A West Virginia native originally from West Liberty, Dr. Brooks holds a BA in English from WVU (1988) and an MSLS from the University of Kentucky (1990). She obtained an Educational Specialist degree (2004) and completed a doctorate in Leadership Studies (2007) from Marshall University. She began her professional career at the Drain-Jordan Library at West Virginia State University as a circulation librarian in 1990 moving on to Marshall University in 1995. At MU, she has held a variety of positions over the years such as reference librarian, head of administrative services, adjunct teaching faculty (CoE/CTC), associate dean of libraries, director of online learning, and assistant vice-president (current). In addition to teaching online for the HEPC and participating actively in community/professional associations, campus life, and faculty governance, her research interests include personnel administration, library science, information literacy assessment, and distance/online education. Other research interests include Mexican-American theater, the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and race, gender, and ethnicity issues unique to West Virginia and the Appalachian region.
Patrick José Dawson is currently Dean of Libraries at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb Illinois. Prior to that position, Dawson worked for 23 years for the University of California, at the Riverside, Irvine and Santa Barbara campuses. During that tenure, Dawson worked as a cataloger, a bibliographer, a reference librarian and finally an administrator, his last position Associate University Librarian for Public Services at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dawson received his MLS from the University of Arizona and is an alumnus of the Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career Development Program as well as the Association of Research Libraries Research Library Leadership Fellows Program.