Elections FY22

Candidate Slate for FY22 VALE Executive Committee Election

Public, 4-year Sector (2-year term) – 1 seat

• Taras Pavlovsky, The College of New Jersey (incumbent)
  Taras Pavlovsky is Dean of the R. Barbara Gitenstein Library at The College of New Jersey. He has been a member of the VALE Executive Committee since 2003, and served two terms as Chair. He has been the VALE Treasurer since 2017, stepping in after the unexpected passing of Richard Sweeney. He was one of the founders of the “VALE OLS Taskforce,” the progenitor of the VALID Project. He has served on the Board of Trustees of NJEDge.Net, the Executive Boards of LibraryLinkNJ and the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, and two terms as the Vice-Chair of the New Jersey Library Network Review Board. He holds an MSLS from Columbia University, and both an MA and BS from Rutgers University.

Independent, 4-year Sector (2-year term) – 1 seat

• Ana Fontoura, Fairleigh Dickinson University
  Ana Fontoura has held past positions as Dean, faculty and now University Librarian at FDU since 2019. Her background includes over 30 years of combined library experience in technical services, serials, reference, teaching, staff training, electronic resources in academic and school libraries. She co-wrote and was subsequently awarded two major federal DOE grants totaling $14M and was Principal Investigator on a FITW FIPSE grant. These competitive grants placed an emphasis on library learning commons, the role of librarians as mentors, and the value of undergraduate research in increasing student retention and persistence to graduation. She is a past member of the Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization Executive Board and served as Liaison Officer to New York University’s Faculty Resource Network for 8 years at her previous institution.Ms. Fontoura believes that the library serves as the beacon of digital and information literacy and works to advance and facilitate the development of solid information seeking behaviors for our students. Ana Fontoura received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master in Science in Gerontology from The College of New Rochelle as well as a Master in Library Science from Queens College – City University of New York. She was accepted to participate in two Harvard University Institutes for Higher Education and also holds a certificate in leadership and management from the New York Library Association.

Community College, 2-year Sector (2-year term) – 1 seat

• Marilyn N. Ochoa, Middlesex College (incumbent) 
  Marilyn N. Ochoa is the Library Services Director at Middlesex College, where she actively seeks to implement educational technologies to transform library and tutoring services and to foster opportunities for affordable education. At the College, she leads the department in digital library development, maker/creation services, and activities to highlight community, social justice, and global awareness. She is project director for the three-year statewide Open Textbook Collaborative project, which is funded by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Program. The consortium seeks to help improve college affordability and increase the percentage of New Jersey’s population who hold post-secondary credentials that lead to jobs and careers in key growth industries.

Moderator, any sector (2-year term) – 1 seat

• Edward Owusu-Ansah, William Paterson University (incumbent)
  Dr. Edward Owusu-Ansah is the Dean of Library Services at William Paterson University. He previously served as Dean of Library and University Collections and Interim Dean of the Graduate College at East Stroudsburg University, PA. Prior positions were: Chief Librarian and Chairperson of the Robert J. Kibbee Library at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY), Coordinator of Information Literacy at CUNY’s College of Staten Island, adjunct associate professor at the Queens College (CUNY) Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, and reference and instruction librarian at Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky.