Lester Elected 2022-2023 AASL President

CHICAGO – Kathy Lester, school librarian at East Middle School in Plymouth, Michigan, has been elected the 2022-2023 president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). Lester will serve as president-elect during 2021-2022 under AASL President Jennisen Lucas.

Upon learning of her election, Lester stated: “I am truly honored to have been elected to serve the profession that I love. In the last year, I have been so impressed and inspired by school librarians across the nation who have translated their practices to support their school communities both within and beyond the school library walls. I look forward to working together with all AASL members, the AASL Board, Chapters, Sections, staff, partner organizations, and stakeholders to continue to support our school communities and advance our profession. Our collaborative work to build equitable, diverse, and inclusive school libraries and to develop empathetic critical thinkers is now more important than ever. Together we can work toward equitable access to effective school libraries and AASL’s vision statement: ‘every school librarian is a leader; every learner has a school librarian.’”

Lester is a past member of the AASL Board of Directors and currently serves on the AASL Practice Committee and the ASCD Task Force. Lester is also currently a member of the ALA Committee on Library Advocacy and the ALA Ecosystem Subcommittee.

At the state level, she has served as the president, advocacy chair, and institute chairperson for the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME). She is currently a member of the association’s board and a member of its MIself in Books committee. In 2020, Lester was awarded MAME’s Citation of Excellence and the Margaret Grazier Award for Contribution to the Profession.

Full AASL election results can be found on the AASL website at www.ala.org/aasl/elections.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.