CHICAGO – Audrey Church, associate professor and graduate program coordinator at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, has been elected as the 2016-2017 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) president. Church will serve as president-elect during 2015-2016 under AASL President Leslie Preddy.

Upon learning of her election, Church stated: “There is no better job than being a school librarian.  As stated in 'Empowering Learners,' we work daily to help students become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers and ethical users of information. These are exciting and rewarding times as we make a difference in the lives of children! They are also challenging times. Every child deserves the services of a full-time, qualified school librarian, and we know that many children are enrolled in schools in which this is not the case. There is work to be done. It is an honor to be elected as president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians, and it will be a privilege to serve.”

Church currently serves as the Educators of School Librarians Section (ESLS) representative to the AASL Board of Directors and has previously served as chair of the section. She has also been a member of the School Library Research editorial board and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (formerly NCATE) coordinating committee and served as the AASL representative to the National Adolescent Literacy Coalition.

At a local level, Church has served as president and chair of the Virginia Association of School Librarians and as editor of its publication, VOICE. She has also served as president and secretary of the Virginia Educational Research Association and as chair of its dissertation award committee.

Prior to her position at Longwood University, Church was a school librarian in Lunenburg County (Virginia) Public Schools. She earned her Ph.D. in education in 2007 from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Full AASL election results can be found on the AASL website at www.ala.org/aasl/elections.

The American Association of School Librarians www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.