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March 2012

Second Class of Rising Stars Named

Second Class of Rising Stars Named

The Medical Library Association (MLA) announces its second cohort in its Rising Stars Program coordinated by the Emerging Leaders Task Force. Five Rising Stars were selected from a nationwide pool of health sciences librarians to spend a year in a program designed to help emerging association member leaders develop their potential to provide leadership to MLA at a national level. The program includes experiential learning via a project with one of MLA’s units (section, task force, committee, council, or Board), personal mentoring, and group seminars and information sharing. The cohort has the opportunity to observe part of an MLA Board meeting during their program.

The 2012/13 class of Rising Stars and mentors includes:

Annabelle Nunez, University of Arizona Health Sciences Library
Mentor: Nancy Allee, AHIP, chair, Leadership and Management Section
Project: Work with the Leadership and Management Section’s New Members/Emerging Leaders Survey Project

Rolando Garcia-Milian, University of Florida Health Science Center Library
Mentor: Mary Riordan, AHIP, incoming chair, Awards Committee
Project: Work with the Awards Committee to increase the number of nominations for MLA awards.

Kristi L. Holmes, Washington University School of Medicine Becker Medical Library
Mentor: Jerry Perry, AHIP, chair, Task Force on the MLA Academy of Teaching Excellence (MATE)
Project: Serve on and work with the Task Force on MATE.

Elizabeth V. Fine, University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library
Mentor: I. Diane G. Cooper, AHIP, incoming chair, Federal Libraries Section
Project: Work with the Federal Libraries Section web committee to evaluate the section's website.

Heather L. Brown, University of Nebraska Medical Center, McGoogan Library of Medicine
Mentor: Julia Shaw-Kokot, AHIP, chair, Chapter Council
Project: Work with a Chapter Council team to implement recommendations for interactive web features in the communications plan drafted by 2010 Rising Star Karen L. Hanus, AHIP.

This group will begin their program activities at the 2012 MLA Annual Meeting in Seattle and be recognized at the completion of the program at the 2013 Annual Meeting.

The first group of Rising Stars and mentors successfully completed a yearlong program in 2011 and provided extensive feedback used by the Emerging Leaders Task Force to improve this year’s program. The first class of Rising Stars is already moving into leadership roles. Rex R. Robison, AHIP, a librarian at the National Library of Medicine, is serving on both the MLA Technology Advisory Committee and the MLA/AAHSL Ad Hoc Metrics Task Force; Robert Johnson, Clinical Services Librarian, University of Southern California Norris Medical Library, is active in the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona chapter of MLA; Karen Hanus, AHIP, Assistant Director, Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries, serves on the MLA Bylaws Committee; and Emily Hurst, Instructional Services Librarian, NN/LM South Central Region, served on the 2011 National Program Committee. You can find out more about their work in the October 2011 issue of the MLA News.

The Medical Library Association is committed to fostering excellence in the professional practice and leadership of health sciences library and information professionals and has developed and supports the Rising Stars program as part of that commitment.

Founded in 1898, MLA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, educational organization of 4,000 individual and institutional members in the health sciences information field, that provides lifelong educational opportunities, supports a knowledgebase of health information research, and works with a global network of partners to promote the importance of quality information for improved health to the health care community and the public.