The American Library Association has announced the appointment of Jon Peha and Sari Feldman as senior fellows of the ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). As senior fellows, Feldman and Peha will provide “strategic advice” to the ALA on a variety of policy initiatives.

Sari Feldman, who recently joined Publishers Weekly as a regular columnist, is executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio. She has also served as the president of the American Library Association and the Public Library Association, and served as co-chair of the ALA Digital Content Working Group that successfully advocated for library access to e-books from the largest publishers, a role that earned her a mention in Publishers Weekly’s “Notable Publishing People of 2014.”

Jon Peha has served as the chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, legislative fellow on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and team leader and fellow in the U.S. Agency for International Development. Peha has also served as chief technical officer for three high-tech companies and a member of technical staff at SRI International. Peha is currently a professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He will provide ALA with valuable counsel on the broad range of telecommunications issues, from net neutrality and network engineering to spectrum and universal service.

“ALA is fortunate to have such capable individuals sharing their knowledge with us,” said Marc Gartler, chair of the OITP Advisory Committee. “Libraries have many policy concerns, so the breadth and depth provided by the senior fellows is essential to our ability to adequately address the myriad issues before us. On behalf of ALA, I extend our sincere thanks for their willingness to serve.”

Feldman and Peha join senior fellow Robert Bocher, senior counsel Alan Fishel and senior advisor Roger Rosen as strategic advisors to ALA.