AASL Licensed Institute Presenters
Advocacy Institute Presenters
Deborah Levitov
Deborah Levitov was a library media specialist for fourteen (14) years at the building level and served as the Coordinator for library media programs at the district level for twelve (12) years. She has a B.A. in Social Work with Elementary Education Certification, and a Master’s in Educational Administration with a library media endorsement K-12. She is ABD, working on finishing her dissertation in Library Science and Information Technologies at the University of Missouri at Columbia. She has recently taken a new direction and a new learning challenge as the managing editor for School Library Media Activities Monthly and Crinkles magazines with Libraries Unlimited, starting in 2005.
She has been active professionally at the local, state and national level with involvement inclusive of membership on Nebraska Information Power Committee for the Nebraska Educational Media Association (NEMA) since 1988 and as IP Committee Co-Chair since 1998, serving as the NEMA-AASL liaison for Affiliate Assembly for several years , leading a 3M-AASL 2003 training workshop for the school @ your library campaign, serving as Chair for the first AASL Institute Planning Committee in 2001-03, Chair of the AASL Supervisor’s Section, Chair of the AASL @ your library Special Committee and the AASL Advocacy Committee. She was the editor of the NEMA Guide for Developing and Evaluating School Library Media Programs, Libraries Unlimited, 2000 and is currently working with a NEMA committee to revise the guide. She was also the editor of the LPS Guide to Integrated Information Literacy Skills, ’95, 2003. Her professional passions focus on teaching and learning related to information literacy, collaboration and advocacy for school libraries and librarians.
Veanna Baxter
Veanna has a BS in Education - Library Science, MS in Educational Design, and Supervisory Certification. She was an elementary librarian for eight (8) years; high school librarian for twenty-six (26), seventeen (17) of which she was the Directory of Media Services. Veanna presently teaches online for Mansfield University in the School Library and Information Technology Program. Veanna is the past president of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA), has served on many committees for American Association of School Librarians (AALS) including the Chair for Appointments for an AASL Past President. She is presently serving on the American Library Association’s (ALA) Committee of Professional Ethics, and the AASL Advocacy Committee. Veanna is also a credentialed presenter of Ethical Fitness Seminars.
Collaborative Leadership
Dawn Vaughn
Dawn Vaughn has been a school library media specialist for more than 25 years. She has worked at all levels of libraries in three states and is passionate about the teaching and leadership role of the library media specialist in schools. While coordinator at Cherry Creek High School in suburban Denver, the school library received the AASL NSLMPY award for the second time. An active member of the American Association of School Librarians, she served as President from 2004-2005. Dawn is experienced in professional development, presenting at conferences and workshops at the local, state, and national level throughout her career. Most recently, she has been an administrator at Cherry Creek High School.
Betty Bankhead
Betty Bankhead is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a B.S. in Education and an M.L.S. in Library Science. As an educator, she is a long-time advocate of “teaching libraries” and information literacy integrated into the curriculum. With over 30 years of experience as a teacher and a library media specialist, she served for twenty-one years as the director of a large school library media program in Colorado.
As coordinator she provided the leadership for the development of a collaborative library program that integrated information literacy and technology standards into all areas of the curriculum. As an active member of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) for many years, she served in numerous positions including as a member of the task force for writing and implementing Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning and Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, as a member of the Association of College and Research Libraries and the American Association of School Librarians (ACRL/AASL) Task Force on the Educational Role of Libraries, and as a member of the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy and Community Partnerships.
In 2002, Betty was selected to author the first leadership institute for AASL. Since that time she has presented the institute for fifteen state affiliates and school district across the county. Betty Bankhead is the recipient of three national awards for computing, instructional leadership, and public relations programming in school libraries. While serving as coordinator of the Cherry Creek High School library program, she co-authored Write It! A Guide for Research, as well as many articles for national and state journals. She has been active in the Colorado Association of School Libraries and participated in the state association in many capacities. She recently served as the Staff Development Director for the Colorado Power Libraries Project for seven years, after being a charter high performance Power Libraries school. Currently she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Power Libraries Project, a school library consultant for the Library Partnership, and a presenter of the AASL Leadership Institute: Collaborative Leadership.
Reading and the Elementary School Library Media Specialist
Christina Dorr
Christina has 20 years experience in libraries and education, with the past 18 in school library media centers. Her personal love and passion is books, reading, and teaching children to love both. Christina has a Ph.D. in education, focusing on literature and literacy, from the Ohio State University, and has taught adjunct for OSU and three other Ohio universities. She has been trained in the Literacy Collaborative reading model and have attended, and given, numerous workshops, presentations, and pre-conferences on literature and literacy.
Christina served on ALSC's Notable Children's Book Award Committee for 2006 & 2007, and has spent several years reviewing books for School Library Journal and the Linworth Company. Her current school district, Hilliard City Schools, Hilliard, Ohio, won AASL's National School Library Media Program of the Year in 2006 in the district category.
Reading and the Secondary School Library Media Specialist
Pam Berger
Pam Berger, a library consultant with 20 years of school library experience, is publisher and editor of Information Searcher and an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University iSchool. Pam and has spoken to audiences in the U.S, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa and is author of three books and many journal articles on literacy and technology. Berger’s blog, Infosearcher, offers updates on new resources, strategies and tips on developing 21st century literacy.