Speakers
Thursday Afternoon Pre-Conference Workshop
Maria Accardi
Indiana University Southeast
Biography
Maria T. Accardi is Associate Librarian and Coordinator of Instruction and Reference at Indiana University Southeast, a regional campus of Indiana University located in New Albany, Indiana. Maria holds a BA in English from Northern Kentucky University, an MA in English from the University of Louisville, and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. She served as a co-editor of and contributor to Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (Library Juice Press, 2010), and is the author of Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (Library Juice Press, 2013), for which she received the ACRL Women and Gender Studies Section Award for Significant Achievement in Women and Gender Studies Librarianship in 2014.
Maria's current projects include editing The Feminist Reference Desk: Concepts, Critiques, and Conversations (forthcoming from Library Juice Press in 2017) and providing a platform to share burnout stories at librarianburnout.com. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Friday Morning Plenary Session
Dr. Aaron Thompson
Kentucky State University
Plenary Address: From Appalachia to Academia: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities
This is a story of the richness of diversity and the role it played in the life of one person. It is also the story of the importance of family, community, education and personal best as building blocks for the success in most people’s lives. Student success is enhanced through a diversity of knowledge, literacy, people, and engagement. Thompson points out this richness through the telling of his story and gives the audience a roadmap to assist others in building and telling their success story.
Biography
Dr. Aaron Thompson was named Interim President of Kentucky State University on May 31, 2016. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Thompson served as the Executive Vice President for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. He has also served as a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Eastern Kentucky University.
Thompson has a Ph.D. in Sociology in areas of Organizational Behavior and Race and Gender relations. Thompson has over 25 years of leadership experience in higher education and business. In addition, he has spent numerous years serving on non-profit boards in leadership roles.
Dr. Thompson has researched, taught and/or consulted in areas of diversity, leadership, ethics, multicultural families, race and ethnic relations, student success, first-year students, retention, cultural competence and organizational design throughout his personal career. He has over 30 publications and numerous research and peer reviewed presentations.
Dr. Thompson has traveled over the U.S. and has given more than 700 workshops, seminars and invited lectures in areas of race and gender diversity, living an unbiased life, overcoming obstacles to gain success, creating a school environment for academic success, cultural competence, workplace interaction, leadership, organizational goal setting, building relationships, the first-year seminar and a variety of other topics. He has served as a consultant to educational institutions (elementary, secondary and postsecondary), corporations, non-profit organizations, police departments, and other governmental agencies.
His latest authored or co-authored books are: Changing Student Culture from the Ground Up, The Sociological Outlook, Infusing Diversity and Cultural Competence into Teacher Education, Peer to Peer Leadership: Changing Student Culture from the Ground Up. He also co-authored Thriving in College and Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success, Thriving in the Community College and Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development, Diversity and the College Experience, Focus on Success and Black Men and Divorce.
