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CHICAGO — The Public Library Association (PLA) is pleased to continue in its tradition of sponsoring two public library workers in the ¾«¶«´«Ã½’s annual Emerging Leaders (EL) program.

This year’s sponsored Emerging Leaders are Monique Christian-Long and Yoonmee Hampson. Christian-Long serves as Library Manager at Dallas Public Library, where she supervises library branch staff while addressing community needs. Hampson serves as assistant library manager at Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Free Library, where she assists with the management of a dynamic library branch. Christian-Long and Hampson will join working groups made up of fellow Emerging Leaders and a dedicated member guide to develop a project that advances priorities within the association and library field.

EL is a leadership development program that enables newer library workers from across the country to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. It puts participants on the fast track to ¾«¶«´«Ã½committee volunteerism, as well as other professional library-related organizations.

As in past years, PLA will provide both applicants up to $1,000 each to facilitate their participation as members of the 2022 class of Emerging Leaders. Along with joining a working group, Christian-Long and Hampson will attend the ¾«¶«´«Ã½LibLearnX virtual event and ¾«¶«´«Ã½Annual Conference. The program will kick off with a day-long session during LibLearnX, which will provide an introduction to the program and allow members to network with their peers and other member leaders. The program will conclude with a poster session presentation at ¾«¶«´«Ã½Annual Conference, where each group will share the results of their collaborative six-month-long project.

The projects developed by the 2020-21 Class of Emerging Leaders focused on issues related to equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice (EDISJ); environmental and organizational sustainability; peer networking; and professional development. A few of these project highlights include:

• Developed and launched inaugural peer-mentoring cohort of the International Librarians Networking Program (ILNP)
• Created an online clearinghouse for libraries with information about promoting community resiliency in the face of climate change and other weather events
• Led an EDI discussion by and for fellow Emerging Leaders

The full roster of the selected participants (PDF) and additional program details can be found on the Emerging Leaders webpage.