MLA '24 Plenary Speakers
Welcome to MLA '24 and Presidential AddressAmy Blevins, MLA PresidentAmy is responsible for overseeing her library's research, liaison, education, and data services. She has devoted her career over the last 13+ years to online instruction, instructional design, and evidence-based medicine (EBM). Since 2017, Amy has served as the Thread Leader for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) for IUSM. In this role, she works with a team of EBM enthusiasts to develop learning objectives and longitudinal curriculum-based integration of EBM into the existing undergraduate medical student curriculum. She is also a statewide course director for longitudinal courses for medical students. In 2019, Amy began working as a founding instructor/curriculum developer for the newly created Critical Appraisal Institute for Librarians. In addition to participating in evidence-based practice workshops, she has worked on over 14 published systematic reviews and co-edited the book, Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment, in 2014. |
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John P. McGovern Lecture
Dr. Safiya Noble
Dr. Safiya U. Noble is an internet studies scholar and Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she serves as the Faculty Director of the Center on Race & Digital Justice and Co-Director of the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power at the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She is the author of a best-selling book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been widely-reviewed in scholarly and popular publications. Professor Noble is a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford where she was a Commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG). In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for her ground-breaking work on algorithmic discrimination. In 2022, she was recognized as the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient. She is a chartering member of the International Panel on the Information Environment and Interim Director of the UCLA DataX Initiative. Dr. Noble is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, serving those vulnerable to online harassment, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the nation’s oldest Black think tank. |
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Janet Doe Panel Discussion
Celebrating a Decade of Doe
In recognition of MLA’s 125th Anniversary, we’re taking a different approach at MLA ’24. The Janet Doe Lecturers from the past 10 years have been invited to serve as a panel and quickly present their thoughts on how MLA’s Core Values as an association will help us sustain our impact and thrive as health information professionals in the decades to come.
MLA’s Core Values are the bedrock and source of sustenance, especially in challenging times:
- Relying on scientific evidence
- Promoting the use of high-quality health information
- Committing to lifelong learning, supporting research and evidence-based practice
- Valuing inclusion and collaboration in our work
- Supporting accessibility
- Committing to ethical standards.
The MLA ’24 Janet Doe panelists will briefly share their thoughts and then engage the audience – in person and online – in a robust moderated conversation. While this alternative approach is different, the goal of the session is the same as always - to inspire by reflecting on our rich past as it informs a flourishing future.
