Vice President/President Elect
Ben Carter
Georgia Public Library Service
Ben G. Carter joined GLA in 2002, as a library assistant presenting on teen library programming at our annual conference in Athens that October. Since that time, he has served GLA in numerous ways including work on both the Scholarship Committee (serving as Chair for 2018) and on the GLC Planning Committee. He concluded his term as GLA’s SELA Representative last year. He currently serves as Advisor for the President.
After obtaining his MSLS from UNC Chapel Hill, he returned to Georgia with a renewed focus on public libraries. Despite that focus and his work experience in five public library systems, he has also worked in an academic library as a circulation assistant, a special library for a university office as a researcher and public assistant, and as a clerk for an elementary school media center.
Mr. Carter has worked with the Georgia Public Library Service since 2018 as Assistant State Librarian for Library Development & Support. His professional activities have shifted to focus on Georgia’s public libraries as a whole after spending several years serving as library director in two very different library systems. For the last five years he has worked to strengthen Georgia’s public library Trustees, develop Georgia’s future library leaders through the PINNACLE Institute, support Georgia’s public library directors, and serve GLA to ensure our libraries are the best they can be.
He holds membership with four Friends of the Library organizations, including his hometown library, and currently serves as a Friend-At-Large member of the United for Libraries Board. His personal interests include linguistics/philology, cultural institutions, and (depending on his audience) genealogy.
Tisa Jackson
Fulton County Library System
An Atlanta transplant from New Jersey, Tisa started her career with Fulton County as a part time library assistant. She was promoted shortly thereafter to full time library associate at Fulton County’s West End Branch. In 1995 she took a hiatus to raise her 3 small children all under the age of three. In 2001, Tisa headed back to the work she loved, landing this time in Central Library’s Learning Center. It was here that a librarian suggested that she consider getting a master’s in library science.
Tisa Jackson received a Master of Library Science and Information Studies degree (cum laude honors) in 2005 from Clark Atlanta University. Two years later, with a degree in hand, Tisa began her professional career as children’s librarian with East Point Library in Fulton County. As a children’s librarian she developed skills in community outreach and engagement, collection development, programming, reference, and supervision.
Tisa was promoted to Youth Services department manager at the Cascade Library. This proved to be a pivotal move in that, this position served as a springboard to becoming a branch manager. Her new responsibilities included staff evaluations, verifying timecards, and managing the location’s daily workflow. Two years swiftly passed and the opportunity to run her own branch presented itself.
As a branch manager, Tisa truly learned what it took to advocate for the community and work closely with its stakeholders. Currently, Tisa manages Wolf Creek Library, a large community branch nestled in South Fulton County. Managing post Covid is tricky at best, but new norms are guiding the way. Along her journey, Tisa has learned to recognize the importance of building strong community and staff relationships. In an effort for everyone to realize the best in themselves, she is an advocate for the underserved and is focused on cultivating staff.
GLA Vice-President for Membership
Gina Viarruel
Gwinnett County Public Library
Gina Viarruel is a Collections Development Librarian at the Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL). She graduated from Drexel University in June 2019 with her MSLIS degree with a concentration in digital libraries. She co-lead the Atlanta Emerging Librarians through the pandemic year of 2020. She was the Chair of the New Members Round Table (NMRT) and the Secretary of the GLA Black Caucus in 2022. She is also the current Chair of the North Georgia Associated Libraries (NGAL). Under NMRT, she is currently working with a team of GLA officers to develop a mentorship program for all librarians in Georgia. She has 15 years of library experience in public libraries, academic libraries, and archives. She is also civically engaged in her community, serving in several different capacities at polling locations in Gwinnett County.
Kelly Williams
Gwinnett County Public Library
Kelly Williams (she/her) is a supervisory librarian at the Suwanee branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. She has worked in public libraries for eight years. She is a 2022 ALA Emerging Leader, working to improve ALA’s New Member Round Table. Kelly served the Georgia Library Association as the founding Chair of the Programming Interest Group, as GLA Secretary for 2022, current Vice President of the New Member Round Table, and is a copy editor for Georgia Libraries Quarterly. She contributed to the creation of GLA’s current strategic plan and has hosted or spoken at three Learn & Share events for two interest groups. Her professional interests include STEM programming, freedom to read, and library leadership.
GLA Secretary
Brenda Poku
Conyers Rockdale Library
Brenda is the Director of Conyers Rockdale Library and started her professional career in libraries in 2007 as a page in Newton County. She is a graduate of Lesley University, Cambridge, MA and obtained her MLIS degree at Drexel University, Philadelphia PA.
As a retired (Aetna Life & Casualty) corporate executive, she is an avid reader and lover of libraries and books. Brenda’s path to public libraries started decades earlier with research in language pedagogy in remote villages of West Africa.
Brenda currently resides in Newton County with her favorite “library cats” Leo and Luci who she adopted when they rode over to the library in the wheel well of a car. Outside of her daily responsibilities, Brenda’s passion is art–“it is the bridge to all things” and specifically, glass fusion. She is a mom of four adult children, and has four lovely grandchildren.
Nancy Shore
Columbus State University
Nancy serves as the STEM Librarian at Columbus State University. She is excited to merge her passion for science with a love for libraries and research skills. She holds a BS in marine biology from Savannah State University, and a MLIS from the University of South Carolina. As a STEM Librarian she is able to attend all the science classes she wants without having to take all the exams! She and her husband (along with our two dachshunds) moved from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Columbus last summer and are still enjoying the change of scenery and climate. She has served on the board of a variety of nonprofit organizations, and my favorite service position on any board is Secretary.
She is thorough at note-taking, and able to capture and condense the discussions and actions of the board into accurate records of the meeting. Even if she is not the elected secretary for a group, she frequently takes notes during a business meeting so to better able to process the discussions and decisions. She would like to be more active in GLA, and learn more about the organization as a whole – and believe there’s no better position to do that than as Secretary because you’re a witness and recorder to it all.
She loves working in a library because she is naturally curious, and libraries have always been a good place to satisfy her curiosity. Being a librarian allows her to learn a little bit about a lot of subjects, while helping others satisfy their curiosity.
