My career as an academic librarian spans close to 20 years in various leadership roles. I'm currently tenured faculty at the Associate Professor level at Santa Ana College. My strengths and passions are in reference, instruction, program planning, and student engagement/community building. I believe in the concept of "library as place" and making the library a welcoming and safe place of discovery and lifelong learning for all members of the community. I've provided research assistance for students from the freshmen level through the PhD. While at Chapman University, I served as the librarian for doctoral students in Education. I'm former Chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries - Women's and Gender Studies Section. I've served the profession in various capacities as a conference presenter, conference program planner, committee member, and member of a journal's editorial board. I have over seventy published reviews in library science related journals and professional publications. I've served as Chair of the Library Technology Program and Co-Chair of the Library at Santa Ana College and Chair of the Public Services Division at Chapman University. During my early career, I served as Reference and Instruction Librarian at California State University, Fullerton. My subject area specialties are American literature, women's literature, feminism/women's studies, and art/creativity, but I have experience with collection development and instruction in areas throughout the humanities, social sciences, and health sciences.At Santa Ana College I've received several honors, including the Faculty Creative Expression Award and Faculty Advisor of the Year Award. I've also been nominated for Transfer Advocate of the Year on multiple years. While I served as Chair of the Library Technology Program, the program was nominated for Career and Technical Education Program of the Year.One of my passions is bringing my creative life into my work as a librarian. I'm a lifelong learner, writer, and artist. I write across the genres of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and oral history/personal narrative. I'm the author of several nonfiction books; the author/illustrator of two children's books; and the editor of two essay collections, including essays by contemporary feminists on the concept of pilgrimage and protest essays by the late and phenomenal poet, teacher, and activist June Jordan.After working with traditional publishers for many years, I founded Wild Librarian Press in 2021 to publish my debut novel and the work of other writers in the future.