Meet the GNCRT Board
July 2024 - June 2025 GNCRT Board
Shira Pilarski
91´«Ã½
President (July 2024 - June 2025)
Shira Pilarski is the Humanities Librarian at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, their first academic library role after over a decade in public libraries. They have chaired GNCRT, RRT, and YALSA committees, as well as serving on the RRT Executive Board. When Shira is not screaming into the void about queer comics, they can be found snuggling all the cats, playing drums in cheesy rock bands, or listening to audiobooks at 1.8 speed while completing color gradient jigsaw puzzles.
Shauntee Burns-Simpson
91´«Ã½
President-Elect (July 2024 - June 2025)
Shauntee Burns-Simpson, is the Director of Youth & Family Services at the DC Public Library. She comes to the DC Public Library from the New York Public Library where she served as Associate Director of School Support & Outreach. From 2020 to 2022 she served as the President of the Black Caucus of the 91´«Ã½ (BC91´«Ã½), where she spearheaded the collaboration with the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) on the Black Lives Matter comics reading lists. As an ambassador for libraries and youth librarianship, Mrs. Burns-Simpson is dedicated to connecting individuals with the resources and services of public libraries. She is particularly focused on working with at-risk teens, fostering a love of reading and learning through innovative programming. In addition to her leadership role at BC91´«Ã½, Mrs. Burns-Simpson chaired the Committee on Diversity of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½). She also serves as a board trustee for the Freedom to Read Foundation. In recognition of her contributions to the field, she was awarded the 2023 Demco Award for Excellence in Librarianship.
Robin Brenner
91´«Ã½
Past-President (July 2024 - June 2025)
Robin Brenner is Teen Librarian at the Public Library of Brookline in Massachusetts. When not presenting programs and providing reading guidance, she writes features for publications including The Horn Book, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. She is an active member of YALSA and has served on awards committees including the Michael L. Printz Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. She is the editor-in-chief of the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights.
Soline Holmes
91´«Ã½
Secretary (July 2023 - June 2025)
Soline Holmes (She/Her/Hers) is a librarian and the Information Services Department chair at Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is the Secretary (and was a Member at Large) for 91´«Ã½'s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable. She is also a co-chair of ALSC's "Children and Libraries" Editorial Advisory Committee, a member of ALSC's Public Awareness and Advocacy committee, serves on the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award committee for K-2, and is a Teaching with Primary Sources Network Mentor. She has given presentations on graphic novels, maps Primary Sources, Global Education, and Mother Goose and STEM at local and national conferences. Soline co-authored an article about graphic novels as informational texts for "Children and Libraries" and a chapter in 91´«Ã½'s forthcoming "Mental Health and Children's Literature: Evaluating, Curating, and Sharing Books with Children." Soline is the proud recipient of a 2019 Judith F. Krug Banned Books Week grant for her school library, was honored to participate in ALSC's 2022 Bill Morris seminar, and was a member of the second cohort for Online Ready: Designing Culturally Competent and Impactful K-12 Online Learning sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Kacy Helwick
91´«Ã½
Treasurer (July 2024 - June 2026)
Kacy Helwick is the Youth Collection Development Librarian for the New Orleans Public Library. She is a life-long New Orleans resident and received her MLIS from Louisiana State University in 2014. She has been a content editor for the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights since 2015. She participated in the Bill Morris Seminar in 2018, was chosen as an 91´«Ã½ Emerging Leader in 2019, served on YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee 2020-2022, and was a member of the Stonewall Youth & Teen Book Award committee 2022-2024. In addition to GNCRT, she is an active member of ALSC, YALSA, and Rainbow RT.
Amanda Toth
91´«Ã½
Member-at-Large (July 2023 - June 2025)
Amanda is the Branch Manager of the Fairfield Lane Library. She has worked in libraries for over 15 years, and received her MLIS from Kent State University in 2014. As well as providing Collection Development of comics and graphic novels for her library system, she is an avid reader and reviewer of all things comic-related, with cozy fantasy and romance being her favorites.
Ryan King
91´«Ã½
Member-at-Large (July 2024 - June 2025)
Ryan King is the English Librarian at Vanderbilt University, where he has developed a comic and graphic novel collection, serves as the staff advisor for the student organization VU Comics and Cartoons, and co-organizes the Nashville Comic Arts Festival. In addition to GNCRT, he is a current Member-at-Large for the Comics Studies Society. Since 2023 he has instructed the course "Comics in Libraries" for the Graduate School of Information and Technology at Queens College. In 2021 he received a Fulbright to study and write a work of Graphic Medicine at Freie Universitat Berlin. He is a former convention organizer of the San Francisco Zine Fest, East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Festival, and Flame Con, the world's largest LGBTQ+ themed comics convention. He has written and published several independent comics, including Nico's Fortune, ToTully Aces, Cricketsong, The Games We Played, and his work has appeared in numerous comics anthologies. In his free time, he obsesses fondly over all things Studio Ghibli and his cat, Willow.
Cassandra Morris
91´«Ã½
Member-at-Large (July 2024 - June 2026)
Cassandra Morris has worked in public libraries in MO, PA, and NY with an interest in digital engagement, marketing, and web design. They received their MLIS from Drexel University. For a brief period of time Cassandra was a Meteorology Analyst Forecaster, working on the East Coast of the U.S., as well as Japan, Thailand, and South Korea studying atmospheric data. Cassandra has been volunteering with GNCRT since 2020 as part of the social media and Discord committees. In their free time Cassandra can be found playing video games, sewing, book binding, reading webcomics and manga, while trying to keep their indoor plants alive.
Deimosa Webber-Bey
91´«Ã½
Member-at-Large (July 2024 - June 2026)
Deimosa Webber-Bey is the Director of Information Services and Cultural Insight at Scholastic Inc., where she supervises the corporate library and archive-with the comprehensive collection of everything Scholastic has published throughout its 100+year history. Prior to her time at Scholastic, Deimosa worked at schools and libraries throughout the country as both a high school English teacher and a teen librarian. Deimosa double-majored in African & African American Studies and English Literature at Dartmouth College, and has a MSEd in English Language Arts (7-12) from Queens College and a MSLIS in Digital Humanities from Pratt Institute. Outside of work she enjoys quilting, running, and keeping up with the Star Trek multiverse.
Shanna Hollich
91´«Ã½
Interim GNCRT Councilor (July 2023 - Jun 2025)
Shanna Hollich is currently the Learning and Training Manager for Creative Commons, where they identify and develop educational opportunities for librarians, educators, and creatives to enable better sharing of knowledge and culture in the public interest. Prior to that, Shanna served as a librarian for over 15 years, first in technical services and later in administration at K-12 school, public, federal, and academic libraries. They're very partial to webcomics and blame both Ryan North and Dr. McNinja for getting them into comics in the first place.
