During Immersion, nationally-recognized program facilitators lead participants through intensive information literacy training and education.
Meet the Immersion Facilitators
Veronica Arellano Douglas
Instruction Coordinator
University of Houston Libraries
Veronica Arellano Douglas is the Instruction Coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries, where she provides leadership for the libraries’ information literacy education program. Prior to joining the UH Libraries in 2018, she was a Reference & Instruction Librarian and Instruction Coordinator at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Veronica’s research and writing explores the impacts of race, ethnicity, and gender on teaching librarianship; relational-cultural theory and a feminist practice of librarianship; and critical information literacy pedagogy. She is currently a Member-at-Large for the ACRL Instruction Section, was a 2009 ALA Emerging Leader, and 2005 ALA Spectrum Scholar. Veronica has an MLIS from the University of North Texas and a BA in English from Rice University.
Daisy Benson
Library Instruction Coordinator
University of Vermont
Daisy Benson is Library Instruction Coordinator at the University of Vermont where she has worked since 1999. Daisy is currently working with colleagues from across the UVM campus including the libraries, the Writing in the Disciplines Program, and other disciplinary faculty to implement a new coordinated approach to the integration of writing and information literacy in the undergraduate curriculum from the foundational level through capstone experiences. One of her roles in this initiative has been developing and facilitating faculty and professional development opportunities. Her research interests are the first-year experience and information literacy, professional development for librarians, and student centered teaching and library services. Daisy attended the University of Texas and received an MA in American Civilization and an MLIS there while working for the UT Libraries in a variety of capacities.
Melissa Bowles-Terry
Head of Educational Initiatives
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Melissa Bowles-Terry is the Head of Educational Initiatives at the UNLV Libraries, where she provides leadership for the libraries' educational role on campus, including faculty development initiatives, library support for online learning, and assessment of student learning. She leads an instruction program that reaches over 12,000 students every year and she also works closely with instructional development initiatives across campus, providing workshops on research-based best practices for teaching to faculty in various disciplines. Melissa was previously Instruction and Assessment Coordinator at University of Wyoming Libraries and earned a Master's degree in Library and Information Science at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her career in librarianship, she taught writing at Utah State University and earned a BA and MA in English literature. Melissa has published in major library journals and presented at conferences on the topics of assessment of student learning and information literacy instruction. She is co-author of the book Classroom Assessment Techniques for Librarians, published by ACRL in 2015. Melissa is a 2010 alumna of the Immersion Program Track.
Mary Broussard
Instructional Services Librarian
Lycoming College
Mary Broussard has been an Instructional Services Librarian at Lycoming College since 2006 where she teaches information literacy to undergraduate students and coordinates reference services, the library website, and assessment. Mary is the author of a number of publications on using games in libraries for instruction and outreach, formative assessment, and applying composition and rhetoric theory to information literacy instruction. In addition to these publications, she is the creator of several library games including the online plagiarism education game, “Goblin Threat.” She serves as an ACRL Research and Instruction mentor and teaches public speaking and a freshman seminar that combines reading strategies and vampires. Mary received her MLS from Indiana University, a BA in French and German, and is an alumna of the 2015 Immersion Program Track.
Ashleigh D. Coren
Women’s History Content and Interpretation Curator
National Portrait Gallery
Ashleigh D. Coren is the Women’s History Content and Interpretation Curator at the National Portrait Gallery. Previously, she was Special Collections Librarian for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland, College Park and an adjunct lecturer in the university’s College of Information Studies. She holds a BA in Art and Visual Culture from Bates College, and an MS in Archives Management from Simmons University. She has held previous positions at West Virginia University and Emerson College and is an alumna of the 2017 Immersion Teacher Track. In 2018 she was named an ALA Emerging Leader.
Carlos Duarte
Outreach & Intergeneration Librarian
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Carlos Duarte is the Outreach & Intergeneration Librarian at the Kraemer Family Library at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. At UCCS Carlos is an instructor in the Instruction and Research Services Department and is liaison to the Anthropology and Women and Ethnic Studies departments. He graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of New Mexico in 2005 and received his MSIS from The University of Texas at Austin School of Information in 2013.
Ash Gohr
First Year
Experience Librarian Arizona State University
Michelle “Ashley” Gohr is a First Year Experience Librarian with Arizona State University where she teaches critical information literacy to first year students and provides research assistance to students and faculty in women and gender studies, social justice/human rights, and other subject areas. Her research primarily focuses on radical librarianship and critical pedagogies, and the role libraries and educational institutions play in supporting human rights and activism.
Jennifer Kelley
Professor and Reference Librarian
College of DuPage
Jennifer Kelley, Professor and Reference Librarian at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill., chairs the Library's Instruction Committee and serves as coordinator for Library workshops and the faculty information literacy program, Future of Research. At COD, Jennifer is liaison to Speech Communications, English Language Studies, and Adult Basic Education/High School Equivalency/English Language Acquisition, and serves as the Library's copyright liaison for faculty. Starting in the 2017-2018 academic year, she will also be serving as Faculty Professional Development Coordinator, a 2-year appointment in collaboration with the Learning and Organizational Development department at COD. Her research interests include student perceptions of academic honesty and the impact of information literacy instruction on English composition and Speech Communications courses. Jennifer has a BA in English from Colby College, is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s MFA Program for Poets and Writers, and received her MLS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated from the LEEP program. Jennifer is a 2007 alumna of the Illinois Immersion Teacher Track and 2014 alumna of the Immersion Program Track.
Jessie Loyer
Librarian
Mount Royal University
Jessie Loyer is Cree-Métis and a member of Michel First Nation. She's a librarian at Mount Royal University, which is in Calgary, on Blackfoot and Treaty 7 territory. Jessie is interested in Indigenous information literacy in her research and teaching. You can read her chapter on kinship as an ethic of care: "Indigenous information literacy: nêhiyaw kinship enabling self-care in research." She asks participants to situate themselves and their work toward Indigenous communities and the land where they live in a workshop she's given for various organizations, including the Centre for Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (C-EBLIP), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and for the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL). She is involved in curriculum development, revitalization of Indigenous languages, community-centred digitization, and building capacity for oral history sharing for youth and elders.
Rebecca Miller Waltz
Head, Library Learning Services
Pennsylvania State University
Rebecca Miller Waltz, MSLS, MAED, is the Head of Library Learning Services at Penn State University Libraries. In this role, she leads a team of colleagues in providing strategy and coordination for teaching and learning expertise, foundational-level information literacy instruction, programming for outreach and student engagement, and physical and virtual learning spaces at Penn State's University Park campus. As part of this role, she also chairs the Penn State University Libraries Instruction Steering Committee, which represents 35 distinct teaching units within the Libraries and is currently working toward building a scaffolded and integrated information literacy program. Previously, Rebecca served in various leadership, teaching, and liaison roles at Virginia Tech and Louisiana State University and has an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MAEd in Instructional Design and Technology from Virginia Tech. A 2012 ALA Emerging Leader, a 2016 ACRL Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians participant, a 2012 Immersion Program Track alum, and a 2011 Immersion Teach Track alum, Rebecca is deeply engaged with the profession, currently serving as an ALA Councilor and chairing an ACRL advisory board. Rebecca recently co-authored (with Candice Benjes Small) the recent publication Training for New Instruction Librarians: A Workbook for Trainers and Learners, wrote and edited a number of publications on information literacy, instructional technology, library liaison-ship, and organizational change, and presented at ALA, ACRL, LOEX, and The Innovative Library Classroom conferences.
In Memoriam
Rachel A. McCaskill (May 28, 1987 - May 5, 2021)
Rachel joined the Immersion Facilitator group in 2019. She served as the Instruction and Academic Engagement Librarian for Mulva Library on the campus of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. Rachel held a B.A. in Theatre Performance from North Carolina Central University and a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A 2013 Association of Research Libraries Career Enhancement Program Fellow, she completed a summer fellowship at the University of Arizona’s Main Library before accepting her first professional position as a 2-year Resident Librarian at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries in 2013. Following her residency, Rachel worked as Learning Technologies Librarian at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries before accepting her current position at St. Norbert College in 2019. Rachel’s chief research interests included equity and justice in academic libraries, advancing technology and innovation in teaching, and accessibility. We will truly miss working with Rachel, her positive energy, and contributions to the profession.