The American Library Association this week announced that three candidates will vie for the association's 2022-2023 presidency: Stacey A. Aldrich, State Librarian for the Hawaii State Public Library System, Honolulu, Hawaii; Ed Garcia, Director of the Cranston Public Library, Cranston, Rhode Island; and Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, Adult Services Assistant Manager for the Palos Verdes Library District, Rolling Hills Estates, California.
Ballot mailing for the ALA election will begin on March 8, 2021 and will run through April 7, 2021. Individuals must be members in good standing to vote. Aldrich, Garcia, and Pelayo-Lozada will engage in a candidates' forum at 1 p.m. (CST) on Saturday, January 23, during the 2021 Virtual ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits. The candidates will each have an opportunity to make a statement and will answer questions from the viewers.
Julius C. Jefferson, section head of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is currently serving as ALA president, with his term ending at the conclusion of the 2021 ALA Annual Conference. At the conference, current president-elect Patty Wong will take over as ALA president for 2021-2022. Wong is City Librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library in Santa Monica, California.
All three candidates for the 2022-2023 presidency have deep resumes working with the ALA.
Aldrich currently serves on the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries Advisory Group (2019 – 2021) and ALA President-Elect Patty Wong’s Presidential Advisory Committee (2020 – 2022). She is also a member of the Public Library Association (PLA), the Association of Specialized Government and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASGCLA), and has held an ALA membership for more than 20 years.
Garcia is a current member of the ALA Executive Board (2018-2021), and is serving his third term on ALA Council as an ALA Councilor-at-Large (2011-2020). He also serves on the ALA Philanthropy Advisory Group (2019-2021) and the Forward Together Working Group. He is a member of the 2010 class of ALA Emerging Leaders.
Pelayo-Lozada recently completed a term as an ALA Executive Board Member (2017-2020) and is currently a Councilor-at-Large and an active member of the Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC), CORE, PLA, RRT, Social Responsibility Round Table, and Sustainability (SustainRT). She also is a member of several ALA Professional affiliates, including the Asian-Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), BCALA, Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), American Indian Library Association, and REFORMA.
