Steve chats with the three 2021 candidates for American Library Association President: Stacey Aldrich, Ed Garcia, and Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada.

Read the transcript!

Stacey Aldrich has more than 20 years of library experience, and is currently the State Librarian of Hawaii. Prior to Hawaii, she served as the Deputy Secretary for the Office of Commonwealth Libraries in Pennsylvania and State Librarian of California. Stacey has also worked in public and academic libraries. In between, she took a detour to work as a Senior Associate at the futuring think tank of Coates & Jarratt, Inc., where she began to sharpen her futurist thinking skills. She was selected as a Mover and Shaker in the 2003 Library Journal Annual Movers and Shakers edition, and she received a LINK AMERICAS Foundation Knowledge Award for vision and leadership in the area of Digital Literacy in 2012. Always curious and always learning, she believes we all should have a little futurist in us so that we can create our preferred futures. Visit her Instagram to learn more about her campaign.

Ed Garcia is the Library Director at the Cranston Public Library in Cranston, RI, a position he has held since 2012. Ed is a proud graduate of the University of Rhode Island and received his MLIS in 2008. He is currently serving as a member of the Executive Board of the American Library Association and is a 3 term Councilor-at-Large on the ALA Council. He is a former ALA Emerging Leader (2010) and Library Journal Mover & Shaker (2010). Ed is very involved in library advocacy and is the current Legislative Action Chair for the Rhode Island Library Association. He is happily married with 16 year old twin sons. To learn more about his candidacy for ALA President visit www.edforala.com.

Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada is the Adult Services Assistant Manager at the Palos Verdes Library District in Southern California. She serves as the Executive Director and is a Past President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). Much of her professional work focuses on services to youth and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries, librarianship, and her local community. She lives in San Pedro, California with her poet husband, Chrisitan Hanz Lozada and their menagerie of pets. Find out more about Lessa and her vision for ALA at lessaforlibraries.com.

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