Congratulations to the 2025-2026 Cohort of the MLA Rising Star Program!
Submitted by: Erinn Aspinall
We are excited to announce that David Petersen, AHIP, Renée Rau, Jessica Sender, AHIP, and Valerie Vera have been selected for the prestigious MLA Rising Star program! This incredible achievement is a testament to their dedication, leadership, and commitment to excellence in the field of medical librarianship.
The MLA Rising Star program is designed to cultivate the next generation of leaders within the Medical Library Association (MLA). Over the course of this year-long leadership development program, the Stars are matched with a career mentor and participate in a comprehensive curriculum that includes:
- Monthly classes led by MLA member leaders
- Experiences and training to develop self-awareness and leadership qualities
- Opportunities to discuss and apply concepts from leadership texts
- An in-depth understanding of MLA, including Board meetings, strategic planning, and MLA history
- Completion of a group project related to current MLA initiatives, with a final presentation to MLA audiences.
Their selection for this program reflects their demonstrated interest and commitment to professional service, as evidenced by their active participation in medical librarianship activities and conferences.
We are incredibly proud of the Stars for earning this opportunity and are confident that their participation in the Rising Star program will further enhance their leadership skills and contributions to MLA. Please join us in congratulating the Stars for this well-deserved honor!
2025-2026 Rising Stars
David Petersen, AHIP
University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine
David Petersen is an Associate Professor, Senior Research & Learning Services Librarian and Assessment Coordinator at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine’s Preston Medical Library in Knoxville, Tennessee. With over two decades of experience in libraries, David has previously served as a Health Sciences Librarian in both Florida and Tennessee, specializing in liaison and instructional librarianship at public and private universities.
His research interests span librarianship as a profession, remote and hybrid work environments, academic library roles, leadership and management, and health information outreach. David is an active contributor to scholarly collaboration and publishing and has held several roles within the Medical Library Association (MLA) and the Southern Chapter/MLA (SC/MLA), including Chair of the Lindberg Fellowship Jury and Treasurer. He currently serves as Program Chair-Elect for SC/MLA and is leading planning efforts for the 2026 conference.
Originally from Maine, David holds BA and MA degrees in history and maintains a strong interest in historical and biographical reading. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling with his spouse and two young children—especially to the rocky islands of the Northeast.
Renée Rau
Norris Medical Library, University of Southern California; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6258-3334
Renée A. Rau is a Health Sciences Librarian at Norris Medical Library at University of Southern California (USC). Before earning her Master’s in Library and Information Science from San José State University in 2020, she studied 20th century United States history with an emphasis on women and gender history. The intersection of information, language, and power particularly in relation to women and empire formed much of her historical study and is applicable to her current work as a liaison librarian to USC’s Keck School of Medicine. This humanities background adds a different perspective to her work with current and future healthcare professionals. Interest in diversifying academic and health science librarianship as well as serving historically marginalized populations has encouraged her to develop resources that increase health practitioners’ understanding of cultural humility, equity, diversity, and inclusion within their respective fields. Her current research interests include: Graphic Medicine and Health Humanities; and how librarians can help support, expand, and improve culturally competent healthcare information for the healthcare industry as well as academic and local communities. Renée’s forthcoming co-edited collection Information, Power, and Reproductive Health, with Gina Schlesselman-Tarango and Alanna Aiko Moore, “explores the ways in which power plays a central role in how reproductive health information is created, controlled, withheld, and shared” using the framework of reproductive justice.
When she’s not working you can find her reading novels, enjoying local craft breweries and coffee shops, prepping for fantasy football, going to concerts, and cuddling with her cats Dante (à la Dante’s Inferno) and Franz (à la Franz Liszt).
Jessica Sender, AHIP
Michigan State University
Jessica Sender is a health sciences librarian at Michigan State University, where she serves as the liaison to the College of Nursing and to the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. She also serves as the Coordinator for Online Teaching and Learning Technologies within the Libraries. In this role, she works with librarians and staff to integrate more fully into the learning management system, incorporate teaching and learning technologies into instruction, and advise on emerging educational technologies. She also manages their laptop loan program, and is the coordinator of curriculum for their Anatomage Table.
As the librarian for the College of Nursing, she teaches sessions in all degree programs, from their RN-BSN program to PhD, from research skills to evaluating the literature, is in charge of developing the collection to support the research and curricular needs of the College, and support students, faculty, and staff at all levels. She is a part of advanced literature review and synthesis teams, and has been a co-author on a number of publications. She received her MLS from Indiana University, and has a Masters in Educational Technology from Boise State University. Outside of work, she enjoys discovering new places in Michigan, watching reality TV, trying new recipes, and reviewing books for the Jewish Book Council.
Valerie Vera
University of South Carolina
Valerie Vera is a research and instruction librarian at the University of South Carolina – Columbia. She’s been in her position for about six years now. She currently serves as the liaison for biology, psychology, neuroscience, and library and information science, as well as the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior in our School of Public Health. She completed her Master of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, and she is currently finishing (aiming for a fall defense!) her PhD in Information Science.