Guest Presenters
Dawnnesha W. Lasuncet, Education Equity Specialist
Dawnnesha is an adult educator and former classroom teacher from Los Angeles, California who currently provides professional development and instructional coaching for administrators and educators in the state of Oregon.
She holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Adult Education, and held a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential with a CLAD emphasis in California. In 2005, after over ten years of classroom teaching experience, she began working exclusively in the area of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive (CLR) Teaching and Learning.
She served as a teacher and consultant with Culture and Language Academy of Success (CLAS), a CLR pilot school for historically underserved students. This experience enhanced her knowledge of self and skill-set, and inspired her to dedicate her professional endeavors to Culturally Responsive pedagogy.
Now residing in Oregon since 2007, she also provides coaching and facilitation work for teams, both internal and external, in the state of Oregon, in addition to professional collaborations centering on levels of educational discourse and technical assistance to districts and schools. Her work with students and families in Oregon includes participation in and employment with non-profit organizations and grassroots communities dedicated solely to the wellness of historically underserved populations, as well as addressing educational inequities in systems and institutions.
Dawnnesha will be presenting on culturally responsive teaching Friday morning.
I was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. I am married and now live in Monmouth, Oregon. We have two boys and a grandson who we get to see often!
Besides loving books, I also enjoy sewing, canning (fruit/jams), baking and scrapbooking. I began my para-professional library career in 1971 when I got a job with Spokane Public Libraries as a Page. It was in that context that I learned to mend books. I was assigned to the East Side Library branch. It is one of the 44 “Carnegie” libraries, with brick on the outside, two large rooms and a full basement on the inside. I grew up and went to college at Multnomah University for one year, married Bob, and worked in Multnomah’s Library until we had our first child in 1980.
We then moved to Monmouth for my husband to finish his education. I began work at Corban University (formerly Western Baptist College) Library in October of 1982. Over the course of my career, I have seen the transition from using the Dewey Decimal system to Library of Congress, from paper to electronic and the upgrading of operating systems (in our case from Voyager to Alma!) I’ve enjoyed it all and am honored to have the opportunity to share my book repair skills with others.
Connie will be doing two 90-minute sessions on book repair Friday morning.
AASL President Mary Keeling
Keeling most recently served as the chair of the AASL Standards and Guidelines Implementation Task Force. Under her coordination, the group developed AASL's plan to support states, school systems and individual schools as they implement the new "National School Library Standards." Previous AASL leadership positions include chair of the supervisors section, chair of the ABC-CLIO leadership grant, and co-chair of the ACRL-AASL Interdivisional Committee on Information Literacy.
At the state level, Keeling has been actively involved with the Virginia Association of School Librarians (formerly the Virginia Educational Media Association). She has served in multiple leadership roles including president, chair of the supervisors' section, and past president/nominating committee chair. Keeling is also a former Lilead Fellow and holds National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification in Library/Media Technology.
Along with her library services supervisor position for Newport News Public Schools, Keeling also teaches as an adjunct professor for Old Dominion University. Her previous positions include school librarian for B.C. Charles Elementary School and librarian for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Mary will be speaking with us during lunch on Saturday.