Advisory Committee
Audrey Altman
MLIS, University of Iowa; MA, American Studies, University of Alabama; BA, Theater, Albion College
Senior Software Engineer, Khan Academy
Audrey is a software engineer at Khan Academy, an ed-tech nonprofit. She builds software to support teachers, including AI tools. Before working at Khan Academy, Audrey spent nine years as a software engineer at the Digital Public Library of America. There, she worked on metadata aggregation, curation tools for educators, and machine learning.
Tyler Hahn
MLIS, San Jose State
Director, Cherokee Public Library
2027 President-Elect, Association for Rural & Small Libraries
Tyler Hahn is the Cherokee Public Library Director in Northwestern Iowa. He serves as the Midwest representative for the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) board and is a member of the Iowa Governor's STEM Council, where he was recognized for his programming within the organization's "STEM Gem" poster series. Tyler was named one of Library Journal's 2024 Movers and Shakers where he focuses on building community capacity, promoting taxpayer education, and supporting small and rural libraries. His book, "The Handbook for Rural Library Partnerships," is set to publish in 2026 from Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited.
Madeline Jarvis
MLIS, University of Iowa; BA, Sustainable Community Development, Northland College
Director, Two Harbors Public Library
Madeline earned a BA in Sustainable Community Development from Northland College in Ashland and a MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. She has worked in public libraries for a decade and is passionate about rural revitalization, the power of community. She is based in Duluth, Minnesota.
Natalie Milbrodt
MLIS, Certificate in Archives and Preservation of Cultural Materials
University Archivist, CUNY
Natalie Milbrodt serves as University Archivist for the City University of New York (CUNY) where her team is responsible for implementing strategies and systems for increased collection discovery and use. Her responsibilities also include strategic planning and fundraising for the overall development of CUNY’s archival program. Before joining CUNY, Milbrodt served as the founding Director of the award-winning Queens Memory Project, a community-led archival program that has collected oral histories, photographs, and other local history records. She worked for a decade as the Metadata Services Coordinator for the Queens Public Library, responsible for the library’s cataloging and digitization activities for their over seven million collection items. In addition to her role on the School of Library and Information Science at The University of Iowa's advisory committee, Milbrodt serves on the Oral History Association’s Metadata Working Group and as an organizer for the Community Archiving Happy Hour and NYC Neighborhood Oral History meetup. Her cultural heritage consulting clients include the Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York (DHPSNY) program, Urban Archive, and the Internet Archive.
Hang Nguyen
MLIS, University of Iowa; Ph.D., Musicology, University of Iowa; MM, Musicology, Texas Tech University; BA, Monmouth College
Business Librarian, University of Iowa
Hang assists with reference, instruction, and outreach at the Pomerantz Business Library. She helps with locating information on company profiles, market and industry data, and global business information. Hang currently serves as co-chair to IMALERT (Iowa Museums, Archives, and Libraries Emergency Response Team) for the 2026-2028 term and as a member to IDHRC (Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council).
Allie Paarsmith
MLIS, University of Iowa
Director, West Liberty Public Library
Allie earned a BA in Theater from University of Northern Iowa and an MA in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Iowa. She has been the Director of the West Liberty Public Library since January 2020.
Mikki Smith
MLIS, University of Iowa
Supervisor, System Library Services
Mikki Smith started working in libraries in 2002. She earned an MLS and a Certificate in Book Studies from the University of Iowa in 2007, and a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2017. She has worked in public, academic, museum, and hospital libraries. She currently supervises library services for Guthrie, a rural integrated health system in PA/NY, and manages its open access general medical journal. She is an Assistant Professor of Medical Education at the Geisinger College of Health Sciences and is starting a three-year term on the editorial board of the Journal of the Medical Library Association.
Jenna Spiering
MLIS, University of Iowa
Associate Professor and School Library Concentration Coordinator, University of South Carolina
Dr. Jenna Spiering is Assistant Professor of Information Science and School Library Concentration Coordinator at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Spiering’s research interests lie at the intersection of school libraries, critical youth studies, and children’s/young adult materials. Specifically, Spiering’s work emphasizes the school librarian’s role in selecting, promoting, and curating materials for students in k-12 settings. She is the primary investigator for “Extending School Library Preparation through Transitional Mentorship with Early Career School Librarians,” a $374,194 Institute of Museum and Library Services federal early career development grant.
Kellee Warren
Master of Science in Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Associate Professor and Special Collections Librarian, Public Services and Rare Books
Kellee E. Warren is Associate Professor and Special Collections Librarian at the University of Illinois Chicago. Ms. Warren’s article, “Jean Blackwell Hutson: Black Women’s Leadership in Librarianship and Archives,” a biographical analysis, was published in the May 2022 special issue of Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 6 (1). Her article on an approach to archival instruction with colonial collections, “Reimagining Special Collections Instruction: A Special Case of Haiti” was published in The American Archivist, fall/winter 2020 edition. Her research interests include critical pedagogies, publishing history, digital humanities, and oral history.
Jessamyn West
BA, MLib., University of Washington iSchool
Flickr Commons Community Manager, Flickr Foundation
Jessamyn West is a library technologist in Orange County Vermont. She is a nationally known speaker, writer, and educator on the issues facing today's libraries. Her blog focusing on libraries and politics, Librarian.net, is one of the earliest and longest-running librarian websites. She is the author of the book Without a Net: Librarians Bridging the Digital Divide. She has taught "Tools for Community Advocacy" for the University of Hawaii's Library School and currently works for the Flickr Foundation as a Community Manager for Flickr Commons.