For immediate release | April 13, 2020

Lucia Gonzalez elected ALSC vice-president/president-elect

91´«Ã½

CHICAGO — Lucia M. Gonzalez, director, North Miami Public Library (NMPL), North Miami, Florida, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½). She begins her term as president-elect on July 1, 2020.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and lead as ALSC Vice President/President Elect,” Gonzalez said. “These are unprecedented times in the world, in our field and within our organization. I look forward to working hand in hand with the ALSC family to reemerge with renewed strength, greater unity and a clear vision of the future.”

Gonzalez earned her MSLIS from the University of South Florida in 1991. Prior to joining NMPL as director, Gonzalez served as associate director for Outreach and Youth Services at Broward County (Florida) Library System (BCLS). Prior to that, she was a youth services coordinator for BCLS.

Gonzalez has been an ALSC member for 29 years. She is also a member of the Public Library Association, Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table and Sustainability Round Table. Gonzalez is also a member of REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking and served as its president in 2010. She served as co-chair of ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee (2006-2008) and as chair of the ALSC/REFORMA Pura Belpré Award Selection Committee in 2010.

In addition to her work in 91´«Ã½ and REFORMA, Gonzalez is the award-winning author of several bilingual books for children, including “The Bossy Gallito,” a 1996 Belpré Honor Book for narrative, and “The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos,” a 2009 Belpré Honor Book for narrative.

Among her many honors, Gonzalez is a two-time recipient of Library Journal's Movers & Shakers Award (2014, 2008) and received the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Author Award (2012).

Three members were elected to serve as Directors-at-Large on the ALSC Board of Directors: Ariana Sani Hussain, The Blake School, Minnetonka, Minnesota; Soraya Silverman-Montano, Multnomah County Library, Portland, Oregon; and Meredith Steiner, San Francisco Public Library. Kimberly Patton, Kansas City (Kansas) Public Library, was elected to the position of ALSC division councilor on the Board of Directors.

The newly elected division councilor and board members will be seated to the ALSC Board of Directors on July 1, 2020.

Individuals elected to serve on the 2022 Caldecott, Children’s Literature Legacy, Newbery and Sibert committees are:

2022 Caldecott: Eric Barbus, San Francisco Public Library; Monica Boyer, Fox River Valley Public Library District, Dundee, Illinois; Teffeny Edmondson, Fayetteville, Georgia; Deborah Gitlitz, Wilsonville (Oregon) Public Library; Mary Kuehner, Arapahoe Library District, Centennial, Colorado; Esmeralda Majors, Creighton Elementary, The Woodlands, Texas; Christine Scheper, Queens Public Library, Howard Beach, New York; and Anna Taylor, Darien (Connecticut) Library.

2022 Children’s Literature Legacy: Susan Dunn, Broomfield (Colorado) Library; Nick Glass, TeachingBooks.net, Berkeley, California; and Lucinda Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, Virginia.

2022 Newbery: Peter Blenski, Hartland (Wisconsin) Public Library; Keary Bramwell, Forest Park, Illinois; Skye Corey, Strathroy, Ontario; Susie Isaac, Sunrise Elementary School, Denver; Jennie Law, GSU, Perimeter College Clarkston, Atlanta; Katie Lawrence, Kent District Library, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Hadeal Salamah, Georgetown Day School, Arlington, Virginia; and Misti Tidman, Mansfield, Ohio.

2022 Sibert: Annette Y. Goldsmith, Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel Levy Library, Los Angeles; Kristina Lareau, Ridgefield Library, Kent, Connecticut; Kyra Nay, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Maple Heights, University Heights, Ohio; Lizzie Nolan, San Jose (California) Public Library; and Joe Prince, Bowling Green (Ohio) State University.

Current president Cecilia McGowan appointed the following award committee chairs: Dr. Claudette S. McLinn, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature, Inglewood, California, 2022 Caldecott Award Committee; Brian E. Wilson, Evanston (Illinois) Public Library, Children’s Literature Legacy Committee; Thaddeus Andracki, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Newbery Award Committee; and Catharine Potter, Falmouth (Maine) Middle School, Sibert Award Committee. Kirby McCurtis, current ALSC vice president/president-elect, will appoint the remaining members of these committees, as well as members of ALSC’s other prestigious award committees this fall.

ALSC, a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½), is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,000 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC members are committed to engaging communities to build healthy, successful futures for all children. To learn more about ALSC, .

Contact:

Laura Schulte-Cooper

Program Officer, Communications

ALSC

lschulte@ala.org

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