Welcome to the 2021 APALA Elections! Elections open on Monday, May 17 (12:00am Eastern Time) and end on Friday, June 4 (11:59PM Eastern Time). Please vote on Vice President/President Elect, Secretary and Member at Large (two positions). We also need your votes for six amendments in order to make changes to our Constitution and Bylaws.
Each eligible voting member will receive a ballot via email. Eligible members include active members (Free, Library Support Staff, Life, Personal, Retiree, Student, Unemployed, and Corporate) in good standing on or before April 15, 2021. Institutional members are ineligible to vote.
President-Elect/Vice President:
- Annie Pho
Secretary:
- Rebecca Martin
- Jamie Kurumaji
Member At Large:
- Tarida Anantachai
- Cynthia M. Orozco
- Molly Higgins
- Sheila Garcia Mazari
Candidate Information
President-Elect/Vice President:
Annie Pho
Annie Pho is the Instruction Coordinator and Assessment Librarian at the University of San Francisco. She has a Bachelor’s in Art History from San Francisco State University and a Master’s in Library Science from IUPUI. She has facilitated workshops on microaggressions and presented extensively on critical librarianship and teaching and learning. She is the co-editor for the book Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, as well as the co-editor of the Critical Race and Multiculturalism Series for Library Juice Press. Her research interests include intersectionality and women of color in LIS, student research behavior, and feminist pedagogy in information literacy instruction. She was a 2013 ALA Emerging Leader, a participant in the 2014 Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians, the recipient of the 2018 JCLC Rising Star award for APALA, and in 2019 she and co-editor Rose L. Chou received the ACRL WGSS Significant Achievement Award for her work on the book, Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS. She has served as a Member-at-Large and Secretary on the APALA Executive Board, has served on a variety of APALA committees, and has participated as an APALA mentor since 2017.
Statement of Interest: It is an honor and privilege to have been nominated for APALA Vice President/President Elect. I consider APALA to be one of my professional homes and very much believe in the mission and values of APALA. Following my participation in the ALA Emerging Leaders program in 2013, I was inspired to get involved with the APALA Executive Board, and I was able to serve as Member-at Large from 2014-2015, and then from 2017-2019 as Secretary. I learned so much about APALA in my time on the Executive Board. I have served on a variety of APALA committees like the Web Committee, the Local Arrangements Committee, and I’ve participated as a mentor for the Mentorship program. If elected, I would look forward to continuing to serve APALA as Vice President/President Elect and helping with programs and opportunities to uplift our APALA members.
I acknowledge that it has not been an easy time for the AAPI community, and in these moments of grief, anger, and uncertainty; I feel mobilized to continue to advocate for the APALA community, and work closely with other BIPOC library workers to work towards liberation and social justice. As APALA Vice President/President-Elect, my approach is to be community focused– to ensure that the values of APALA are reflected in all of the work of the organization. I approach all of my work in libraries and professional space with an ethic of care and empathy, and my goals are to uplift community as much as I can. Once again, I am so honored for this opportunity to serve, and I thank you for your consideration!
Secretary
Rebecca Martin
Rebecca Martin (she/her) is a mixed race, Korean American woman, and lifelong resident of Massachusetts. She currently works as the Associate Director for Scholarly Communication and Collections at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Gutman Library. Prior to joining Harvard, she worked in access and technical services at Boston University Law School and as a coordinator of the Pappenheim Library on Anti-Racism at Community Change, Inc. (CCI). Rebecca’s commitment to anti-racist action, in and outside of her work in higher education, has been shaped by local organizations focused on combatting systemic oppression like CCI and the Asian American Resource Workshop.
In addition to her current APALA involvement, Rebecca serves as a member of the Concurrent Programs, Poster Sessions & Proceedings Committee for the 2022 National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color; the secretary of the Scholarly Communication Committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Education and Behavioral Sciences Section; and a mentor in the Association of Research Libraries’ Kaleidoscope Program. She has had the privilege of participating in several leadership development opportunities including the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians (2016), the Harvard University Administrative Fellows Program (2018), and the Association of Research Libraries’ Leadership and Career Development Program (2020-2021).
Statement of Interest: I am honored to be considered for an APALA Secretary position. In 2012, I received an APALA travel grant to attend the National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. It was a formative experience. It was my first time publicly presenting at a national conference, and my first time in caucus and community with fellow librarians of color on a large scale. I left exhausted and energized. The experience compelled me to get more involved in APALA so that I could stay connected to that community as I returned home to Boston and to give back to the organization that sent me to JCLC in the first place. Ever since, I have been actively participating in APALA committee work to help propel the organization’s goals, to stay connected to its membership, and to learn what is happening across the communities we serve and the communities we identify with. I’ve had the pleasure of participating on the Publicity, Website, and Mentoring committees and have also co-chaired the Scholarship & Awards and Constitution & Bylaws committees. I am excited for an opportunity to continue to grow and build community with my colleagues in APALA by serving as Secretary where I can serve as a liaison between the very important work of the committees and the Executive Board.
Jamie Kurumaji
Jamie Kurumaji is a Supervising Librarian with the Fresno County Public Library, overseeing both metro and rural locations. She provides support and leadership to a team of programming librarians, branch supervisors, and support staff. Jamie is a founding and current committee member of FCPL’s EDI committee. She has worked and volunteered with libraries for 6 years, starting as a volunteer with the local bookmobile to a library assistant, and currently a librarian with her hometown library system in Fresno, CA. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University in 2015 and a BA in Art History from Sonoma State University in 2006. Previously, Jamie worked as a Children’s Librarian with FCPL and as Branch Supervisor with Kern County Library. Currently, Jamie is co-chair of APALA’s 2022 Children’s Literature Award committee and a member of the Endorsement Exploration Task Force.
Statement of Interest: I am very honored to be nominated as a candidate for APALA’s Secretary position. I joined APALA during my last year of library school. After graduating, I wanted to become more engaged and feel part of a library community. In 2016, I joined the Membership and Literature Award Committee in the Picture Books category, and the following year, I served as the Chair of the Picture Books Literature Award Committee. During my first year of actively contributing, I felt immediate support and a sense of belonging. From the opportunities that were given to me through APALA, I was sponsored by this amazing group to be the 2020 ALA Emerging Leader and from the early experiences I had with literature committees, was a member of the 2021 Geisel Award Committee.
I am forever grateful to the many opportunities from APALA. This organization has been an uplifting voice during this past year. From the start of COVID-19, my fellow Emerging Leaders and I took part in a project where we were able to interview a number of APALA leaders. We listened to their stories of inspiration and examples of what leadership meant to them. One thing that seemed to connect everyone together was their examples of resiliency that we captured and it reinforced all of the reasons as to why I wanted to do more to contribute to our APALA family. It would be an honor to serve as Secretary. If selected, I will support the mission and goals of APALA by strengthening our visibility and voice. I hope to be as open and clear in my communications as the previous APALA secretaries, in order to support and foster our organization. Thank you for your consideration!
Member-At-Large
Tarida Anantachai
Tarida Anantachai is currently the Interim Head of the Department of Learning and Academic Engagement at the Syracuse University Libraries. In this role, she leads and manages a range of departmental activities—including information and reference services, outreach and engagement opportunities, and cross-departmental and campus partnerships. She also serves as co-chair of her library’s Diversity and Inclusion Team, and as a liaison to units such as her university’s English Language Institute and Office of Multicultural Affairs. Outside of her institution, she also co-teaches a course on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented library workers for Library Juice Academy. Tarida was an ALA Emerging Leader and a participant in the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians, and is a current fellow in the ARL Leadership and Career Development Program. She received her MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Statement of Interest: I am deeply honored to have been nominated by my fellow colleagues as one of your candidates for APALA Member at Large. I have had the great joy of contributing to several APALA committees over the years, including serving on the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, the Literature Awards Committee for Adult Fiction, as chair of the Literature Awards Committee for Children’s Literature, and as both a co-chair on the Mentoring Committee as well as a mentor myself in the APALA Mentoring Program.
Of all of my professional memberships and activities, APALA has been the organization with which I have felt an especially close affinity. APALA has consistently provided an essential sense of community, advocacy, and solidarity that has greatly inspired both me and so many of our members. This year in particular, as we all navigated both the challenges of COVID-19 and the increasing xenophobia, racism, and violence against the APA community, I drew strength from the active virtual presence, programming, and leadership of the whole APALA membership. This strength directly fed into my own intention to actively support APAs and other communities of color; as one example, throughout the year, I worked alongside colleagues and students within my own university and beyond to co-deliver numerous programs on topics such as anti-Asian racism and bystander intervention, and confronting anti-Blackness in the APA community and building solidarity. I hope to bring this commitment to strengthening support for the APA community to the parallel efforts of the APALA Executive Board. As a Member at Large, I would strive to bring a personal ethic of care and empathy in advancing APALA’s mission and goals, and in listening and responding to the critical needs of our membership. I hope to support the Board in further empowering our community—such as through bolstering the work of our committees, identifying additional collaborative opportunities, and in general, amplifying the experiences and voices of our members. To be able to further my contributions to a community that has given me so much would be a wonderful honor. Many thanks for your consideration!
Cynthia M. Orozco
Cynthia Mari Orozco is the Librarian for Equitable Services at East Los Angeles College, where she provides reference, instruction, and outreach services for community college students. In this role, she also supports faculty in open educational resources (OER) and scholarly communications more broadly. Cynthia has also worked as the Student Services Librarian at California State University Long Beach, Sunday Librarian at Palos Verdes Library District, and Library-in-Residence at Loyola Marymount University. She holds an MLIS from San José State University, MA in Latin American Studies from San Diego State University, and BAs in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine. Cynthia is the recipient of the APALA Travel Award (2011) and received APALA sponsorship as an ALA Emerging Leader in 2015.
Statement of Interest: It is an honor to be considered as a Member-at-Large for APALA. As a library school student, I joined APALA in 2010 not entirely sure what a professional association even was and was warmly welcomed to this community. I have developed so much as a librarian in both formal and informal APALA work. Most recently, I have served as the chair of the Adult Literature (Non-Fiction) Committee; I have also previously served as chair of the Adult Literature (Fiction) Committee, as co-chair of the Scholarships and Awards Committee, and on several other committees. After many years of involvement with APALA, I am interested in serving in the Member-at-Large position to provide direct support to the Executive Board and work with various committees to support the mission of APALA and perform the essential work that APALA does. After all APALA has done for me, I also am particularly committed to supporting the needs of new APALA members and current library schools students and recent graduates.
Molly Higgins
Molly Higgins is a systematic review librarian at the USDA (through the Panum Group), with eight years of experience in medical and government libraries. She earned her MLIS from the University of Washington and her BA in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She joined APALA during grad school, and has served on the Media and Publicity Committee since 2014. She has served as committee co-chair since 2017, and in that time, has helped create an all-digital newsletter, increase posting web content to a bimonthly schedule, redesign of the APALA website, expand APALA’s social media presence, and introduce two new content types (Member Updates and APALA Community Kitchen).
Statement of Interest: If you elect me as Member at Large, I’ll bring my experience with the Media and Publicity Committee to increase communication between committees and strengthen APALA’s online community. Part of what makes APALA so special to me has always been how it builds an inclusive Asian and Pacific Islander American community for librarians, regardless of how isolated we might be in our own institutions. Whether we work from home or physical library and office spaces, whether we are able to come together at in-person conferences or not, I plan to ensure that our online community feels like home.
Sheila Garcia Mazari
Sheila García Mazari is a Professional Programs liaison librarian at Grand Valley State University. She received her MLIS from Wayne State University in 2017 and has a BA in International Relations from Grand Valley State University. She is currently co-chair of APALA’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee (2018-2021), Convener of the ACRL Residency Interest Group (2020-2021) and serves on the Michigan Academic Library Association’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Committee (2020-2021). She has also previously served on the APALA Scholarship Committee (2017-2018). Formerly, Sheila was a Diversity Alliance Resident Librarian at the University of Michigan and has worked as a library assistant in the Grand Rapids Public Library system. Sheila is a 2016 Spectrum Scholar and a 2019 ALA Emerging Leader.
Statement of Interest: It is an honor to be nominated for the position of Member at Large of APALA’s Executive Board. APALA holds a special place for me as the first professional organization where I felt welcome and included, starting from my first ALA conference experience in 2017 where I was invited to attend the APALA Literature Awards. APALA has provided me with opportunities to grow professionally, from connecting with members online and in-person, continually learning about the experiences and needs of the APA community, and serving on committees during the past four years.
I see the position of Member at Large as an opportunity to give back to an organization that has given so much to me. I believe strongly in the practices of empathetic listening and cultural humility in building strong and transparent organizations. I hope to bring these practices with me, as well as my attention to detail and, at this point, quite extensive knowledge of the APALA Constitution, Bylaws, and Manual to the position of Member at Large and continue to support the work of the APALA membership.