Andrews and Henze are ALA Emerging Leaders

NCSU Libraries Fellow Nicola Andrews and NC LIVE Community Engagement Librarian Kim Henze been selected to the 2019 class of the American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders program. The national leadership development program involves newer library staff members in problem-solving work groups, giving them an inside look at the ALA’s structure as well as how to serve the profession in a leadership capacity.

Andrews, whose home department is Learning Spaces & Services, is sponsored by the Social Responsibilities Round Table. She has worked on GLBT initiatives to expand inclusivity at the Libraries, such as the creation of an option for staff to share their pronouns on their staff web pages. This option includes writing in pronouns that extend beyond the gender binary. Andrews also organizes the Raiders of the Lost Arcade gaming series as part of Making Space. This popular event showcases a curated selection of games which explore different ways that video games can illustrate diverse narratives, aspirations, and life experiences.

“I am humbled to be able to build on the work I have done at the NCSU Libraries to address issues of equity and social responsibility, and to represent my iwi, alma mater, and the Fellows Program as an ALA Emerging Leader—an honour which has always been aspirational for me,” Andrews writes. “

“Whakawhānaungatanga—relationality—is at the core of my leadership style; and I look forward to collaborating with a cohort of other Emerging Leaders to contribute to the profession and deepen our leadership skills. I am honoured to be sponsored by the Social Responsibilities Round Table as it enters its fiftieth year. And I am eager to learn more about its governance and structure, particularly as the American Library Association continues to examine the role of social responsibility within our profession.”

Henze runs communications, outreach, partnerships, and the marketing and promotion of NC LIVE resources. Before joining NC LIVE in June 2017, Kim worked at the Undergraduate Library at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she held workshops and consultations at the UL’s Design Lab and supported undergraduate engagement for UNC Libraries. Kim also served as an Artists’ Archives Fellow for the School of Information and Library Science and the Department of Art and Art History at UNC, where she worked with local artists and communities (and subsequently fell in love with North Carolina).

The Emerging Leaders will gather for a daylong session during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle in late January 2019. Then the cohort, which is up to 50 library staff members, will meet in groups online for six months before the program culminates with a poster session presentation at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in June 2019. The program can lead to further leadership opportunities within the ALA, including serving on division, chapter, or round table committees, task forces or workgroups.