50+ Fandom Programs

Amy J. Alessio is an award-winning librarian with a black belt in karate. She is the coauthor of A Year of Programs for Millennials and More (ALA Editions, 2015) and Club Programs for Teens (ALA Editions, 2015). She teaches graduate-level young adult literature and conducts dozens of webinars every year, including ones on the topic of social media for book lovers. Amy enjoys sharing her passion for Jell-O and kolackies with 30 local and national audiences a year during interactive presentations on vintage cookbooks and crafts. She reviews romance titles for Booklist and has written and edited several works of fiction and nonfiction. She is a former board member for the Young Adult Library Services Association. Learn more at www.amyalessio.com.

Katie LaMantia is a teen librarian at the Schaumburg Township Distric tLibrary in Schaumburg, Illinois. She is a former Teen Advisory Board member turned teen librarian and is the coauthor of A Year of Programs for Millennials and More (ALA Editions, 2015). She has a personal and professional appreciation for and interest in pop culture and has presented at multiple state and national library conferences about libraries, teens, and programming for adults in their 20s and 30s. When not running teen programs, tinkering with technology, and finding books for young adults, she enjoys traveling, reading, writing, and extreme adventure activities.

Emily Vinci is an adult fiction librarian at the Schaumburg Township District Library in Schaumburg, Illinois, where she cofounded NextGen, a social group for people in their 20s and 30s. She has presented many times about building great programs for patrons in their 20s and 30s and coauthored A Year of Programs for Millennials and More (ALA Editions, 2015). She is passionate about expanding librarian and patron appreciation for and knowledge of comics and graphic novels. A pop culture fanatic, she is always looking for new ways to incorporate popular culture into the public library. When she isn't working, she can usually be found reading comic books, watching movies, or curating her many collections-especially those of Jaws and Jurassic Park memorabilia.