Diversity Leadership Development Program Award
Sponsored by EBSCO

Awarded to an SLA member who represents a group traditionally under-represented in the Association. Recipient must have an interest and potential for leadership with SLA.  The award is a US$ 1000 stipend and the recipient is required to attend the SLA Annual Conference.

DLDP Program Outline
Diversity and SLA Brochure 

Nominations for 2008 are now closed.

2007 Recipients of DLDP Program Award

Blanca Chou has been a member of SLA since 1999. She is currently a senior manager at the Information Resource Center of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. During her seven years at Otsuka, Blanca has doubled her staff and greatly expanded the services, functions and values of her department within the company.

Blanca strongly believes diversity has become a key competitive advantage for many organizations to succeed in the global market. She would like to contribute to the growth of the information profession by helping more people of diverse groups to develop and advance in this field.

Ms. Chou's Mentor

Anne Caputo is Director of the Dow Jones Knowledge & Learning Programs where she is responsible for the planning and development of learning initiatives for Dow Jones product training and for marketing and strategic alliances to information professionals. Additionally, she acts as liaison with key information professional associations such as the Special Libraries Association and serves as an advisor for the development of new information professional tools and products.

Debal C. Kar has been working for 21 years as a fellow at the Library & Information Centre of The Energy and Resources Institute of New Delhi. Debal has reached well beyond his own Library & Information Centre to work on digital library development with the government of India and information professionals both domestically and internationally. He has published extensively and has organized two International Conferences on Digital Libraries in New Delhi, which were attended by hundreds of participants from around the globe.

Within SLA, Debal served last year as the secretary of the Asian Chapter. He is currently the president-elect of that chapter.

Mr. Kar's Mentor

Libby Trudell is the Senior vice president, information professional development, Dialog, member of the executive team and responsible for the Quantum2 leadership development program for information professionals, graduate education for library schools, customer advisory boards and other customer programs.

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Cheryl Jacocks-Terrell received her Bachelors of Science degrees in both Medical Technology and Forensic Chemistry before going on to complete her MLIS from Drexel University. She is currently employed as a biomedical librarian at Philip Morris USA, where she manages library operations and provides reference and research services.

Cheryl has been a member of SLA's Biomedical and Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Divisions of the Virginia Chapter since 2005.

Ms. Jacocks-Terrell's Mentor

Susan M. Klopper is manager, Andersen Business Research Center, Arthur Andersen LLP, Atlanta, Georgia.

Lina Ortega has been a science librarian for six years at the University of Oklahoma, where she manages the Chemistry & Mathematics branch and the Physics & Astronomy branch libraries. She obtained her MLIS, as well as a Master of Arts in the History of Science, from the University of Oklahoma.

Lina gets a lot of satisfaction from working with patrons and developing and managing a collection that provides information to current faculty and students.

Ms. Ortega's Mentor

Rebecca B. Vargha is Librarian, School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill since 2001. Her responsibilities as head of that library include collection development, staff supervision, liaison with departmental faculty and the central library, reference and research assistance, and facilities management. She is Faculty Advisor for the SLA Student Group at SILS and Communications Team Leader/Bulletin Editor for the North Carolina Chapter of SLA.

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Janet Todwong began her career in library sciences in Uganda, where she worked for the Supreme Court Library, the British Council Library and the National Agricultural Research Organization. It was her work here on a USAID project that led her to visit Kansas in 1997. She soon relocated to Kansas and now works at the Washburn University School of Law Library. Janet received her MLIS last year from Emporia State University. She is a member of SLA's Heart of America Chapter.

Ms. Todwong's Mentor

Dr. Stephanie D. Tolson is the Dean, Learning Resources at St. Charles Community College where she administers the library, instructional media and coordinates distance learning for the college. She is actively involved in planning the use of educational technology such as smart boards, data projectors, and the WebCT course management system.

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Past Recipients of the DLDP Program Award
Araceli Domingo (1995)
Awilda Reyes-Lucca (1995)
Teresa Neely (1995)
Rosalind Scott (1995)
Harriet Thompkins (1995)
Phyllis Hodges (1996)
Deborah Jan (1996)
Rosalyn Lett (1996)
Elsie Okobie (1996)
Hemalatha Ramachandran (1996)
Barbara Akinwole (1997)
Andrea Greer(1997)
Vinita Singh (1997)
Stephanie Tolson (1997)
Kelly Yuille (1997)
Cynthia Charles (1998)
Lori Guidry (1998)
Suzanne Koceyan (1998)
Theodosia Jones-Quartey (1998)
Vandana Ranjan (1998)
Jacqueline Knuckle (1999)
Veronica Walker (1999)
Annie Wong (1999)
Jannie Cobb (2000)
Lilleth Newby (2000)
Alvetta Pindell (2000)
Jacquelyn P. Cenacveira (2001)
Irene E. Cordova (2001)
Sandra A. Marshall (2001)
Jeanette M. Regan (2001)
Suzan J. Lee (2002)
Jeffrey Mah (2002)
Christina Birdie (2003)
Persko L. Grier (2003)
Toby A. Lyles (2003)
Lian Ruan (2003)
Pradnya Yogesh (2003)
Innocent Awasom (2004)
Praveen Jain (2004)
Paiki Muswazi (2004)
Akram Sadeghi Pari (2004)
Cassandra Sheih (2004)
Tamika Barnes McCullough (2005)
Phebe Poydras (2005)
Matildah Misengo Sakala (2005)
Angela Gooden, MLS (2006)
Mangala Krishnamurthy, MLIS (2006)
Widharto Widharto, MLS (2006)