2022/2023
President: Ali Foster
Vice-President: Marissa Rocca
Past President: Megan Kennedy
Treasurer: Deanna Townsend
Student Rep (2nd year): Lakshmi Balaraman
Student Rep (1st year): Natalia Yatsyuk
Executive Member Bios
Alison Foster (President)
Ali Foster is a Librarian with MacEwan University with liaison roles in Psychology, Psychiatric Nursing, and Massage Therapy. Prior to MacEwan, she was the Access Services Librarian with Brescia University College from 2013-2015. She earned both a BAH, Biology and English (2009) and a BEd (2010) from Queen’s University and an MLIS from Western University (2013). She has served on the Executive and/or select Committees of the following organizations: Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (2018-Present), The Greater Edmonton Library Association (2016-2018), and The Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (2015-2020). Her professional interests include creating opportunities for student involvement in library work, Universal Design for Learning in eLearning, and user-centred design in libraries. She has been a member of NAHLA since early 2021.
Marissa Rocca (Vice President/ President Elect)
Marissa Rocca was raised in Lethbridge, AB and attended the University of Lethbridge to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree with an Anthropology major. After finishing her undergraduate degree she attended the University of Western Ontario and received her Masters of Library and Information Science degree. After having completed her internship at the University of Lethbridge Library, she worked for two years at Northwestern Polytechnic (formerly Grande Prairie Regional College) as their Student Learning and Engagement Librarian. After leaving NWP in the summer of 2022 she began her work with Alberta Health Services as a Knowledge Resource Service Librarian at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Center.
Megan Kennedy (Past President)
Megan is a public services librarian at the University of Alberta. Her primary liaison areas are the Faculty of Nursing and the Department of Geriatrics within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Prior to starting at the Scott Health Sciences Library in January 2020, Megan worked as a liaison librarian for various health faculties at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to joining NAHLA in early 2020, Megan was President of the Saskatchewan Health Libraries Association. She is a graduate of the UBC School of Information, earning her MLIS in 2016.
Deanna Townsend (Treasurer)
Deanna Townsend is recent graduate, worked for BC’s Northern Health Authority and is joining the team at AHS Knowledge Resource Services (KRS) in summer 2023. Prior to entering the world of library and information, she was a registered nurse, and this work has informed her interests in the relationships between health literacies and shared decision-making models of care between health practitioners and patients. She is excited about serving our community of health librarians as NAHLA’s treasurer and is looking forward to the coming year.
Lakshmi Balaraman (Student Representative)
Lakshmi is a second year MLIS (online) student at UAlberta. She aspires to be a health sciences librarian. A fun fact about Lakshmi is that she is multilingual!
Natalia Yatsyuk (Student Representative)
Natalia Yatsyuk is a second-year student in the Library and Information Technology Program at MacEwan University. She has a desire to be a library assistant as well as showing interest to be volunteer in academic library.