Andrea D. Lewis

Andrea has devoted more than 16 years to helping organizations refine their image, increase funding, and expand their reach to new audiences. Her talents lie in the areas of strategic communication, including media relations, internal communications, community relations and partnership development. She is noted for her ability to work with an organization to develop a clear vision of their communications goals and help its staff create a plan of action to achieve it.

Andrea began her career working in the arts with such organizations as The National Gallery of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art and The International Sculpture Center. After working in higher education and with the Anne Arundel County Public Library, she then moved to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). There she worked with the more than 170 public library branches statewide to help them increase their capacity for effective local public relations efforts. In addition, she coordinated the launch of the MPOWER Card - Maryland's statewide public library card - the first of its kind in the nation. While at MSDE, she also served on Maryland's Parent Advisory Council, which was formed by the State Superintendent of Schools to develop a plan for increased family involvement in Maryland public schools in order to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

While working in the private sector, Andrea's clients included the International Finance Corporation, Scholastic, Inc., Public Health Seattle-King County, Brooklyn Public Library, Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Foundation, Folger Shakespeare Library, Sacramento Public Library, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Public Library Association.

She has a bachelor's degree in communication and art history from James Madison University, and a master's degree in public communication from The American University in Washington, D.C.

Ellen G. Miller

Ellen G. Miller is president of the Ellen Miller Group of Lenexa, Kansas. The company specializes in positioning strategies for complex public and for-profit organizations. Ellen Miller Group has provided services ranging from (a) facilitation of strategic planning to (b) public relations, marketing and continuing education programs for a wide variety of organizations. A few are: The Indiana State Library (restructuring of INCOLSA and 9 regional systems); Villanova University’s Falvey Library; Valparaiso University’s Moellering Library; Basehor (KS) Community Library; The Indianapolis Foundation (Library Fund); INCOLSA (Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority, serving 750+ multi-type libraries); Texas Library Association (12 advocacy workshops in all 10 regional systems); Northeast Kansas Library System (multitype system serving 17 counties); Plainfield (IN) Public Library; Olathe (KS) Public Library and Lake Blackshear (GA) Regional Library.

Prior to starting her own company, Ellen was Vice President of Account Services for a Kansas City public relations and marketing firm, clients served included the Kansas City (Mo.) Public Schools and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Ellen Miller also spent 20 years designing and implementing information systems at the University of Cincinnati, Shawnee Mission (KS) Public Schools and the Library of Congress. Since 1990, she has been a speaker, keynoter and/or preconference presenter at over 30 library and water/wastewater utility conferences.

Ellen Miller has worn all three library hats: Staff member, Friend and trustee. She is founding president of the 600-member Kansas Library Trustee Association, a section of the Kansas Library Association. She is a member of the Kansas State Library Advisory Commission. She serves on the Kansas Library Association’s Legislative Committee and is past 2nd VP of the Association for Library Trustee and Advocates. She was named to the ALA-ALTA National Advocacy Honor Roll in 2000. She is a former trustee of the Johnson County (KS) Library.

She received a B.S. from the University of Oregon and a M.S.L.S. from the University of Illinois.

Marseille (Marcy) Pride

Marcy Pride MLS, MA, is the Director of the Oyer Memorial Library at Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Maryland. Prior to this position, Ms. Pride was a Public Library Consultant, with the Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library and Services. She has also held positions as a business and reference librarian at American University, and the Head of Collection Management at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Most recently, her work on the statewide campaign” It’s Never Too Early” won the American Library Association’s John Cotton Dana Award for Library Public Relations. After working in the corporate arena, k-12 education and for a variety of non-profit organizations, Mrs. Pride became a librarian. She has held offices in a number of community and civic organizations and has volunteered at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Lifelong Literacy Center. She is the secretary of the Maryland Library Association and recently, she was appointed to the National Advisory Board for Healthy People 2010 and an ATLA Task Force on Theological Librarianship. Marcy has a multitude of experience in establishing and managing collaborative efforts and in multicultural cooperatives.

She believes in the power of libraries to enrich our lives and expand our horizons.