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Started in 2014, ALA’s initiative provides community engagement resources and opportunities specific to the needs of library workers. Building off the work of prior phases of the initiative, LTC: Accessible Small and Rural Communities, will provide resources and grants for small and rural libraries to lead conversations around accessibility and create services or improve facilities to better serve patrons who are disabled and/or neurodivergent.

Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities is advised by twelve library professionals who were selected for their experience with community engagement, disability services, and developing local programs for public audiences.

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Dr. Audrey Barbakoff is the CEO of Co/Lab Capacity LLC, which provides community-centered consulting to libraries. She brings more than a decade of experience in public libraries including service to small, rural, and tribal communities. She is the author of Adults Just Wanna Have Fun: Programs for Emerging Adults and the forthcoming book Twelve Steps to a Community-Led Library (¾«¶«´«Ã½Editions, Fall 2022). In addition to her MLIS, Audrey holds an EdD in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California, where her research focused on building public libraries’ capacity for equity, diversity, and inclusion through community-led planning. Find her at .

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Community-centric and inclusive library service is one of Ashley N. Barrineau’s passions. Starting in rural libraries in North Dakota Mrs. Barrineau identified the vitally important role that libraries can play in creating community connection. She continued that work in each subsequent position with a focus on the importance of building partnerships and identifying opportunities to support the library as well as the surrounding neighborhoods they serve.

Through a diverse experience of working in a variety of libraries including, federal, military installations, academic, and presently in public libraries the one constant has been the focus on connecting with customers and community. She gained an acute appreciation for the importance of inclusion services while working as an Adult & Disability Services Librarian for a sub-regional library for the blind and physically disabled, part of the Library of Congress National Library Service.

Mrs. Barrineau continuously seeks opportunities for professional development. Developing skills as a facilitator in conjunction with The Kettering Foundation, Harwood Institute Public Innovator Lab, and working with her local PBS station WHRO on the America Graduates project. Most recently graduating from the City of Virginia Beach Innovation Academy where she learned a variety of process improvement skills to apply in her job as a library branch manager.

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Keturah Cappadonia is the Outreach Consultant for the Southern Tier Library System where she assists 48 public libraries in a five-county area on projects related to outreach services, underserved populations, grant writing, adult services, partnership building, and strategic planning. Previously she worked as a Children’s Librarian and as a Library Director. Keturah holds an MLS from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA from the University of Rochester. She is the Vice-President of the NYLA Rural Libraries Roundtable and the Vice-President of the South Central Regional Library Council Board of Trustees. She is an active member of the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ and has served as a Councilor-at-Large on ¾«¶«´«Ã½Council and as a member of the ¾«¶«´«Ã½Council Orientation Committee, the Forward Together Resolutions Working Group, the Committee on Library Advocacy, and the Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds Committee. In her spare time, Keturah enjoys reading, cycling, music, and spending time with her family and her cat.

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John Clexton currently serves as Library Director for Gladwin County District Library in Northern Michigan.

Before ever considering library school, he served as a firefighter/EMT. Then after completing his Master of Library & Information Science in 1998, he served as a Children's Librarian first with Ypsilanti Public Library and then with Detroit Public Library. In 2000, he joined his (then) hometown library of Grosse Pointe Public Library as Branch Coordinator, serving for 18 years there, raising his three kids with his wife, Kim.

In 2018 he took a unique Library Director position on the small tropical Caribbean island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. While there are certainly days (especially in February) where he misses the idyllic warm days, he found he missed Michigan more - apples, pine trees, and Michigan State Football especially, among other things. His love for up north called him to Gladwin, where he has been happily since 2019. John is actively involved with ARSL, ALA, IFLA, and MLA. He is a strong advocate for libraries for everyone. Especially those of the neurodivergent community.

When he is not at the library his usually in his lakefront backyard fishing or splashing around in the water or, in the winter, reliving his hockey years on the frozen lake.

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AM Dillon is Branch Manager of the Charlotte Hall Library in Charlotte Hall, MD, where she is also ADA Coordinator for the St. Mary’s County Library system. She serves on the St. Mary's County Commission on People with Disabilities, is a Veterans/Military Service Library Liaison, Liaison to the Maryland Deaf Culture Digital Library from her library system, and serves on two Maryland statewide committees; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion COP and Accessibility and Inclusion. Her Master’s degree study in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management focused on non-profit management and conflict transformation. Her passion for serving communities directly, and through the training and support of others doing the same, informs her work and her trainings.

AM Dillon brings over 30 years’ experience in program and workshop design and delivery in formal, experiential, traditional, and outdoor settings. She has conducted presentations and facilitation of numerous 1-6-day programs and workshops covering social justice, adaptive recreation, education, leadership development, literacy, and accessibility and inclusion, among other topics. She also brings her lived experience as a disabled woman who rolls through life on a set of wheels and service dog handler.

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Mirah J. Dow, Ph.D., Professor and Ph.D. Program Director at Emporia State University, Emporia, KS USA in the School of Library and Information Management, has served along with individuals with disabilities, caregivers and other community members on many statewide and regional advisory boards charged with addressing access to facilities, technology, and information resources and services for individuals with disabilities and/or neurodiversity. Dr. Dow is a persistent and persuasive advocate for all who are in need of access to opportunities for education in schools and libraries. Her focus on higher education and students with disabilities informs space utilization, best practices in library reference services and resources, library instruction, high impact learning experiences, and transition programs for students post-high school.

A published report by Dr. Dow et al. of research investigating the link between unemployment and disability received a 2020 Outstanding Paper Award by The International Journal of Information, Diversity & Inclusion. Dr. Dow is now a member of the advisory board of New Beginnings, a Kansas multi-county community developmental disability organization providing disability services and support.

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Marissa Guidara is the Youth Services District Consultant for the Reading Library District in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she was the Children’s Library Manager at the Reading Public Library (PA), a 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service award winner. She served on the ALSC Summer and Out-of-School-Time taskforce and was a recipient of the ALSC’s Bound to stay Bound Books scholarship. Her research and writing on coding and computational thinking has been published in the journal Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice and the ¾«¶«´«Ã½publication, 60 Ready-to-Use Coding Projects. She has won several Best Practices awards for her innovative youth programming from the Pennsylvania Library Association, including the David J. Roberts EXCEL award for early literacy programming. In 2020, she was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Pennsylvania Library Association for “empowering others to take leadership positions, further education and bring brave ideas to fruition.”

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Tyler Hahn is a librarian in northwestern Iowa who has had a varied career serving patrons in academic, youth services, museums, and now, as a director. As the midwestern representative on the Association for Small and Rural Libraries executive board, Tyler aims to build bridges for small and rural libraries and highlight the vital services libraries provide in being lifelines for their communities.

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Richenda Hawkins is Department Chair and Instructional Services and Reference Librarian at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, OR. She is the President of the American Indian Library Association for 2022-23.

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Evelyn Keolian is a Children's Librarian in the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system. She also serves as the founder and co-chair of the Diversability Advocacy

Committee at CPL. Evelyn is an adjunct instructor in American Sign Language at Oakton Community College. In 2018, she was named as one of five inaugural Equity Fellows by the Association of Library Services for Children. She was a Fellow of the ADA 25 Advancing Leadership program now known as Disability Lead. Evelyn received a M.L.I.S. from the University of North Texas/California State University, Northridge in 2012.

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Lisa Lewis has been working in libraries for 21 years and is currently the Library Services Manager for Show Low Public Library. She has had many adventures since starting her career including being invited by the U.S. Embassy in Croatia to present a series of workshops to the librarians there. This was an experience of a lifetime and one she will never forget. Lisa has served on the ARSL (Association for Rural and Small Libraries) board and is currently the AzLA President. (Arizona Library Association). She has always been a strong advocate for rural and small libraries and continues to be a strong voice for all public libraries. When Lisa isn’t in the library you will find her on adventures with her husband of 38 years, or happily reading at home. She has 3 children and 3 grandchildren who she absolutely adores!

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In middle school, Jennifer Lindsey was always the first student to volunteer to shelve books in the library. After stints in journalism and education, she found her way back to library work in 2019. Jennifer became branch manager of Parker Memorial Library, a branch of the Southern Oklahoma Library System. In addition to the adaptations brought on by the pandemic, she has notably transformed teen programming, initiated outreach to local nursing homes, and increased engagement with the local Deaf community.

Jennifer has been the project manager for two Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries initiatives: one engaging the Deaf community, and one on resources on homelessness that incorporated the lessons of the first grant. SOLS rewarded these efforts in 2021 with the Distinguished Branch Award. She is a member of the Oklahoma Library Association and the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intellectual Freedom Roundtable. When she isn't working, Jennifer volunteers with Girl Scouts and tries to keep up with her young niece.

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Lauren Stara is a registered architect and a professional librarian, specializing in library building design. Her library experience includes everything from front desk clerk to director, mainly in small public libraries. She is a consultant to libraries across the US and Canada, a university instructor in library design, and was a Library Building Specialist with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners for over a decade. She is a WELL Accredited Professional and the coauthor of Responding to Rapid Change in Libraries: A User Experience Approach (¾«¶«´«Ã½Editions, 2020).