Lappin and Schneider Appointed to ALA Executive Board

June 7, 2023

On June 7, the American Library Association (ALA) announced that Amy Lappin and Karen Schneider have been named to the ALA Executive Board. The full statement follows:

Amy Lappin and Karen Schneider have been appointed by the ALA Executive Board to fill two newly created board seats. The vacant seats were formed upon adoption of the recently revised ALA Bylaws, which allows the Executive Board to comprise itself of 15 members (previously 13) as stipulated in bylaws Article V, Section 1. Lappin and Schneider will each serve two-year terms beginning July 2023 and concluding June 2025, in alignment with the board-approved staggering sequence established for continuity.

Lappin is deputy director of Lebanon (N.H.) Public Libraries and has served on ALA Council since 2010. She has served as chair of the Transforming ALA Governance Task Force, chair of the Chapter Relations Committee, and as a member of the ALA Nominating Committee. She is also a member of the Public Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, and Sustainability Round Table. Lappin is a past president of the New Hampshire Library Association (NHLA) and has held multiple other positions within NHLA. She is an active member of the NHLA Executive Committee; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee; and the Bylaws Committee. Lappin holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and master’s in library science from University of Rhode Island in Kingston.

Schneider is dean of the library and interim executive director of the School of Extended and International Education at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. She has served on ALA Council since 1997. She has also served on numerous ALA committees and round tables and is an active member of the Association of College and Research Libraries and Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, and Futures. Schneider holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Barnard College in New York City, a master’s in library science from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a master’s in fine arts from University of San Francisco, and a PhD in managerial leadership in the information professions from Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts.

The ALA Executive Board manages the affairs of the Association. It is composed of a president, president-elect, immediate past-president, treasurer, executive director, and 10 members from among ALA Council. Visit the ALA Executive Board website for more information.

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