Keynote SPeaker

Beck Tench
@10ch
Beck Tench is an independent illustrator, designer, storyteller and technologist temporarily living in Seattle, WA. She was formally trained as a designer and journalist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and has spent her career since helping people and organizations of all types to embrace risk-taking, creativity, and change.

"Hangout" moderators

Jennifer Drinka
@jgrothbookworm
Jennifer leads the talented Youth Services team at the Crystal Lake Public Library in northwest suburban Chicagoland. Since 1998 she has gone on an incredible journey through a myriad of Midwestern libraries, bringing poetry, play, storytelling and scary stuff with her wherever she goes. You can find her browsing her board game collection with her fellow youth librarian husband or laughing at the antics of her African Grey Kiki.

Becky Fyolek
@BeckyMCPL
Becky Fyolek is a Community Outreach Librarian/Teen Services Specialist at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington, Indiana. She has been working in libraries in various positions since 2005, and earned her MLS from Indiana University in 2009. Becky worked as a Youth Services Librarian at the Barrington Area Library in Illinois, and during that time served on the ILA iRead Committee and the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Evaluator's Committee. Becky has also presented at the ILA Annual Conference and the ILA Reaching Forward Conference. When not at the library you can find her leading the Bloomington chapter of the Forever Young Adult Book Club or spending time with her family. You can follow Becky's library adventures on instagram and twitter @BeckyMCPL.

Alexandra Skinner
@librarygirlalex
Alexandra is a Reference Librarian at the Oak Park Public Library, where she focuses on programming and development in the areas of Humanities, Local History, and Special Collections. She graduated from Dominican University with her Masters in Library and Information Science in 2010. When not teaching courses for the public on social media or connecting with patrons at the service desk, she can be found discovering library treasures in the local history archives. Outside of the library, and sometimes in it, she is often seen knitting and talking about something she heard on a podcast recently. 

Mary Soucie
@leftylibrarian
Mary has 20 years experience as a librarian. Currently, she has one of the best library jobs ever: State Librarian for the awesome state of North Dakota. In her past library lives, she has been a public library director at two great libraries; the Youth Services Consultant for the(former) Heritage Trail  Regional Library System; a school librarian and an adjunct professor at Joliet Junior College, teaching Reader’s Advisory and Adult Programs. She loves adult programs for all ages. She has served as a trustee for both her local public library and RAILS. She has served in many volunteer capacities, both within the library community and her own community. Her library are too numerous to mention but include mentoring and networking. She believes that libraries serve as community centers, connecting all the parts of the community that they serve.  When she's not traveling for work, she loves to read, bake and be creative in the form of scrapbooking and papercrafting. Mary loves to spend time with her family- included the 4 footed members- and friends.

Emily Vinci
@evyann 
Emily is a Popular Services/Reader's Advisory Librarian at the Schaumburg Township District Library where she co-founded NextGen, a social group for people in their 20s and 30s. A native of Iowa, Emily received her Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. When she isn't working, she can usually be found reading comic books, seeing movies at the drive-in, or curating her collections of Jaws and Jurassic Park memorabilia.
REGISTRATION BEINGS MONDAY FOR EMILY'S HANGOUT