Aden was appointed the Washington State Librarian in August 2016. Prior to this appointment, she worked for more than seven years at OCLC, the world’s largest global library cooperative. There she worked in business development with companies like Google, Goodreads, Wikipedia, Yelp, Bing and EasyBib that wanted to partner with libraries. Working for OCLC was a return to libraries after a career at Amazon.com as Amazon’s first librarian, and at Corbis, where she managed the image catalog.  Aden has also held positions at the Library of Congress, the University of Washington and Kitsap Regional Library. Prior to becoming a librarian, she worked as a journalist for weekly newspapers in Palo Alto, California; Kirkland, Washington; and Edmonds, Washington.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University where she majored in International Relations and studied French, German and Spanish. She earned her Master of Librarianship in 1987 from the University of Washington.

Michael Carpenter makes information work at Tableau Software as leader of the Sales Readiness Information and Technology Team. Carpenter has planned for, implemented and staffed information infrastructure that now serves more than 10,000 Tableau sellers worldwide.

An information advocate as well as a Tableau expert, Carpenter understands the unique opportunity that information professionals have in the world of corporate information management. Companies of every size and shape will continue to lean on the expertise of information professionals to plan, program, serve and, perhaps most importantly, analyze the effectiveness of large volumes of corporate assets. It is his goal to help MLIS graduates understand the true power of their profession in the corporate world, and to advocate for their placement in environments outside of traditional libraries.

Lauri Ellis is a Principal Service Engineering Manager in the OneDrive SharePoint team within Microsoft’s Office 365 organization, where she leads a team that handles change management and change governance for SharePoint Online. She has been working on the SharePoint product for over a decade both in internal and external-facing roles across various feature areas including search, upgrade, and service continuity management.

During her 20-year career at Microsoft, Ellis has worked in a variety roles including 10 years in the Microsoft Library, where she managed the library’s website and led redesigns of the corporate portal MSWeb. Other roles included managing the company’s external news program and overseeing the company’s intranet search services. Prior to Microsoft, she held an internship at the King County Technical Library and was a volunteer at the Kitsap Regional Library.

Ellis received both her Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Librarianship from the University of Washington. She has her Project Management Professional and ITIL certifications and is a member of the Special Libraries Association.

Layne Foit oversees the work streams of more than a dozen UX professionals, each working in various research and design capacities to shape the user experience of REI’s digital products. Foit also works with partners across the co-op to develop REI’s digital strategy and evangelize the value of using user-centered design methodologies to solve customer problems and challenges. 

Prior to REI, Foit worked for more than 12 years as a user experience consultant, including tenures with Blink UX and Ascentium (now Smith), performing research and design of digital products for a wide range of clients including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Intel, NASA, Seattle Sounders FC, Starbucks, Brooks, Xerox, Houston Methodist, Providence, Del Monte, World Vision, and Shure. Foit also volunteers as a UX mentor for the School of Visual Concepts (SVC) and the MHCI+D program at the UW. He earned his BA in History in 1998, and his MLIS in 2002, both from the University of Washington.

In addition to academic and student affairs, Gilchrist leads efforts focused on regional accreditation and achievement of institutional outcomes. She has published and presented for over a decade on outcomes assessment as a tool for change, demonstrating the contributions of academic libraries through assessment of both learning and program impact and quality. She is an inaugural member of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and in 2007 was honored with the Miriam Dudley Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment. Gilchrist earned her MLS from University of Denver and her PhD in Higher Education Leadership from Oregon State University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the leadership role of academic librarians to influence instructional change.

Dr. Holt is president of Holt Consulting, a research and development firm serving not-for-profit organizations. She has been a consultant and trainer for libraries and book publishers on reading and programs for children, and has published several articles and books on literacy, planning and evaluation of children's services and information access for youth. Her recent books include co-authorship of Library Services to the Poor: Doing All We Can (ALA, 2010); Managing Children’s Services in the Public Library, 4th edition (Libraries Unlimited, 2013); Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation (ALA, 2006).

Holt is an Associate Editor of Public Library Quarterly and a past president of the Association of Library Service for Children (ALSC). She has been active for many years in the American Library Association and state and regional library associations. She also has served as the policy analyst and evaluator of the Reading After-School Programs for ARCHS (St. Louis Area Resources for Community of Human Services), and was Director of Youth Services and Community Relations at the St. Louis Public Library from 1990 to 2004. Prior to that, she worked at the Chicago Public Library and the Rolling Meadows (IL) Library.  She has taught at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Loyola University (Chicago), University of Missouri and Webster University (St. Louis). 

Holt holds a BA degree in history and secondary education from Cornell College (Iowa), an MLS from The University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Reading from Loyola University of Chicago.

Georgia Lomax is Executive Director of the Pierce County (WA) Library System. In previous library lives, she has been Director of the Miles City (MT) Public Library, Director of the Flathead County (MT) Library System and a Managing Librarian with the King County Library System.

She began her adventure in libraries as a volunteer during Junior High (her specialty was shelf reading picture books), then became a page at the King County Library System and later a library assistant working in branches and in the Traveling Library Center serving the homebound.

Her boss eventually posed the question: "Have you considered a career in libraries?" After graduating with a degree in journalism from Washington State University, she went on to obtain her MLS from the University of Washington iSchool.

Marilyn Mason recently retired as Founder and Executive Director of WebJunction.

Previously she was Director of the Cleveland Public Library and the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library. She also served as the Director of the First White House Conference on Library and Information Services from 1979 to 1980 and was appointed by President Clinton to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science in 1999.

Mason is a frequent contributor to the professional press and is a regular speaker at national and international meetings, conferences and seminars. Mason received a bachelor's degree from the University of Dallas, a Master of Library Science from North Texas State University and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Jill McKinstry retired as Director of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library and Special Assistant to the Dean of University Libraries for Undergraduate Education and Programs at the University of Washington. McKinstry is a graduate of the University of Washington Information School and has been a librarian at the UW for the past 23 years.

McKinstry is a passionate advocate for libraries and partnerships. Working closely with the UW Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, she co-founded the lecture series "Research Exposed" to introduce students to the research efforts of faculty on campus in a variety of disciplines. In 2003, McKinstry created the UW Library Research Award for Undergraduates to celebrate and reward students' research and creative activities. She is the past co-chair of the selection committee for the UW Common Book and also a member of the Board of Trustees for University Book Store. She received the University of Washington David B. Thorud Leadership Award in 2009.

McKinstry and her husband established the McKinstry Libraries Fellowship in 2001, an endowment that provides financial assistance to graduate students from underrepresented populations to pursue an MLIS degree.

Dr. Tamara Meredith is the director of the Jefferson County, Washington, Library, a rural library district that consists of a medium-sized main library and five-days-a-week bookmobile service to seven locations around the county. She previously held positions as the director of the Eaton, Colorado, Public Library, department head in the University of Wyoming Libraries, and library/technology teacher at a K-5 school in Albany County, Wyoming.

Meredith is passionate about the need for high-performing public libraries in rural communities and works to integrate traditional methods with newer, technology-based tools to meet the needs of rural residents. She has presented and published on topics ranging from augmented reality in libraries to cloud technology policies and social media in higher education.

Meredith earned a B.Mus. in Flute Performance from Central Washington University, a M.Mus. in Historical Performance from Indiana University-Bloomington, and her MLIS and Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas.

Nancy Pearl speaks about the pleasures of reading to library and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. She's the author of Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest; Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; and More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, all published by Sasquatch Books. In 2004 she was awarded the Women's National Book Association Award, given to "a living American woman who … has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation." In 1998, Library Journal named her Fiction Reviewer of the Year. On her monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, she has interviewed authors as diverse as E. L. Doctorow, Ann Patchett, and Terry Pratchett.

Pearl received her library degree in 1967 from the University of Michigan. Among her many honors and awards are the 2004 Women's National Book Association Award; the Brava Award from the Seattle Women's University Club, recognizing "women of exceptional ability in the Greater Seattle Area;" the 2004 Louis Shores Greenwood Publishing Group Award for excellence in the reviewing of books and other materials for libraries; the 2004 Media and Communications Award from the Ontario, Canada, Library Association; the 2003 Humanities Washington Award, "which recognizes an individual or organization whose time and talents enlarge the meaning of the humanities in our lives and whose work reflects the spirit and programs of Humanities Washington;" and the Public Library Association's 2001 Allie Beth Martin Award, which "recognizes a public librarian demonstrating a range and depth of knowledge about books and other library materials and the distinguished ability to share that knowledge." She also was named the Totem Business and Professional Women’s "1998 Woman of Achievement" award and received the 1997 Open Book Award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference. She is the model for the Librarian Action Figure.

Marisa Quinn joined Amazon in April 2019 as the manager of taxonomy and browse. Prior to this role, she directed the corporate library group within BlackRock Alternative Advisors, the firm's fund of funds platform. Quinn provided research assistance and information organization expertise across the platform.

Quinn joined BlackRock in 2007 following the acquisition of the fund of funds business of Quellos Group, LLC. At Quellos, she was an associate director and head of the corporate library, providing research assistance, collaborating with portfolio managers and analysts on manager identification, and providing information management expertise to all departments within the company. From 1998 to 2001, Quinn managed the McKenna Group's Technology Research Center, providing in-depth market research on high-tech, telecom and internet markets. From 1996 to 1998, she was a research associate with the Stanford University Computer Industry Project, which was funded by the Sloan Foundation.

Quinn earned a BA with a concentration in mathematics and a BA with a concentration in history from the Dominican University of California in 1996 and an MLIS degree from San Jose State University in 1998.

Lisa Rosenblum is the Executive Director of the King County Library System. As one of the busiest library systems in the country, KCLS circulates more than 20 million items and welcomes approximately 10 million visitors annually. Rosenblum oversees an annual operating budget of $120 million, which provides funding for 49 community libraries and a staff of 1,300.

Prior to KCLS, Rosenblum was the Director and Chief Librarian at Brooklyn Public Library, and Director of Library and Community Services for the City of Sunnyvale, California. She has served on the Metropolitan New York Library Council Board of Directors, the Pratt Institute School of Information (Brooklyn) Board of Advisors, and as a lecturer for the Schools of Library and Information Science at both the Pratt Institute and San Jose State University. 

Rosenblum holds a master’s degree in library science from San Jose State University. She is a Fellow of the Urban Libraries Council Executive Leadership Institute and participated in the Stanford Institute on 21st Century Librarianship.

Marcie Stone is a Seattle native, a two-time graduate of the University of Washington with a B.A. in English Literature and a Master of Library Science, and is an avid advocate for both the iSchool and the whole UW. She had a 30-year career as a librarian and information professional with the federal government in the Washington, D.C. area and moved back to Seattle when she and her husband retired.

Among her many assignments with the government, her favorites were the small Army community libraries where she started her career and the 10 years that she managed an organization that participated in developing and implementing the leading-edge technologies that resulted in fielding the first generation of public government web sites in the mid-90’s.  

Since her retirement, Stone has found volunteer opportunities with many UW organizations. In addition to the iSchool’s MLIS Advisory Board and her position as co-chair of the iSchool’s campaign, she has recently completed a 4-year term on the UW Alumni Association Board of Trustees; is the continuing co-chair of the Association’s Legislative Advocacy Committee; works with the Meany Center for the Performing Arts in many capacities; serves as an active supporter of the UW Dream Project; and has recently renewed her connection with the Honors Program.

She and her husband are members of the Suzzallo Society and of the President’s Club, and wear purple whenever it’s appropriate! 

Marcellus Turner oversees The Seattle Public Library, which includes the world-renowned Central Library and 26 new or renovated branches. The Library operates on a $50 million budget and has approximately 640 staff members. The busy system served more than 14 million visitors last year and circulated nearly 12 million books and materials.

Turner is the former executive director of Jefferson County Public Library in Lakewood, Colo., where he managed a $27 million budget and a staff of 250.

Prior to joining Jefferson County Public Library in 2002, Turner was assistant executive director of the Rockford Public Library in Rockford, Ill. He also served as a departmental supervisor at both Tacoma Public Library in Tacoma, Wash., and Atlantic City Free Public Library in Atlantic City, N.J. In addition, he held several positions with academic libraries in Tennessee and Louisiana. Turner holds a master's degree in library science from the University of Tennessee.

Alex Wade currently works with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as technical program manager for Meta. Previously Wade served as the Director for Scholarly Communication for Microsoft Research, focused on Microsoft Academic, a semantic knowledge graph of academic research publications, people, and institutions. During his career at Microsoft, Wade managed the corporate search and taxonomy management services and served as Senior Program Manager for Windows Search.

Prior to joining Microsoft, he held Systems Librarian, Engineering Librarian, and Philosophy Librarian, and technical library positions at the University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Wade holds a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Librarianship degree from the University of Washington.