CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The 2021 FACRL Board Elections Results are in!

To all the candidates, know that all of us deeply appreciate your willingness to serve. And special thanks to Craig Amos, Julie Hornick, Elana Karshmer, and Alyssa Koclanes for serving on this year's Nominating Committee. Our new Board members will be formally installed during the May meeting.

Our Newly Elected Board Members:

President-Elect

Rachel Cooke

Hello Florida Colleagues! I am Rachel Cooke, the Education & Arts Librarian at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). I would be honored to serve you as the next FACRL president-elect. Originally from Michigan, I started out as an Art History adjunct professor, then worked in various academic institutions in the Midwest before settling down at FGCU, where I have worked for 16 years. I have always been a strong advocate for connection and knowledge sharing. Several years ago my colleagues at FLA and I launched a statewide mentoring program that complimented the Sunshine State program. At ACRL, I am the incoming chair of the Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) committee and am planning a national marketing campaign to make these great resources more visible.

For the past three years, I have enjoyed working with my wonderful colleagues on the FACRL board, as well as working behind-the-scenes to assist with initiatives in the Membership and Programming committees. We are hearing that folks want to connect with each other beyond the annual conference and are working to make that happen. For example, with the help of my colleagues at FACRL and FLA, I coordinated the first FLA/FACL webinar series to feature our Florida colleagues with expertise in data literacy, services, and management. Another idea I have is to start a statewide contact list of experienced folks who are willing to help their FACRL colleagues with specific questions in their field of expertise. Topics might include instruction, collection development, resource sharing, research, and publication.

During these challenging times, many of us cherish those connections we can make locally, regionally and statewide. FACRL can be that for us - a “statewide friendship line” of caring, support, and sharing of knowledge. I am excited to continue that journey with you while growing our membership and increasing opportunities of connection.

Communications Manager

Nancy Schuler

Nancy Schuler (MLIS) is the e-Resources, Collection Development, & Instructional Services Librarian at Eckerd College where she serves as liaison to the creative arts disciplines. She has more than nine years of experience working as an academic librarian, maintaining library websites, e-resource platforms, and spearheading efforts to highlight collections and programs throughout the institution using platforms such as WordPress, LibGuides, Canva, numerous image editing and screencasting tools, as well as HTML, CSS, and XML. She recently chaired the FACRL Conference Committee for the chapter’s very first virtual conference, overseeing the selection of conference proposals as well as communications with presenters. She has served on the ACRL College Library Section’s Communications Committee as social media and web editor, as well as FLA’s Marketing & Membership Committee. Her areas of interest include library spaces, unique collections, copyright, and co-curricular library programming. She received her MLS in 2008 from the University of Washington and undergraduate degrees in Geography and Natural Resource Management from the University of Maryland.

Member At Large

Cindy Gruwell

Cindy Gruwell is a recent addition to the University of West Florida, John C. Pace Library where she serves as an Assistant Librarian and Coordinator of Scholarly Communications. Prior to this position, Cindy was a faculty librarian at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Her areas of interest are all things health sciences, biology, scholarly communication, and providing leadership for the university's institutional repository. Cindy has a BA in History and an MLS from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, she has an MEd from Bemidji State University.

I believe I would make a good addition to this committee based on my experience serving as a voting member on the Minnesota Library Association Executive Board and chairing their Academic and Research Division/ACRL State Representative for Minnesota. This experience has served me well as I participate in a variety of other university initiatives and activities in our professional community.

Member At Large

Steven Wade

Steven received his MLIS from Louisiana State University and is a 2018 graduate of the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute. Since 2015 he has been an Instructional Services Librarian at Florida Southern College. Steven’s responsibilities include providing classroom and individual instruction to students and management of the library’s electronic resources. He has presented at national and regional conferences including FLA, ACRL, ICUF, and OLA. Steven is passionate about advocating for Florida academic libraries.

Member At Large

Clarissa West-White

Dr. Clarissa West-White is a Reference Librarian/Research Instructor at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. A native of Quincy, Florida, she has degrees in Creative Writing, Curriculum & Instruction English Education and Information from Florida State University. Dr. West-White has experience as a middle and high school English teacher, program coordinator, adult literacy director, university English department chair, and assistant professor and adjunct at a number of public and private universities in the state of Florida and online. She has completed archival projects and served as an education consultant with the U.S. and Florida Department of Education. She has received fellowships and scholarships, including: Robert Frederick Smith Internship, National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian Institute; Teacher and Librarian Scholarship Recipient, Key West Literary Seminar; National Information Standard Organization (NISO) Plus Scholarship Recipient; Preserving Digital Objects With Restricted Resources Institute Recipient; Fulbright-Hays, Turkey. Her areas of research have shifted yet remain close to those formed at the start of her graduate career: Intersections of race and education, information and technology. She enjoys marrying community activism with literature, art and or education.

Since transitioning to the library from teaching in 2018, graduating with the Master’s in Information and attending the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries Conference in 2019, Dr. West-White has been eager to become more involved. Thus, when the opportunity presented itself to help with the 2020 virtual conference, she volunteered. No stranger to the work organizations require to become successful, she has served on the board of the Florida Council of Teachers of English, where she worked to recreate the National Council of Teachers of Education's National Advocacy Day in Florida. With board members, she orchestrated the event in conjunction with area Colleges of Education's faculty to present representatives with a list of talking points and concerns regarding education. She also served on the local planning committee for the National Council of Teachers of English when its convention, and recently served on the planning committees for the 2020 NISO Plus Conference and the Academic Committee Conference (Zora Neale Hurston Festival). Dr. West-White believes that she can bring the same level of passion, commitment and drive to the FACRL board and assist the organization in meeting its mission and goals if afforded the opportunity to serve.