Speaker: Jennifer Adams

Jennifer is an enthusiastic Holy Cross alumna and joined the College Libraries as Research, Instruction & Outreach Librarian in 2013. In addition to serving as interim library liaison for the student-run Manuscripts, Inscriptions & Documents Club, she is also liaison to the first-year 'Montserrat' program's Core Human Questions cluster. From 2011 to 2013, she was Graduate Library Preprofessional for Religious Studies & Humanities Services at The Catholic University of America Libraries, where she provided research and instructional services and oversaw social media outreach for the Religious Studies & Philosophy Library, among other duties. While at CUA she also co-authored pieces on digital humanities in C&RL News and ACRL's "Keeping Up With..." newsletter. Jennifer graduated in August 2013 with an MSLIS from The Catholic University of America's School of Library & Information Science, and holds a BA in Classics from College of the Holy Cross. You can find her on Twitter at @jladam10.


Speaker: Marja Bakermans, PhD

Marja received her BS in Biology from Bucknell University and then both an MS and PhD in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University where she focused on habitat management implications for bird populations. Marja teaches in the Great Problems Seminars and the Biology Department and advises junior- and senior-level research projects at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Marja possess a strong commitment to student education, and a goal of hers is to stimulate students’ critical thinking and problem solving abilities. Marja has a well-grounded research background, which informs her teaching of interdisciplinary topics with an expertise in environmental science and conservation biology in both North and Latin America. She takes an experiential approach to teaching where students receive a solid foundation of knowledge but then apply this to real-life situations. With >25 peer-reviewed and extension publications, Marja works to incorporate current research into classroom discussion.


Speaker: Bijan Esfahani

Bijan Esfahani currently serves as the Assistant Director for Research and Instruction at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Gordon Library. Most recently he served as a project manager for a U.S. Department of Commerce grant supported by University of California Davis to teach consumer health information competencies to rural public library personnel in California. He has supported clinical research and teaching faculty at the Stanford University School of Medicine, as well as held leadership and teaching positions overseas at the Qatar Campuses of Carnegie Mellon University and Weill Cornell Medical College. For the past 13 years, he has served as a faculty member and taught courses in library and information science at various institutions including San Jose State University, University of Maine at Augusta, Bryant & Stratton College, San Jose City College, and Foothill College. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from University of California Davis, and his graduate degree in library and information science from San Jose State University.


Speaker: Eleta Exline

Eleta Exline is the Scholarly Communication Coordinator and an Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire. She oversees the Digital Collections Initiative and Scholars’ Repository, and advises UNH faculty, staff, and students on publishing trends, copyright, and data management. Eleta is a graduate of Smith College, earned a Master of Science in Library and Information Science and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Digital Libraries from Syracuse University, and is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Sociology at UNH. She is the current president of the ACRL New England Chapter.


Speaker: Pamela Graham

Pam joined the Library staff at Becker College in the Fall of 2009. She is an experienced instructor; committed to the success of students, whether it’s through Instruction or working one on one. Pam’s responsibilities at Becker include Information Literacy instruction on both the Worcester and the Leicester campuses. At Becker, Pam has continued the development of the Library Resource Week for the First Year Experience classes by working with the Director of First Year Experience to create a program module that has been enthusiastically received by instructors, and has expanded the reach of information literacy instruction on both campuses. She is dedicated to ensuring that Swan Library is a welcoming place for students to engage in successful learning.

Previously, Pam worked for The Williston Northampton School, an independent boarding school in Western MA. While there, Pam worked in all aspects of the Clapp Memorial Library, including circulation and student billing, cataloging, collection development, and information literacy instruction. She has always had a love of teaching and working with students in all capacities.

Pam holds a MLIS from University of Rhode Island and a BA in English Literature from Wheaton College in MA.


Speaker: Laura Robinson Hanlan

Laura Hanlan is a Research and Instruction Librarian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has 15 years of experience working in academic libraries. Her professional interests are in the areas of curriculum development and instructional design for information seeking skills, authentic assessment of information literacy learning outcomes, particularly in multidisciplinary and upper division subject specific courses, and faculty outreach.


Speaker: Michael Lombardo

Michael Lombardo is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts. Michael received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Drama from San Francisco State University (1995) and a Master of Arts in Theology from the University of San Francisco (2001), where he completed a capstone project that examined the ways in which the Internet is affecting religious literacy. Michael is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Dayton, in Dayton, Ohio. His doctoral dissertation, "Founding Father: John J. Wynne, S.J., and the Inculturation of American Catholicism in the Progressive Era," explores Wynne’s founding of two of the most successful publishing ventures in American Catholic history -- the "Catholic Encyclopedia" (1907-1914) and the national Catholic weekly "America" (1909).


Speaker: Laura O'Neill Hibbler

Laura O’Neill Hibbler is Coordinator of Research and Instruction at the College of the Holy Cross, a small liberal arts college. Laura has the opportunity to provide instruction and research support for students in a wide range of classes from the humanities and social sciences, as well as with students from the College’s first year seminar program. Laura received her Masters of Science in Library Science at the University of Chapel Hill North Carolina in 2009.


Speaker: Anthony Penny

Anthony is the Reference and Instruction Librarian at Anna Maria College in Paxton, MA. He graduated from Simmons College with a Masters in Library and Information Science, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies from Worcester State University. Before entering the library profession, Anthony spent many years in the commercial printing industry as well as practicing traditional bookbinding. This experience has helped lay the groundwork for taking an innovative approach to rethinking traditional reference librarian work. Such transferrable concepts include process modeling, consulting with clients, creative problem solving, and assessment based on quality throughput.


Speaker: Virginia Ryan

Virginia Ryan has been at the College of the Holy Cross since 2012. Before that, she was an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department from 1998-2012 at Rivier University in Nashua, NH. She received her M. Div. from Andover Newton Theological School, an M.A. in Special Education from Assumption College and her Ph.D. in Theology from Boston College. Her particular areas of interest are bioethics, theological social ethics, and environmental theology and ethics.


Speaker: Tressa Santillo

Tressa coordinates and processes interlibrary loan borrowing requests for the WPI community. She is also the technical lead for the department. Tressa assists in all areas of Access Services with a focus on student employment. Tressa is a graduate of nearby College of the Holy Cross and has previously worked at the Worcester Art Museum.


Speaker: Daryl Anne Statkus

I have been a Professor of English (English Composition I and Writing About Literature) for 35 years at Becker College. I also teach First Year Experience, Public Speaking, and I am a First Year Advisor. Teaching is my passion, and I look forward to every new semester's challenges. In addition to teaching, I serve on the Library Committee, The Teaching and Curriculum Committee for ACE to globalize curriculum offerings at Becker, and the First Year Advising Committee. I love every aspect of my profession, and my teaching philosophy is a "student-centered" approach to the design and implementation of my courses and the pedagogy that I use.

In the spring of 2010, I put together a pilot for Library Literacy to be integrated into all of my sections of English Composition I classes. Working closely with Pam Graham, one of Becker's Librarians, we designed hands-on-interactive instruction and assignments that correlated with the course material. The goals of the pilot were to improve the student's knowledge and use of the library resources, especially the academic databases that are offered at Becker's Library, to reduce student reliance on GOOGLE and WIKIPEDIA, and to improve their knowledge and use of MLA Format Documentation. Four 50 minute sessions throughout the semester were included in the pilot. Students would meet at the Swan Library on the Leicester Campus with Pam for the class period. I would provide her with the focus for each session and an assignment that she would hand out at the end of the instruction. The students would then use the balance of the time to search for the resources to complete the assignment. The assignments were aligned with readings from the text for the course. The pilot was so successful, that I have continued to offer the sessions in all of my English Composition I classes since. This spring, all of my Writing About Literature classes will have three hands-on-interactive library and information literacy sessions that offer advanced search instruction.


Speaker: Rebecca Ziino

Rebecca Ziino is a Research and Instruction Librarian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her experience working in academic libraries includes areas such as instructional design and implementation, research consultations for students, faculty, and staff, and program outreach. Additional professional interests include, curriculum development, faculty-librarian collaborations, and developing methods of delivering information literacy skills for varied learning environments.