I earned my PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  My research interests and activities include the provision of library services to people in juvenile detentions, jails, and prisons.  I primarily examine the complex political and social systems that surround this work.

I am a Jail and Reentry Services librarian with San Francisco Public Library (SFPL). I am co-PI on SFPL’s “Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People” project, which is generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.

I was named a Library Journal 2022 Mover & Shaker for advocating for increased library and information services for people most negatively impacted by incarceration.

I was the project coordinator for Mix IT Up!, an IMLS-funded project that recruited traditionally underrepresented LIS students to work with youth of color and LGBTQIA youth in a variety of community settings.

My book, Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access, covers the history of library services inside, philosophical approaches to library services for incarcerated people, and real world examples of library and information programming in carceral facilities.  It advocates for librarians to consider incarcerated people as part of the public served by libraries.  It also critically interrogates the role of technologies within carceral facilities, with emphasis on the data gathering and algorithmic surveillance functions of these technologies.

A list of my publications and presentations is available here. My photo for promotional materials is available here.

The image on this page is from Inside Outside, a 1970s newsletter for librarians and people who were incarcerated.