on the Library’s world-renowned research collections. Under Marx, the Library has also become a national leader on bridging the digital divide through its efforts to increase access to e-books, expand computer classes and coding training, and a groundbreaking program that provides home internet access to families of low-income students. Before joining the Library, Marx served as president of Amherst College from 2003 to 2011, during which time he tripled enrollment for low-income students. Before Amherst, Marx was a political science professor and director of undergraduate studies at Columbia University. Marx has a BA from Yale, an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a PhD, also from Princeton.

Intellectual Freedom Panel

Mahnaz Dar (Moderator)

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor at Kirkus Reviews. Prior to that, she worked as a reviews editor at Library Journal and School Library Journal. When she's not nose deep in kid lit, she writes freelance articles on TV, movies, and pop culture.

Karina Yan Glaser

Karina is the New York Times bestselling writer and illustrator of The Vanderbeekers series, a New York TimesNotable Children's Book and the winner of the NYC Book Award, and the standalone novel A Duet for Home, a Publisher’s Weekly bestseller and nominated for a dozen state book awards. Karina lives in Harlem with her husband, two teenagers, and an assortment of animals. One of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can’t go anywhere without a book. Find her online at www.karinaglaser.com.

David Soman

David Soman has illustrated many beautiful picture books, including The Impossible Mountain, Papa's Home, and the New York Times bestselling Ladybug Girl series, which he co-created with his wife, Jacky Davis. He is an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and lives with his family in New York's Hudson Valley.

Kasey Meehan

Kasey Meehan is the Program Director for Freedom to Read at PEN America, leading PEN’s initiatives to protect the rights of students, individuals, and communities to freely access literature in schools and public libraries. Kasey oversees and supports research, advocacy and mobilization, education, and author engagement related to book bans and the overarching freedom to read. Previously, Kasey served as the Associate Director of Postsecondary Policy at a mission-driven education research organization in Philadelphia, Research for Action. Meehan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caroline Suh

Caroline Suh is a documentary filmmaker, whose work in film, television and commercials has been featured on Netflix, CNN Films, Sundance Channel, PBS, and Epix, among others. Over the span of her 20-year career, Suh has directed, produced and served as the showrunner for high-end feature films and series. Recently, Suh directed and executive produced the Emmy-winning four-part Netflix series WORKING: WHAT WE DO ALL DAY, which she developed with President Barack Obama and his company Higher Ground. She also directed the feature documentary Blackpink: Light Up the Sky for Netflix about the K-pop girl group phenomenon, which was released October 2020. For Netflix, Suh also adapted the best-selling book by Samin Nosrat, SALT, FAT, ACID, HEAT, into a cinematic four-part series with Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, which won a James Beard award. With Jigsaw, she also created and directed the six-part series 4% on Epix about the lack of female directors in Hollywood. Previously, Suh also served as showrunner and director at RadicalMedia for Sundance Channel’s Iconoclasts series and directed the critically-acclaimed documentary feature Frontrunners (Oscilloscope Pictures).

Nick Higgins

Nick Higgins is the Chief Librarian of Brooklyn Public Library (BPL). Nick leads the development of library services and spaces for the residents of Brooklyn. In his previous role as Director of Outreach Services, Nick and his team created a suite of unique programs for older adults, individuals and families impacted by the justice system, immigrants, and people experiencing homelessness. Nick began his career in 2006 at BPL as a librarian trainee and worked in several branches, and also held the position of Jail and Prison Librarian at NYPL, creating library services on Rikers Island, and in State and Federal Prisons. In 2017 Nick was named “Mover and Shaker” by Library Journal for building a citywide library-based video visiting service for kids with parents who were incarcerated.

Nick and his team were recognized as "Librarian of the Year" from Library Journal for their work on Books Unbanned, a freedom to read initiative that provides free access to BPL's entire digital library collection for teens anywhere in the US facing book bans. Nick received an MLIS from the Pratt Institute and a BA in British Literature from Hunter College.

Mary-Kate Gaudet

Mary-Kate Gaudet is an Executive Editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers who primarily acquires and edits illustrated books, collaborating with award-winning and bestselling artists such as Liz Climo, Matthew Cordell, Ed Emberley, Cori Doerrfeld, Ame Dyckman, Abby Hanlon, and father-daughter duo Bob and Erin Odenkirk. A member of the LBYR Banned Book Task Force, she also champions the picture book backlist, manages partnerships with companies such as Disney and NBCUniversal, and facilitates in-house IP development. A graduate of Fordham University,she joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2012 after having worked at HarperCollins Children's Books, Sterling Publishing, and Denise Marcil Literary Agency.

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