Adjunct Instructor
Kent State University
Liz Deskins was a school librarian for thirty years, teaching at the elementary, high school, and college levels. Now retired, she is an adjunct professor for Kent State University. A past president of Buckeye Children and Teens Book Awards as well as past president of OELMA (Ohio Educational Library Media Association), Liz has also served on committees and task forces for the American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Library Service to Children. A requested presenter at conferences, Liz speaks on many topics, thanks to her lifelong passion for learning new things and sharing them with others. Her publications include Linking Picture Book Biographies to National Content Standards: 200+ Lives to Explore (Libraries Unlimited 2015); LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All, written in collaboration with Christina Dorr; and Content-Area Collaborations for Secondary Grades.
Kathleen Breitenbach (they/them) has been the Teen Librarian at the Hamilton Township (NJ) Public Library since 2009 and is the 2022–2023 Past Chair of the Rainbow Round Table. They have served for two years on the Rainbow Book List Committee (once as co-chair, 2017, and once as chair, 2020) and two years on the Stonewall Book Awards Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Committee (2018, chair 2019) for the Rainbow Round Table; chaired Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2017) for YALSA; and spoken on LGBTQIA+ issues and youth literature in webinars and conference programs.
Embracing Neurodiversity in Youth Services
Sunday, January 21, 2024
11:15am – 12:15pm EST