Food Literacy: Providing Access and Knowledge for Your Community

Presenters

Courtney Boland is the Coordinator of Achieving the Dream at Northern Virginia Community College where she works with the goal for every student succeeds in their higher education goals. With a decade of experience in higher education, Courtney enjoys working with faculty and staff to ensure they have the tools and resources to support their students in succeeding. One of Courtney’s personal interests in the student success field is meeting students’ basic needs. She has experience developing program and informing policies, practices and program designed to more effectively address students’ basic needs to support them in academic goal completion. Leaning into her values at work and at home, Courtney enjoys helping others, spending time with family and friends, hiking with her dog and husband, and cuddling with her cat while she enjoys a good book.

Darcy Coover came from a background in education and student services before graduating from library school in 2011 and coming to work at CCPL. She served as the Assistant Manager of Young Adult Services until last year, when she became Young Adult Programming Coordinator. She has one dog and collects cool-looking rocks

Hillary Dodge is an author, editor, and librarian. She has worked in the library and information science field for over 15 years, most recently as the Director for the North Region with the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2016, Hillary and her husband quit their jobs to relocate their family to South America to pursue a culinary research project. This project would take them to the ends of the earth (literally, to Tierra del Fuego), in search of the best home-cooked food of Chile. Hillary is the author of ALA Edition’s Gather ‘Round the Table: Food Literacy Programs, Resources, and Ideas for Libraries (ALA Editions 2020). She regularly consults with libraries and nonprofits on the topic of food literacy, presents at library workshops and conferences, and is a member of several professional organizations, including the Colorado Association of Libraries, the American Library Association, the Public Library Association, and the Horror Writers Association.

Michelle Jerney-Davis is the director for the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Library, an Army post library on Ft. Myer, Virginia. Michelle spent more than 15 years in higher education first as an instructor, and later as a librarian. While working at Northern Virginia Community College, Michelle was responsible for library programming and outreach, and Michelle and Courtney collaborated on several student success initiatives including a campus-wide Student Success Conference. Michelle is a Military Spouse, and is grateful that her current position allows her the opportunity to give back to military families. An empty-nester, Michelle is an avid traveler, visiting her daughters frequently, and taking “city breaks” all over the world with her husband of 28 years.