JJ is the Applied Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an award winning librarian for his research on accessibility and disability in librarianship for both patrons and library employees. He is an advocate for making libraries more accessibility and friendly to people with disabilities. He lives with two Maine Coon cats, three plants, and a plethora of books.

Holly Smith is the College Archivist at Spelman College. She received a B.A. in History and Black Studies from William and Mary, an M.A. in History from Yale University, and an M.S. in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archival Management from Simmons College. She is passionate about community archives and archival advocacy related to collections for underrepresented groups. (From Atlanta Contemporary)

As a children’s librarian at Richland Library, Heather’s greatest joy is sharing wonderful, thrilling and inspiring stories with children and families. She is a proud early literacy advocate, parent educator and editor-in-chief for Kids in Print, Richland Library’s literary magazine. She also serves on the board of Richland First Steps and Read-a-Rama, a nonprofit bringing together children, teens and books with hands-on activities. She has been recognized as a 2015 Mover and Shaker by Library Journal, SCLA's Outstanding Librarian of the Year 2016 and was awarded the Peggy Parish Prize. In addition to her work in libraries, Heather is a theatre artist—a director, actor and playwright for The NiA Company. She was last seen onstage as Hansel in Whatchamacallit, April in Broken Fences and The Troll in The Three Billy Goats Gruff, a show that she wrote as well. Throughout Heather’s life, her driving force is the utter belief in the power of people and stories to change lives, uncover the truth and bring communities together.

Ms. Selina Sharmin is currently the Coping Skills Librarian for New Americans Program at Queens Public Library. Ms. Sharmin coordinates lectures and workshops, primary languages other than English presented in Queens Public Library’s sixty five community libraries to help 2.3 million immigrants in Queens adjust to life in their new country. She conducted a Bengali Story time for the first time at Queens Public Library. Ms. Sharmin also handle budget of more than twenty five thousand dollars for her current position for New Americans Program. Since 2011, She has been the Coping Skills Librarian at New Americans Program at Queens Public Library. In 2019 Ms. Sharmin coordinated total 2160 workshops and sessions in different languages including Technology classes such as Citizenship classes, Computer classes in Spanish and Bengali. All these workshops total attendance were 63,543. Ms. Sharmin received a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Queens College, City University of New York in 2009. She has earned another Masters Degree in Library and Information Management from Dhaka University, Bangladesh in 1997. Ms. Sharmin became New York Library Association/Ethnic Services Round Table (ESRT) President Elect for 2019-President elect for 2020. Head of the Program Curator for 2019 New York Library Association Annual Conference. Organized Board and membership meeting three times a year in various library at New York State. Suggested and found presenters for current issues for Immigrants and organized workshops and presentations for New York Library Association’s Annual Conference 2019. Curator as a Programming Committee head for New York Library Association’s Annual Conference 2019 and coordinated and supervised online programs and workshop’s description to the NYLA conference 2019.

Ms. Sharmin coordinates educational workshops for the major languages spoken in Queens. Topics are How to Find Jobs in America, Parenting, Know Your Rights, College Admission, How to Apply for College, Nutrition and Health, Cultural Diversity, Youth Development, Housing, Domestic Violence, Mental Health, Computer Classes in Bengali and Spanish, Immigration law, U.S Citizenship help, How to Start and Run Small business and collaborations between public libraries & community agencies in New York City.

Ms. Sharmin has worked as a Children Librarian, Young Adult Librarian, Adult Librarian, Reference librarian, and Special Services librarian at Queens Public library since 2000. She provides continuing education for public library practitioners at various American Library Association’s Annual Conferences, New York Library Associations and New York Black Librarian Caucus Inc. She also offered training for Government and Foreign delicate from Taiwan and Korea on behalf of Queens Library in 2017. She also provides organizational overview and program development training to the three hundred employees at Queens Public Library. Ms. Sharmin originally from Bangladesh and immigrated to New York City in 2000. She is an active member of the American Library association, Public Library Association and serving in several voluntary governance positions including the Executive Board. She received a citation of honor from Queens Boro President Melinda Katz in 2015 for serving 2.3 million immigrants community in Queens and for promoting Bengali language and culture in mainstream America. Mrs. Sharmin Also received an award from International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) in 2016 for writing an Essay about serving immigrants in America. This essay competition held throughout the world and Ms. Sharmin was one of them out of 100 recipients.

Katie Dover-Taylor (she/her/hers) is currently a Librarian II at the William P. Faust Public Library in Westland, Michigan, where she provides reference, readers advisory, and technology assistance, coordinates technology training for adult learners, and serves as the chair of the library’s staff union. Over the past several years, Katie has approached social justice work in libraries through both community organizing and scholarship. In 2015, she was a founding co-coordinator of the Radical Libraries, Archives & Museums Track at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. In 2017, she co-authored a chapter on white anti-racist librarianship for the book Topographies of Whiteness: Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Science. She is a member of the PLA Task Force on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice.

Barbara M. Jones is the retired Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation at American Library Association. She holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Minnesota and an MLS in Library Service from Columbia University in New York City. She served on the FAIFE (Free Access to Information and Free Expression) at the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA). She traveled extensively around the world to hold FAIFE workshops on free expression, libraries and anti-corruption, libraries and HIV/AIDS information, and libraries and fake news. Before that, she was primarily and academic librarian, serving 4 times as a library director. She has written two books and several articles on the above topics. Currently she is working on a Podcast with CM Winters, about Information Poverty in the City of Chicago, that applies to all parts of the U.S.

Anna is the Head of Youth Services at Livingston (NJ) Public Library. Anna is a member of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and is a former APALA Secretary, Member-at-Large, and Family Literacy Focus Committee Co-Chair. Anna is also a former ALA Emerging Leader and New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) Emerging Leader. Anna was a presenter on the 2019 New York Comic Con (NYCC) panel "Graphic Orientalism: Deconstructing Asian Identity in Comics," the 2018 LibraryLinkNJ Webinar "Addressing Microaggressions Personally & Institutionally," and the 2017 NJLA Conference panel "Practical Conversations about Diversity, Inclusion, Intellectual Freedom and Our Role in Social Justice Work."