Candidate for Director, Community Building:

Monica Colon AguirreDr. Monica Colon-Aguirre
Assistant Professor
East Carolina University, USA 

Candidate's Statement:
If elected as Director of Community Building, my vision for ALISE will focus on supporting the organization’s commitment to serving in the advancement of high quality education for the information professions. I will strive to serve as an advocate in its efforts to meet the varied interests and needs of members around the world. I am a strong believer in ALISE’s role in supporting LIS educators’ needs with opportunities for networking, professional development, and career advancement. And in the community building role I will aim to expand these efforts by reaching out not only to full time tenure track educators, but work towards engaging and supporting doctoral students, part-time faculty as well as keeping relationships with retired faculty. I will work in collaboration with others on the board to uphold ALISE’s objective of helping develop membership around the world while retaining and engaging current members. In order to make this possible I will pay special attention to creating and strengthening existing opportunities to go beyond disciplinary outreach.

My vision for ALISE includes to advance the interest of LIS educators outside of North America, and support the efforts to reach out to our colleagues around the world. I believe it is also important to keep in mind our organizational commitment to diversity as well as taking into consideration the needs of faculty of color and ethnic minorities in LIS. Our organization create and develop more initiatives that provide the spaces for faculty of all racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I will work towards including the creation of new and support of existing spaces that work towards this goal.

Biography:
Dr. Mónica Colón-Aguirre is an Assistant Professor at East Carolina University’s Library Science program. She earned her doctorate degree from the School of Information Sciences, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In addition to her doctoral degree, her other degrees include an MS from the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences and an MBA from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico. Her work focuses on information science, academic libraries and LIS education, with applications to various LIS environments and populations from a social justice perspective, including topics such as: information behaviors of Latinx, academic library administration, and services for diverse users. She has been an active member of ALISE since first joining in 2009 during her first year as a doctoral student. She has served as Co Convenor for the Equity and Social Special Interest Group and a member of the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition Committee. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Dr. Colón-Aguirre worked as an assistant librarian in her native Puerto Rico, and also at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville libraries.

 

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