GLA Officer Candidates for 2016

Vice President/President Elect

Elizabeth McKinney (GPLS) 

Elizabeth is currently the PINES Program Director at the Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS), a position she has held since 2007. She has been with GPLS since 2001 and was part of the team that developed the Evergreen open source ILS. Prior to joining GPLS, Elizabeth worked as a clinical librarian at the Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She has also worked for the EPA Region 4 Library, Paducah Public Library and the University of Louisville Health Sciences Library. With over 25 years of library experience, Elizabeth brings a variety of leadership and community building skills to this position.
Elizabeth received BA degrees in English and Spanish from the University of Louisville and an MLS from Syracuse University.
In her free time she leads two local running groups and works on several health and fitness projects. She coordinates the annual Pat Carterette Memorial Run/Walk at the Georgia COMO conference each year.

Geri Mullis  (Marshes of Glynn Libraries)

Geri Lynn Mullis is the Marshes of Glynn Libraries Director in Glynn County, Georgia.  Her love for libraries first began as a youth volunteer at the Greenville County Library System in South Carolina.  She received a BA in History from Winthrop University (Rock Hill, SC), and a Master's in Library and Information Science with an emphasis in youth services from the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC).  After graduate school, Geri began her professional career as a Children's Librarian at the Gaston-Lincoln Regional Library System in Gastonia, North Carolina.  She continued her professional growth working at three different library locations within the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in Charlotte, North Carolina.  In 2010, Geri moved to the Georgia coast when she was hired as the Assistant to the Director for Regional Services for the Three Rivers Regional Library System.  In July 2013, the public libraries in Glynn County broke off from Three Rivers, and Geri was hired as the Director for the new public library system.  Geri has been a member of GLA since moving to Georgia, presented at the 2011 COMO conference, and served as the 2015 Parliamentarian.
When not working at the library, you can find Geri and her husband catching waves with friends off St. Simons Island and reading good books.

2nd V.P./Membership Chair

 Mack Freeman  (West Georgia Public Library)   

John “Mack” Freeman is the Marketing and Programming Coordinator for the West Georgia Regional Library based out of Carrollton, Georgia. There he coordinates the marketing and outreach efforts of a 17 branch system that serves almost 500,000 people in a variety of rural and suburban communities. A long-time resident of Georgia and AmeriCorps alum, Mack received his MLIS from Valdosta State University in 2013 and previously worked in circulation at the Tifton-Tift County Public Library.
Mack was the recipient of the 2013 Beard Scholarship Award from the Georgia Library Association and the 2014 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship from the Freedom to Read Foundation. In 2015, he was named as the GLBT Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association’s first Emerging Leader.
He has a history of involvement in both state and national professional networks. He has been on the GLA Scholarship Committee since 2014, currently serving as Vice-Chair in charge of the selection process. Previously, he served on the 2014 COMO Conference Program Committee. Also on the state level, he contributes monthly to GLEAN Magazine, the continuing education blog of Georgia Public Library Service (http://glean.georgialibraries.org/author/johnmackfreemangmail-com/).
 In ALA, Mack is a 2015-2017 member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee. In addition, he currently chairs and acts as editor of GLBT News, a weekly publication of the GLBTRT (http://glbtrt.ala.org/news).
Mack’s professional goals are to expand access to underserved communities, to act as a champion of intellectual freedom and patron’s rights across the quickly evolving information terrain, and to continue the work of the library world’s professional organizations in supporting librarians, library staff, and libraries. When he’s not working, Mack enjoys cooking Mexican food, walking the laziest dog in the world, watching The West Wing, and going on adventures.
For more information about Mack, please visit his website at www.johnmackfreeman.com.

 

Jennifer Lautzenheiser (Middle Georgia Regional Libraries)

Jennifer Lautzenheiser serves as the Director for Middle Georgia Regional Library System. Prior to joining MGRL, she served as the Assistant Director for Public Services at Henry County Library System, and Head of Circulation for Perry Public Library in Houston County. She is active in GLA and other professional organizations.  She currently serves on the GLA Membership Committee and as the Book Review Editor for Georgia Library Quarterly.
Jennifer has a Masters of Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University, B.S. in Organizational Leadership from Urbana University, and A.A. in Accounting from Sinclair Community College. While attending Valdosta, she was a recipient of the Laura Bush “Librarians Build Community” Fellowship Scholarship and served as Vice President of the Student Organization of Library and Information Sciences. This unique educational background and experience in business and military service has served her well in library administration.
She understands the value in bringing together professionals to exchange ideas and best practices. Because of this we’ve increased our staff training and encouragement of membership in GLA. I appreciate the opportunity to bring this enthusiasm to the Executive Board.

Secretary

Casey Long (Agnes Scott College) 

Casey Long has worked in Georgia libraries for nearly 13 years. She first worked at Georgia State University Library as a Business Liaison Librarian and then moved to her current position at Agnes Scott College as User Education Librarian.  Before becoming active in Georgia Library Association 6 years ago, Casey served as the President of the Georgia Special Libraries Association chapter.  Casey is currently Chair of the Professional and Continuing Education Interest Group and a member of the Carterette Series Webinar team.  Previously she has served as the chair of the Nominating Committee and as the Secretary for the Academic Division.  She loves meeting other librarians through Georgia Library Association and learning creative new ways to meet the needs of library users. She is excited to be nominated for the position of Secretary for Georgia Library Association.

Jean Cook (University of West Georgia)

Jean Cook is an Instructional Services Librarian at the University of West Georgia.  She holds Bachelor degrees in Physics and Math as well as Master degrees in Library Science and Computer Science.  She worked in the Cobb County Public Library Systems and Southern Polytechnic State University's Horace W. Sturgis Library before coming to the University of West Georgia in 2007.  There she served on faculty committees, liaised with academic departments, coordinated the library's reference services (including supervising over twenty students), and taught a semester-long for credit course.  She has published in GLA Quarterly and ACRL's peer-reviewed journal College & Research Libraries, as well as a number of book reviews for various publications.
Jean has taken a leadership role in Georgia libraries. She served three years organizing the Atlanta Area Bibliographic Instruction Group annual conference as vice president, president, and past-president.  She has been chair of the GLA Awards Committee for three years and hosted the GA COMO joint awards ceremony.  She also coordinates the Western Regional Bowl of the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl in conjunction with media specialists and English teachers across the state.  In doing so, she brings 300-400 students and community members to her campus, organizing rooms, meets, volunteers, and administration.  The success of these ventures provide evidence of her thoroughness and attention to detail.

Treasurer

Eli Arnold  (Oglethorpe University)   

Eli Arnold is a Reference Librarian at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.  Before joining the Weltner Library at Oglethorpe in August 2014, he worked at the Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University for a year and a half.  A native of Franklin, Tennessee, Eli has been in Atlanta since transferring to Oglethorpe in 2003 where he studied archaeology and art history.  After graduating, he worked in the Oglethorpe Admission Office for six years before returning to school to earn his Master of Library and Information Science through Valdosta State University.
Eli has been active in GLA serving as Programming Committee Chair for COMO 2014, Exhibits Co-Chair for COMO 2015 and current Chair of the GLA New Members’ Round Table.  He serves the ALA GLBT Round Table Reviews Committee as an editor and has written book reviews for the Georgia Library Quarterly and Lambda Literary.  Recently, he co-presented with two Kennesaw colleagues at the LOEX international conference in Denver, Colorado, on the collaborative standardization of information literacy instruction.  Eli also represents Oglethorpe on the Georgia LGBTQ Archives Project and the ARCHE (Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education) Archives Council.  When not helping Oglethorpe students and faculty with their research needs, he enjoys spending time with his dog Madi and his partner John, a marketing coordinator for Turner Classic Movies.

Pamela McCreles (Chattahoochee Valley Libraries)

Pamela Y. McCreless serves as the Teen Services Coordinator for the seven branches of the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries in Columbus.  She also works as the Teen Department Head at the main branch of the library.  She began her position with Chattahoochee Valley in July 2013 after having earned her MLIS from Florida State University in 2012.  While attending Florida State, she worked as the Electronic Resources and Systems Assistant at the Columbus State University Library.
Pamela’s passion for helping teens is evident in the initiative she began in January 2014, RRPY (Reading & Resources for Parenting Youth).  Through the unique relationship between the Chattahoochee Valley Libraries and the Muscogee County School District, Pamela is invited to go to area high schools and conduct literacy programs with teen parents and their children.
Pamela served as the 2014-2015 Columbus Area Library Association (CALA) President and currently serves as a 2015-2016 Publicity Committee member.  As CALA President, she was honored to receive the 2015 National Library Week Proclamation from the Honorable Teresa Tomlinson, Mayor of Columbus.
In her former life, Pamela worked as a paralegal as well as a financial assistant.  She and her husband, Gary enjoy spending time with family, serving at their home church, and cheering on the Auburn Tigers.  The highlight of their day is having fun with their rescue dog, Otis, a Black Labrador-Pit Bull mix.