University Libraries celebrates staff member Nadia Orozco-Sahi for their selection in the 2022 American Library Associate (ALA) Emerging Leaders Program.
Orozco-Sahi is a Library Information Special 3 within access services at Zimmerman Library. The American Library Association (ALA) selected 49 people to participate in its 2022 class of Emerging Leaders (EL) in early November 2021.
“It is an honor to be recognized by a national organization because this adds a lot of credence to what I hope to do in the future,” said Orozco-Sahi. “This program gives me a lot support as I am going further into my career.”
The EL program is designed to enable library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The Emerging Leader cohort consists of individuals from across the U.S. and Canada.
“The ability to network with other library professionals has been one of the best parts of the program. It is nice to have support from people here at UNM as well as in other institutions, and be able to support them as well.” said Orozco-Sahi.
The program is a yearlong with the first six months consisting of collaborative work with other cohort members from various institutions. Orozco-Sahi mentioned that their group is creating an inclusive pedagogy toolkit. This will be a guide that includes tools and resources for librarians in higher education working in instruction and reference to encourage the use of inclusive pedagogy. The group will go on to present this work at the 2022 annual ALA Conference and Exhibition held in Washington, D.C. at the end of June.
“We are proud to have Nadia representing our college in the 2022 ALA Emerging Leaders Program,” said Leo Lo, Dean of College of University libraries and Learning Sciences. “They will be gaining knowledge and insight from institutions around the nation and Canada. We are excited to see the new ideas that Nadia will bring back to our colleagues.”
Orozco-Sahi has worked at the University Libraries since October 2021 and received their Master of Library and Information Sciences from The University of Denver.