For immediate release | December 20, 2024

AASL Announces Candidates for 2025 Election

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CHICAGO – Maria Cahill and April Dawkins will seek the 2026-2027 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) presidential term during the 2025 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) election.

Cahill is a Professor at the University of Kentucky where she teaches courses in school librarianship and leadership studies. She has served AASL through involvement on numerous committees and was on the AASL Board of Directors from 2017-2021. She is currently a co-Editor for School Library Research, AASL’s scholarly refereed research journal. Maria served on the 2023 Thoedore Seuss Geisel Award Selection Committee for ALSC, and on the 91´«Ã½ Literacy and Outreach Services Committee. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Kentucky Association of School Librarians (KASL). Maria has received nearly $2 million in grants to support her research and has published numerous articles on school librarians’ evidence-based practices and on library services for children within and beyond schools.

“I am honored and humbled to be nominated as a candidate for AASL President-Elect,” said Cahill. “School libraries and school librarians are awesome! As a profession, we have so much to be proud of and to celebrate. What other professionals in schools empower all learners (students, teachers, administrators, parents, and members of the community) to think, create, share, and grow in the same way as school librarians? While school librarians must continue to protect intellectual freedom, we cannot allow challenges to distract us from all the other incredibly important work we do to make schools the very best places they can be for learners. If elected, I would continue to work with all members of AASL to engage strategies that enable every school librarian to be a leader and to ensure every learner has a school librarian.”

Dawkins is an assistant professor in the Information, Library, and Research Sciences department at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro. She also works as a consultant and expert witness in litigation defending the First Amendment rights of students. She currently serves on the AASL Board of Directors and has served on the 91´«Ã½ Executive Director Search Committee and co-chair of the AASL-CAEP Coordinating Committee that revised the 2019 School Librarian Preparation Standards. In NCSLMA, Dawkins created the NCSLMA Emerging Leaders Program which continues today as the Leadership Academy and is a recipient of the Frances Bryant Bradburn Distinguished Service Award. She is the co-author of The School Library Manager (7th edition), editor of Intellectual Freedom Issues in School Libraries (Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited), and was a blogger and news editor for the 91´«Ã½ Office for Intellectual Freedom.

“I am honored to be nominated for AASL President-Elect,” said Dawkins. “The past decade has shown that school libraries are more essential than ever before in providing access to information, developing critical thinking skills, and advocating for the rights of minors. I believe my current work as an educator of school librarians, on the AASL Board, with the and , and previous experience as Intellectual Freedom Chair and President of NCSLMA has prepared me for this role. I am committed to supporting school librarians in their own leadership development and in facing the challenges that lie before us in the road ahead as we ensure every learner has access to inclusive resources and professionally-trained school librarians.

The full slate of AASL candidates for the AASL Board of Directors and for the three AASL Sections (ESLS, ISS, and SPVS) can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/about/elections. Voting for the 2025 91´«Ã½ elections will open on Monday, March 10, 2025 and close on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), , a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

Contact:

Sylvia Knight Norton

AASL Executive Director

American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

snorton@ala.org

312-280-4388