Joe Lucia,
Past Board ChairDean of Libraries, Temple University - Paley Library
Term FY 2018-2021
Joseph Lucia is Dean of Libraries at Temple University. Prior to that, he served as University Library at Villanova University for eleven years. During his tenure at Villanova, Falvey Library won the 2013 ACRL Excellence Award in the University category. Before assuming his post at Villanova in 2002, Lucia served as Director for Library Technology & Access within Information Resources (a merged library & computing support organization) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
He served as a member of the LYRASIS Board of Trustees from 2009-2012, where he was founding President during 2009-2010 and he has also served on the boards of the Hathi Trust and PALCI (an academic library consortium serving the mid-Atlantic region). While at Lehigh, Lucia taught creative writing in the English Department from 1995 through 2002.
Derick Dreher, PhD
The John C. Haas Director, The Rosenbach; VP, Special Collections,The Free Library of Philadelphia
Term FY 2018-2021
Derick Dreher is Vice President of Special Collections for the Free Library of Philadelphia, and simultaneously the John C. Haas Director of The Rosenbach, a museum and rare book library formally affiliated with the FLP. His work centers on the effort to engage and inspire ever broader publics through programs rooted in the vast special collections of the Rosenbach and the Free Library.
Dreher serves the community through a variety of boards including the national library consortium LYRASIS and the Independence Foundation in Philadelphia. Dreher received a B.A. at Princeton and an M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale, all in art history of the Renaissance. His academic work centered on rare books, manuscripts, old master drawings, and prints. Today he publishes and speaks on topics ranging from rare books of numerous periods to museum and library collaborations, mergers and deaccessioning. He is married to an art historian from Germany and has a son in elementary school.
Lee Bagby CeperichDirector, Library and Special Collections, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman LibraryTerm FY 2019-2022
Lee Bagby Ceperich has served as Director of the Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts since 2010 and has held positions at VMFA since 2005. Prior to her arrival at VMFA she held positions at The Library of Virginia and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. She has served as a consultant for institutional special collections, as a reviewer for NEH grant programs and as an adjunct faculty member for Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Ceperich received an MLIS degree from Catholic University, an MA in Museum Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in Art History from James Madison University. Professional affiliations include ARLIS/NA, ALA (CALM, ACRL, RBMS) AAM, VAM, and WALRC.
Kaitlin Thaney
Executive Director, Invest in Open Infrastructure
Term FY 2019-2021
Kaitlin Thaney is the Executive Director of Invest in Open Infrastructure, a non-profit initiative designed to enable durable, scalable, and long lasting open scientific and scholarly infrastructure to emerge, thrive, and deliver its benefits on a global scale.
She previously served as the Endowment Director for the Wikimedia Foundation, where she led development of a fund to sustain the future of Wikipedia and free knowledge. Prior to joining Wikimedia, Thaney directed the program portfolio for the Mozilla Foundation, following her time building the Mozilla Science Lab, a program to serve the open research community. She was on the founding team for Digital Science, where she helped launch and advise programs to serve researchers worldwide, building on her time at Creative Commons, where she crafted legal, technical, and social infrastructure for sharing data on the web.
Kathleen Moeller-PeifferDeputy State Librarian for Library Support Services at the New Jersey State Library
Term FY 2019-2022
Kathhleen Moeller-Peiffer is the Deputy State Librarian for Library Support Services at the New Jersey State Library. Before rejoining the New Jersey State Library, Kathleen was the State Librarian of New Mexico since 2015. Ms. Moeller-Peiffer served in a variety of positions at the New Jersey State Library, including Grants Specialist, Director of Library Development, Associate State Librarian for Legislative and Special Projects, and Deputy State Librarian for Lifelong Learning. Prior to joining the New Jersey State Library, Ms. Moeller-Peiffer worked in public libraries as Head of the Information Technology Department, Durham County Library (NC), county librarian, Orange County Library (NC) and assistant county librarian, Lake City Public Library (FL). Ms. Moeller-Peiffer has also held a variety of leadership positions within ALA’s Association of Specialized, Government and Cooperative Library Agencies, including the elected position of President. She has just been elected to ALA Council. Ms. Moeller-Peiffer is a graduate of the University of South Carolina at Columbia. She also holds an MSLS from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Dr. Donald A. Outing, Ph.D.
Vice-President for Equity and Community, Lehigh University
Term FY 2020-2021
Dr. Donald A. Outing, Ph.D., is Lehigh University's first Vice President for Equity and Community. In this role, he leads institutional efforts to advance its work on diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. Outing reports directly to the Lehigh President and is the senior administrator responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to enhance and continue to build on the University's efforts.
Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, Dr. Outing served as the Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. In that role, he served as the academy's senior leader in coordinating efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive environment and developed and implemented USMA's first diversity and inclusion strategic plan.
Before serving as West Point's Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Outing was an Academy and Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the founding director for the Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM at West Point. In that role, he conceived and implemented an innovative STEM outreach strategy directed at middle school students that impacted more than 10,000 students nationwide.
Dr. Outing is a certified diversity and equal opportunity practitioner having completed the Department of Defense (DoD) Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) in 2015, and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education's inaugural Standards of Professional Practice Institute in 2017. Dr. Outing has more than 34 years of distinguished federal service, having served his nation as a Navy noncommissioned officer, an Army officer, and a DoD civil servant.
Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson
Executive Director, Houston Public Library
Term FY 2020-2021
Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson is a consummate, passionate professional with broad knowledge and experiences providing leadership for library services in large urban centers. She has served as the Executive Director of the Houston Public Library since 2005.
The Houston Public Library is the largest public library in the state of Texas, serving over 2.2 million people of diverse ethnic, racial, and social backgrounds through a network of 42 locations. It ranks seventh among the largest public library systems in the United States in terms of population served. Dr. Lawson is keenly focused on ensuring that public libraries in general and, the Houston Public Library in particular, remain essential to the quality of life in their communities. The Houston Public Library embraces the philosophy of Continuous Improvement.
With its emphasis on excellence, the Library is continuously evolving and moving forward a comprehensive, innovative platform of library services and programs to meet the rapidly changing needs of today's customers and the dynamic changes in the virtual environment. Houston Public Library aggressively promotes its vast resources through strong advocacy, high visibility, exemplary customer service, strong partnerships, and broad reaching community engagement. Under Dr. Lawson's leadership, Houston Public Library has earned over thirty prestigious local, state, and national awards for services, innovation and building projects.
Dr. Lawson serves on a number of professional and civic boards and committees. She holds a BA from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, a MLS from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in Madison, Wisconsin. Dr. Lawson enjoys time with friends, painting, music, and organic gardening. Her greatest joys are her grandson Nigel and her daughter Ebony.
