School of Information Sciences

iSchool alumni and adjunct named 2024 Movers & Shakers

Two iSchool alumni and an adjunct lecturer are included in Library Journal’s 2024 class of Movers & Shakers, an annual list that recognizes 50 professionals who are moving the library field forward as a profession. Tarida Anantachai (MSLIS ’11) was honored in the Change Agents category, Lissa Staley (MSLIS ’01) was honored in the Community Builders category, and Adjunct Lecturer Zachary Stier was honored in the Community Builders category.

Tarida Anantachai
Tarida Anantachai (MSLIS ’11)

Anantachai is director of inclusion and talent management at North Carolina State University Libraries. According to her nominator, NCSU Communication Strategist Chris Vitiello, Anantachai “has transformed the libraries’ recruitment, interviewing, and hiring processes through the lens of equity and inclusion and extend[s] that work into how our organization mentors and retains our talent.” As the coordinator of the NCSU Fellows Program, Anantachai recruits recent library school graduates for three-year fellowships, observing that the candidate pools for the program have grown increasingly diverse. She fields requests from other campus and external units that are interested in making their own strategic recruitment changes. Anantachai is committed to examining how organizations measure retention, advancement, engagement, and their efforts to instill a culture of belonging, particularly for BIPOC and other marginalized colleagues.

Lissa Staley
Lissa Staley (MSLIS ’01)

Staley is a community connections librarian at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library in Kansas. Her “inreach” efforts include inviting local agencies into the library to assist patrons with mental health screenings, Medicaid and health insurance information, FAFSA applications, workforce support, family legal and emergency aid, GED classes, and small business mentoring. In collaboration with the United Way of Kaw Valley, she brought in a Community Navigator program, where social work interns and volunteers help residents navigate social services every weekday. Staley trains staff to use the WellSky Kansas Community Network to connect people to vital community resources. She helped add circulating Conversation Kits to the library’s collection, which contain decks of question cards and interactive games to spark dialogue on a variety of interests.

Zachary Stier
Zachary Stier

Stier is a children’s librarian at the Ericson Public Library in Boone, Iowa. In 2019, he launched Little Engines, a collaborative pilot project that supports early learning through virtual resources. Stier has received certification through the NASA@ My Library program to handle moon rocks and meteorites for patron observation and partnered with the Iowa Space Grant Consortium to build To the Moon and Back, a curriculum for science programming in Iowa libraries. His community programming for adults includes acquiring a grant to develop Activating Community Voices, a program and symposium featuring speakers from multiple partner organizations. During the Mental Health Awareness Month last year, Stier shared his story of living with bipolar disorder, a condition that he said has led to an appreciation for how he and others learn and experience the world.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Get to know Manas Godha, growth and strategy lead

Manas Godha (BSIS '24) learned how to connect "different contexts, people, and processes with data and technology" at the iSchool. He is putting those skills into practice in his work as the growth and strategy lead at Advaiya.

Manas Godha

iSchool faculty and staff present at AISLE annual conference

Join the iSchool for the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) annual conference, held October 5–7 at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois. The theme for the conference is “Libraries Build Connections.”

AISLE awards to be presented to alumni, adjunct lecturer

Carolyn Kinsella (MSLIS '03), Beverly Frett (MSLIS '04), and Adjunct Lecturer Karen Egan have been selected to receive awards from the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE). They will be honored at an awards banquet during the AISLE Annual Conference, which will be held from October 5–7 in Champaign, Illinois.

Ravury selected to serve on Homecoming Court

BSIS student Lauren Ravury has a new item to add to her resume: member of the 2025 Homecoming Court at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ravury's resume is already impressive. She serves as president of the Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA), an organization dedicated to fostering school spirit at the U. of I. Last year, she served as president of the Asian Pre-Law Association, a stint that led to her receiving the Outstanding Asian & Asian American Undergraduate Student Leader Award from the Asian American Cultural Center and the association being named the 2025 Outstanding Asian & Asian American Student Organization.

Lauren Ravury

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Fax: (217) 244-3302

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top