CPLA Instructors

Yolanda Cuesta is the lead consultant in Cuesta MultiCultural Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in helping libraries serve ethnic and culturally diverse communities. She has over 25 years experience as a trainer and consultant with public libraries and non-profit organizations. Her training and consulting emphasis include community based needs assessments, building partnerships and community coalitions, marketing and public relations, strategic planning and evaluation, and grant writing. She is a trainer for the Public Library Association’s Planning for Results and Managing for Results Process. Prior to starting her own consulting business, Yolanda was Chief of Library Development Services and Ethnic Services Consultant for the California State Library and worked in public libraries in Texas and California. Yolanda has a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She has pursued additional training in intercultural communication, marketing, program planning and evaluation, and train-the-trainer techniques.

June Garcia has over 35 years experience as a public librarian. Her experience includes six years as director of an urban library (San Antonio Public Library), twelve years as the administrator of a branch library system (Phoenix Public Library), and five years as a branch manager. She has served as CEO of the CARL Corporation, and as Vice President and ChiefAmbassador of TLC/CARL, both major library automation companies providing integrated systems to public libraries and consortia. Ms. Garcia is now a managing partner, along with Ronald Dubberly, of Dubberly Garcia Associates, a broad-based consulting company serving the library industry.

Ms. Garcia has been an active participant for the past twenty years in the Public Library Association's efforts to develop tools that will enable public librarians and trustees to effectively plan, measure and evaluate public library service.  She is co-author, along with Sandra Nelson, of Creating Policies for Results: From Chaos to Clarity  (ALA 2003) and currently serves as Associate Editor of PLA's Results series.

Ms. Garcia was the President of the Public Library Association from 1991-1992, and she has served three terms on the ALA Council.  Ms. Garcia has been a frequent speaker at library conferences on a wide variety of topics relating to public library planning, branch library services, measurement and evaluation, facilities planning, and intellectual freedom.

Jeanne Goodrich has over thirty five years' experience in public library administration, in five western states. She started out as head of technical services for the Ft. Vancouver Regional Library in Vancouver, Washington (where she was one of the first six WLN catalogers in the world!). Her most recent library position was as Deputy Director of the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon. She has been working as a library management consultant and trainer since 1999.  Along the way, she's been a Deputy State Librarian (Nevada) and the director of two medium-sized public libraries (South San Francisco, CA and Idaho Falls, ID).  Professional interests and specialties include strategic planning, human resources management, work flow and work force planning, service analysis and planning, and staff development. 

A graduate of the University of Oregon (MA, Library Science) and Idaho State University (BA, English), Jeanne has taught at the library school at San Jose State University and extension courses for Chapman College.  She has also taught a number of courses and workshops for InfoPeople in California and for OCLC West and made numerous conference presentations.  With consultant Diane Mayo, she co-authored the Public Library Association book, Staffing for Results.  Her latest book, co-authored with consultant Paula Singer, HR for Results, will be published by ALA in 2007.

Sandra Nelson is a consultant, speaker, trainer, and writer specializing in public library planning and management issues. She has worked in both small and large public libraries and in two state library agencies. She has presented hundreds of training programs and facilitated strategic planning processes in dozens libraries during the past thirty years. She was named Librarian of the Year by the Arizona State Library Association in 1987, received the ASCLA Professional Achievement Award in 1996, and received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of North Texas School of Information Science in 1999. She chaired the committee that developed the original Planning for Results: A Public Library Transformation Process (1997). Ms. Nelson is the author of Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach (2001) and she is co-author of Creating Policies for Results: From Chaos to Clarity (2003), Wired for the Future: Developing Your Library Technology Plan (1999) and Managing For Results: Effective Resource Allocation for Public Libraries (2000), all published by ALA. She is currently the Senior Editor of the PLA Results series.

Wayne Piper has 30 years of public library and library-related experience. He has worked in a variety of library settings and roles and since 1993 has created, coordinated, and promoted the Ohio Library Council's continuing education program.  The Council offers an average of 40+ events per year. Several events and initiatives have received awards of recognition from both the American and Ohio Societies of Association Executives.   As a facilitator/presenter, Piper works to engage all participants in conversation and at the same time keep the discussion, productive, objective, and on task. Piper holds an MLS from the University of Michigan and  BA degree from Michigan State University.  You can learn more about the Ohio Library Council by visiting www.olc.org.

Michael is a librarian, blogger, presenter, technology fan, author and PEZ collector. He has worked for nearly 20 years in Libraryland with WebJunction.org, OCLC Western (Ontario, CA), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation US Library Program and the Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne, IN), and holds an MLS from Indiana University ('99).