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Meet the People of PALNI

All PALNI staff can be reached using a single email. Contact us any time.

Portrait of Kirsten Leonard

Kirsten Leonard

Executive Director

As Chief Executive Officer, the Executive Director acts on behalf of the PALNI organization under the policy direction and program plan of the Board and reports to the Executive Committee. She is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan for the organization.

 (317) 752-6831
 Email Kirsten Leonard

Portrait of Noah Brubaker

Noah Brubaker

Associate Director

The Associate Director is responsible for advancing annually identified PALNI strategic objectives and reports to the Executive Director. He provides creative leadership, management, and support for core library information systems and applications with the goals of increasing collaboration to expand services and reduce costs.

 (317) 721-8198
 Email Noah Brubaker

Portrait of Lisa Gonzalez

Lisa Gonzalez

Collections Management Librarian

The Knowledge Base and License Manager Librarian provides functional KBLM Module implementation and management support for PALNI libraries. She manages subscription resources and electronic collections, and advances overall PALNI shared collection management goals.

(317) 565-4560
 Email Lisa Gonzalez

Amand Hurford Headshot

Amanda Hurford

Scholarly Communications Director

The Scholarly Communications Director directs the consortia-wide repository, affordable learning, and open-access publishing services, and leads administrative teams and task forces to carry out those projects. She also manages the effort to raise awareness of scholarly communication issues and directs the professional development of librarians and staff assigned to scholarly communications work at each of the PALNI institutions.

 (317) 747-0507
 Email Amanda Hurford

Molly Reed

Molly Reed

Strategic Communications Director

The Strategic Communications Director works to identify, optimize, and manage PALNI communication systems. Her main responsibilities include but are not limited to, highlighting the value and impact of the libraries and library staff, guidance on crisis communication, managing the consortium's websites, internal and external PALNI communications, developing communication best practices, and managing public relations and marketing requests by any of PALNI’s institutions.

 (317) 512-7359
 Email Molly Reed

Pictured is Patti Holt

Patti Holt

Operations Manager

The Operations Manager supports the management and coordination of business operations for the consortium, including finance and accounting, insurance and human resource compliance, administrative data management, business processes, contracting, and other integral office infrastructure. She also provides administrative support to the Executive Director. 

 

(317) 709-8191
 Email Patti Holt

PALNI Half- and Quarter-Time
Coordinators and Consultants

In partnership with PALNI institutions.

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Andrea Bearman

Instructional Technology Coordinator

Andrea works both independently and collaboratively with the Instructional Technology Advisory group to support consortium instructional technology and design initiatives. Her responsibilities include coordinating the Instructional Technology Advisory group activities, learning and sharing instructional technology and design best practices and principles, supporting OER adoption, and working collaboratively with staff from across PALNI’s supported institutions.

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Eric Bradley

Reference, Instruction, and Outreach (RIO) Coordinator

Eric coordinates PALNI collaboration and communication on Reference, Instruction, and Outreach (RIO) activities as a member of the Aestiva Solutions consulting team alongside Ruth Szpunar. Aestiva Solutions provides PALNI libraries with best practices, support, services, and product information for learning, teaching, and research, as well as assessing and demonstrating that impact. Eric is based out of Goshen College. 

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Barb Chen

Fulfillment Coordinator

Based out of the University of Saint Francis, she coordinates PALNI consortial borrowing efforts (PALShare) as part of the group's support team. She also manages the more broadly focused Fulfillment group. In each of these areas the fulfillment coordinator serves to provide strategic project management, product communication at a detailed level between PALNI organizations and vendors, and product advising.

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Preston Howell

PALNI Developer
Support Consultant

He develops software within scoped project needs and provides application maintenance, standardizes codebases, performs software upgrades, and creates technical documentation.

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Heather Loehr

Analytics Consultant

Based out of Hanover College, she leads the creation of analytics, documentation, and reporting in support of the PALNI libraries. She provides assistance and consultation on analytics and reporting processes and solutions in WMS (Report Designer, Collection Evaluation, and custom reports) and other associated tools.

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Lauren Magnuson

Development Consultant

Based out of California State University, she coordinates PALNI development projects including scoping, defining acceptable use criteria, and developing necessary code or API integration. The focus for development is typically centered on enhancements to the ILS but other projects to meet the needs of the supported institutions are also undertaken.

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Nicholas
Stanton-Roark

Institutional Repository and Archives Consultant

Based out of Anderson University, Nicholas provides project support for the collaborative institutional repository. Working with the Scholarly Communications Director, he coordinates efforts to operationalize the consortium-wide IR, including training, troubleshooting, procedure documentation, and analyzing usage.

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Ruth Szpunar

Reference, Instruction, and Outreach (RIO) Coordinator and Consultant

Ruth coordinates PALNI collaboration and communication on Reference, Instruction, and Outreach (RIO) activities as a member of the Aestiva Solutions consulting team alongside Eric Bradley. Aestiva Solutions provides PALNI libraries with best practices, support, services, and product information for learning, teaching, and research, as well as assessing and demonstrating that impact. Ruth also is available as a consultant to work with PALNI libraries on projects for RIO-centric areas to support local expertise. 

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Heather Myers

Open Textbook Publishing Consultant

Heather provides project support for PALNI’s open-access PALSave Textbook Creation Grants. Working with the Scholarly Communications Director, she coordinates efforts with various stakeholders to ensure that projects are on schedule and that they adhere to guidelines. Heather works with the Pressbooks platform to provide access to new open textbooks.

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Christa Welty

Cataloging Consultant

Based out of Anderson University, she assists PALNI libraries with a variety of cataloging projects and challenges. Specifically, she provides original cataloging services for tangible items such as books, microforms, audio visual materials, and the like.

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Anna Shields

PALNI Developer
Support Consultant

She develops software within scoped project needs and provides application maintenance, standardizes codebases, performs software upgrades, and creates technical documentation.