Copy of 2024 Beta Phi Mu Election

2024 Officer and Director Election

You must be a member of Beta Phi Mu to participate in Elections.

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* 1. Last Name, First Name:

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* 2. University name:

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* 3. Chapter Affiliation:

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* 4. Year of Induction:

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* 5. VP/President Elect -- 3-year term (2024-2027). Please vote for one.

Name: Melissa Welden, MLIS
Chapter Affiliation: Beta Phi Chapter

Melissa Welden is a Research Librarian at the Acreage Branch Library which is part of the Palm Beach County Library System. She earned her MLIS degree from the University of South Florida in December 2023. While earning her degree she volunteered at the library she currently works at. Before becoming a librarian, she taught for the School District of Palm Beach County for 20 years. She also has a M.A. in Teaching and Learning with a Specialization in Teaching Reading from Nova Southeastern University and a B.A. in Elementary Education from Florida Atlantic University. She was inspired to pursue librarianship after taking her sons to the children's programs at her local public library. She has fully immersed herself in the study of librarianship and has an interest in pursuing further study through a Ph.D. program in the future. She wants to focus on public library advocacy and marketing techniques to help expand the public's knowledge of what the library has to offer. She was recently elected as the Membership Chair of the Palm Beach County Library Association and accepted an appointment to the Florida Library Association's Membership Development Committee.

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* 6. Director-at-Large -- 3-year term (2024-2027) Please vote for Three

Whitney Hammond, MLIS
Chapter Affiliation: Beta Chapter

PENDING

Bruce Seger, MLIS
Chapter Affiliation: Beta Mu Chapter

Bruce possesses an A.A. degree from Suffolk County Community College, New York, a BA degree in Economics from Queens College of the City University of New York, New York, a JD degree from Touro University, Jacoby D. Fuschsberg Law Center, New York, a Master of Science in Instructional Technology from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut and a Masters of Library and Information Science from C.W. Post, Long Island University, New York. He has also completed Certification in Business and Cyber Ethics from Cornell University, New York.

Bruce has practiced law in NY State, taught Cyber Ethics and the Law at the University of Bridgeport and is a full professor of library science at Suffolk County Community College, the largest community college in New York State with three campuses on Long Island. The Institution has had the distinction of being afforded a grant by the New York State Education Department to establish a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Institute which offers an intense month long series of courses and speakers on various aspects of JEDI topics. Bruce is a graduate and active member of the institute. To enhance awareness and understanding of JEDI topics, for the past three years, Bruce has undertaken the task of authoring monthly articles which are printed in all three campus faculty and student newspapers and other college publications. They have been lauded for their success in encouraging discussions among faculty and students of JEDI topics. His library classes are known to be creative and explore JEDI topics among others. He was chosen to teach a specialized library class for high school students where he highlights inclusive issues and unique topics for his diverse student population. (Suffolk Community College has been recognized as a top national Hispanic serving institution.)

(see original email for complete bio)

Rachel Walden
Chapter Affiliation: Beta Omega Chapter

Rachel Lane Walden is the Assistant Director for Research and Education Services for the Eskind Biomedical Library at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She manages the Eskind Library Informationists, and oversees outreach, instruction, reference, and research support for the health sciences. Rachel regularly provides one-on-one and group training on biomedical research and tools and collaborates on evidence-based practice and quality improvement projects along with being a team member on integrative, scoping, and systematic reviews.Rachel has leadership experience in state, regional, and national library associations. She served as Vice President and then President of the Tennessee Health Science Library Association. Rachel recently finished being a 2023-2024 Medical Library Association's Rising Star (MLA), which was yearlong competitive professional development program designed to provide health sciences librarians with the knowledge needed to become leaders. In 2019, she led the organizing committee for the Southeast Science Bootcamp which was a 3-day conference that provided librarians with the opportunity to network with peers and learn about topics in the sciences and technology. Science researchers were invited to give presentations to the librarians, and they spoke on topics related to the boot camp's theme of ethics & privacy in scientific research. There were also sessions for attendees to speak about classes, programs, and outreach being done at their institutions.Rachel regularly serves on scholarship committees for both MLA and Beta Phi Mu. She has also have served as a peer reviewer for both the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) and BMJ Open.

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