Jessie Ransom joined Ex Libris in early 2015 after spending nearly 6 years working as a reference librarian in her home state of Colorado. She now works as a Solutions Architect with Ex Libris, showing libraries how the Ex Libris products work.
Ed Jamieson joined Ex Libris in 2015 after a thirteen year career as an Educational Leader and teacher. With a Masters in Educational Leadership, Ed’s heart has always been in Student Success and organizational change and he carries this spirit with him in serving his higher education customers. Ed chose Ex Libris specifically because of the company’s dedication, innovation and intimacy of higher education institutional needs. Ed was named Ex Libris NA top performer in 2016.
Mike Johnston – Keynote Speaker
Mike Johnston represented Northeast Denver in the Colorado State Senate where he successfully passed major legislation on education reform, economic development, immigration reform and criminal justice reform. Before entering the Senate, he spent six years as a high school principal, wrote a book about his experience as a Teach For America corps member in Mississippi entitled In the Deep Heart’s Core, and served as a senior education advisor to President Obama. Mike is also a small business owner who helps run his family business, The Christiania Lodge. He has co-founded non-profit and for-profit ventures across the country including New Leaders, a national principal training program for urban schools, the Urban Leaders Fellowship, which prepares young people to fight for social justice through courageous public leadership, and Traverse, a strategic consulting company focused on building policies, partnerships, and programs that transform communities. Mike holds degrees from Yale College, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Yale Law School and was named to Time Magazine’s list of “40 Under 40 Political Leaders,” Forbes’ list of “America’s Seven Most Influential Educators,” and the New York Times’ list of “14 Young Democrats to Watch.” Mike lives with his wife Courtney, a Denver District Attorney who prosecutes crimes against children, and their three children – Seamus, Emmet, and Ava, who currently specialize in snakes, Legos and princesses.
Dan Cordova
Dan Cordova is a dual-degree lawyer-librarian, currently serving as the Colorado Supreme Court Librarian. Established in 1861, the Colorado Supreme Court Library is the oldest law library in the State; it is also the only state-supported government law library in Colorado. Dan not only manages legal research and reference services for the Bench, the Bar and the general public, but also negotiates print and electronic databases that serve the state judiciary, legislature, attorney general’s office, and office of administrative courts. He was Chair of Colorado’s Legislative Digital Policy Advisory Committee supporting implementation of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA), and he is the interim Executive Director of the Colorado Legal Help Center.
Christa Starck, OCLC Sr. Product Manager, Resource Sharing
After years of ignoring her mother’s advice to go to library school, Christa enrolled at the University of Iowa’s School of Library and Information Science without telling anyone. After graduating she worked at the Gail Borden Public and Palatine Public Libraries for a few years before moving to western Michigan and Aquinas College. Even before coming to Columbus in 2000 she knew she wanted to work for OCLC, whose mission was very much like her own–helping libraries share!
Erin Elzi
Erin is the Cataloging and Metadata Librarian at the University of Denver, where she spends her days trying to make both the library catalog and the world a better place. She served as a project lead on DU’s migration from Sierra to Alma, and oversaw the re-introduction of bibliographic and item information from Alma into Prospector.
Karina Condra
Karina is the International and Foreign Comparative Law and Emerging Technologies Librarian & Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Sturm Law Library. Karina received her JD from Denver University and then clerked for a Louisiana Judge for three years.
While practicing in Texas, she obtained her M.L.S. at Texas Woman’s University. Prior to joining the Denver Law School, she worked for four years at BU’s Law Library as the International Law and Emerging Technologies Librarian.
Grace Estripeaut
Grace Estripeaut teaches experiential mindfulness workshops, Mindful Leadership and other contemplative practices to corporate employees in Denver and Boulder with a focus on boosting employee productivity, focus and wellbeing.
After 10 years in operational roles at corporate and fast growth business environments, she is no stranger to workload pressures and the effects of high stress. In 2012, her CEO asked her to lead a stress reduction mindfulness session for a group of executives and investors. The experience was so well received, it sparked a career change and fueled her passion to help professionals find and keep their center through mindfulness.
A long-term committed mediator, Grace has trained globally under various teachers and meditation styles. Grace holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior, as well as a certification in mindfulness training from UC San Diego.
Gerrit Bouma
Gerrit Bouma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University.
A major focus of his research is understanding the role of the placenta in controlling fetal growth and development and ultimately postnatal health. In addition to an active research lab, he teaches a variety of human and animal physiology lectures in both undergraduate and graduate courses.
Ryan Buller
Ryan Buller is the Access Services Librarian at the University of Denver. He has been in that position since June, 2013. In this role he oversees the Circulation, Interlibrary Loan, Reserves, Stacks, and Late Night units. He also currently serves as the President of the Colorado Academic Library Association. Previously, he was the access Services Unit Coordinator at Western Illinois University.