Announcing the Awardees of the 2025 Core Presidential Citations

CHICAGO—Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures is pleased to announce the 2025 awardees of Core Presidential Citations. The Core Presidential Citations recognize distinguished achievements by Core members who make significant contributions to the association and to the profession. Awarded by the current Core President, Angie Ohler, this award consists of a citation and will be presented on Saturday, June 28 at the Core Awards Ceremony and President’s Program during the 2025 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA. The recipients are:

Miranda Bennett
Core Board Member (2023-2025)

Core extends its heartfelt appreciation to Miranda Bennett for her exceptional service as a Core Board Member since 2023. We extend our sincere gratitude for her thoughtful leadership, strategic insight, and unwavering commitment to Core’s mission and growth. During her time on the Board, Miranda served as Board Liaison to several key committees, including the Core Budget and Finance Committee, Leadership Development and Mentoring Committee, Member Engagement Coordination Committee, Publications Coordination Committee, and the Leadership and Management Leadership Team. In addition to these roles, Miranda played a pivotal part in the operating agreement negotiations and provided vital input on overhead cost structures. Her ability to navigate complex issues with clarity and care has made a lasting impact on the organization. Miranda’s work reflects not only a deep understanding of Core’s values, but also a genuine dedication to its members and future. We thank her for her leadership, service, and meaningful contributions.

Melissa Brooks
Chair, Core LIFT Awards Committee (2024-2025), Chair, Core Awards and Scholarships Coordination Committee (2024-2025)

Melissa Brooks is a superstar within Core. She readily volunteers and is not afraid to take on complex tasks. As past-chair of the Awards and Scholarships Coordination Committee, she led the committee through the transition into Core and gracefully stepped in this year when there was a vacancy. As last year’s co-chair of the Core Forum Planning Committee, she worked tirelessly to ensure an impactful conference for all attendees regardless of library type. Along with her co-chair, she ran efficient and fun committee meetings that resulted in a dynamic, successful conference that was well run. It is with great honor that we nominate Melissa for this Citation. She leads with humor, grace, and thoughtfulness toward what is best for the membership. Her recent election to the Core Board as Director at Large attests to how people view Melissa as an honest and passionate library leader.

Lauren Corbett
Core Board Member (2025-2025)

Core is proud to recognize Lauren Corbett for her outstanding service as a Core Board Member from 2022- 2025. As she concludes her term, we extend our deep appreciation for her steady leadership, collaborative spirit, and meaningful contributions to Core’s continued growth and success. In addition to her Board service, Lauren has made a significant impact through her work on the Core Awards and Scholarships Coordination Committee, where she played a key role in helping launch the Core LIFT Award—an initiative designed to support emerging leaders and foster greater equity and opportunity within the profession. Lauren also contributed her expertise as the Board liaison to the Metadata and Collections Sections Leadership Team, helping to guide important conversations around evolving metadata practices, collections development, and professional engagement in this critical area of library work. Her dedication to Core’s mission and values has enriched the organization and strengthened its ability to support members at all levels. We are grateful for Lauren’s thoughtful service and lasting impact.

David Dahl
Chair, Core Bylaws and Organization Committee (2024-2025)

David Dahl has been a dedicated Core member and chair of the Bylaws and Organization Committee from 2024-2025 during a time of continual change. Core appreciates David’s consistent leadership, as well as his amazing talent for moving projects forward efficiently. Core is a division that is unafraid to make changes where we need them, and as the chair of the Bylaws and Organization Committee, David was able to shepherd four bylaws’ revisions through editing with the committee to the ballot for the membership this spring, and they all passed in the vote. He's also been a past-chair of the Technology Section and has brought many years of knowledge into organizing a large section and connecting people across the division. His consistent and measured leadership has been a great benefit to Core.

Rachel Fleming
Core Board Member (2023-2025)

Rachel Fleming has been such a valuable resource for the Core Board in the last three years as our division's ALA Councilor. Their board reports are always so well written and communicate the myriads of discussions and decisions at ALA Council very succinctly. Core appreciates how much effort was put into passing along so much information and gathering Core's responses to many policy updates or draft statements that ALA produces. Rachel has also been an excellent liaison to our divisional committees and connecting Core to groups across other parts of ALA, often offering constructive feedback that leads to better communication, support, and decision making. Their service to the Core deserves recognition as they have gone above and beyond the traditional role of an ALA Councilor.

Kelly L. Karpinsky
Chair and Past-Chair, Core Buildings and Operations Leadership Team (2023-2025)

Core is proud to recognize Kelly Karpinsky for her outstanding contributions to the Buildings and Operations Section. Kelly served as the chair of the Buildings and Operations Leadership Team and has been a long-time, dedicated member of the section's leadership and numerous committees. Her thoughtful leadership and commitment to advancing library spaces have made a lasting impact on our work and the profession. She generously shares her expertise through Core programs at ALA Annual Conference, Core Forum, and webinars, consistently supporting learning and innovation across the field. As a Principal at Shepley Bulfinch, Kelly is a leader in the firm’s library design practice. We are grateful for her leadership, service, and continued impact on the future of libraries.

Catherine Soehner
Chair, Core Fundraising and Sponsorships Committee (2024-2025)
Vice Chair, Core Fundraising and Sponsorships Committee (2023-2024)

Catherine has made a lasting impact on Core through her exceptional leadership as chair of the Core Fundraising Committee. Under her guidance, the committee raised over $140,000, significantly strengthening Core’s capacity to support its programs, awards, scholarships, and long-term sustainability. As chair, Catherine brought vision, structure, and energy to the committee’s work—expanding donor engagement, elevating Core’s visibility, and establishing new opportunities for philanthropic support. Her strategic leadership and deep commitment to Core’s mission have made a lasting impact on the organization and its members. Thanks to Catherine’s efforts, Core is better positioned to invest in professional development, recognize excellence, and innovate for the future. Her work exemplifies the power of dedicated leadership and the importance of building a strong foundation for our community.

Nicole Trujillo
Chair, Core Web Committee (2024-2025)

Nicole Trujillo has been a huge asset to Core as chair of the Web Committee (2024-2025). She took over at a time when ALA had just migrated to a new version of Drupal and had to fix many lingering issues with the Core website. She redesigned the Core homepage in the past year and worked with ALA IT to build a customized "Find Your Core" page since the previous version would not work with ALA's new website. Core also has a lot of other web properties, not just the website, and Nicole has spent time and effort learning multiple systems. Her diligence and effort have improved many aspects of Core's web presence, and her service deserves recognition.

About Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures
Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures is the national association that advances the profession of librarians and information providers in central roles of leadership and management, collections and technical services, and technology. Our mission is to cultivate and amplify the collective expertise of library workers in core functions through community building, advocacy and learning. Core is a division of the American Library Association. Follow us on our Blog, Instagram, or LinkedIn.