About the Editors
This textbook was created through Connecting the Pipeline: Libraries, OER, and Dual Enrollment from Secondary to Postsecondary, a $1.3 million project funded by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and the Institute of Library and Museum Services.
The team:
Maya Riley Banks is head of access services/reference librarian and associate professor at John B. Cade Library on the campus of Southern University and A&M College-Baton Rouge. Besides responsibility for access services, she participates in information literacy sessions as Cade Library’s liaison to the departments of English, Fine Arts, College of Engineering, and First- and Second-year experience programs. She provides leadership to the Library’s grant writing team, marketing, communications, and outreach. Banks also serves on the programming committee and will serve as the representative for Cade Library’s newest partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a designated Patent, Trademark, and Resource Center. Maya is passionate about lifelong learning and student success. Other areas of interest include social media engagement, marketing and outreach in libraries, information policy, open education, library user experience and organizational leadership. She holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Nelson Mandela College of Government and Social Sciences at Southern University and a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University.
Sherman Lee Houston, Jr., was born on February 7, 1992, in Shreveport, La. To Sherman (deceased) and Bernice Fuller Houston. He graduated from Mansfield High School in May 2010 and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Louisiana State University- Shreveport. He graduated with his Master of Arts in Liberal Arts with a Concentration in History from LSUS in May 2018. He is the Instructor of History at Southern University in Shreveport and Adjunct Instructor of History at Bossier Parish Community College. Sherman is also the author of Moving on Up a Little Higher: Mahalia Jackson Champion of Freedom Through Song.
Kevin McQueeney is an Assistant Professor of History and the Coordinator of the Black Studies Certificate Program at Nicholls State University. He received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in History from the University of New Orleans, and a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Rutgers University. Kevin specializes in African American History; History of Louisiana; and the History of Medicine. The University of North Carolina Press will publish his book A City Without Care: Racialized Health Care, Racial Health Disparities, and Black Health Activism in New Orleans 1718-2018 in Fall 2022. He has published articles in The Journal of African American History, Louisiana History, Federal History, and Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies. He has published two book chapters, one titled “Critical Issues in African American Health and Healthcare” in The African American Experience: From Slavery to Liberation (Western Kentucky University Press, September 2019), and “The Black Doctor on the Historical Small Screen: African American Physicians in Television Period Dramas,” in Diagnosing History: Medicine in Television Costume Dramas (Manchester University Press, March 2022)
Constance Milton is the Reference and Instruction librarian at SOWELA Technical Community College. and part time Reference Librarian at Capella University. She has a Master of Arts in History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Master of Library and Information Science with a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies from Louisiana State University. She is currently working on establishing a digital archive at SOWELA that will be part of the Louisiana Digital Library. She has over ten years of combined experience in museums, public libraries, and academic libraries.
Lise Namikas is a professor of History at Baton Rouge Community College, where she has taught world history for the past 8 years. She earned her BA degree at the University of Windsor, Canada (1990), her MA in US History at Rutgers University–Newark (1993), and her PhD in American International History at the University of Southern California (2002). Her publications include Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo (Stanford University Press, 2013) and she is currently working on memoirs with an Eritrean refugee. She volunteers with Catholic Charities, especially its refugee program and currently serves on its advisory board. She has three children and supports local high school debate teams, soccer teams, and other STEM challenge teams and activities.
Natasha Whitton is an associate professor in the Department of English and Humanities at Baton Rouge Community College where she teaches courses in history and humanities. She earned her B.S. in Biology from Eureka College, an M.A. in American and British Literature from Murray State University, and a Ph.D. in Modern History and Literature from Drew University. Her publications include articles in The Journal of Faculty Development, Louisiana Literature, The Journal of College Writing, the Louisiana English Journal, and Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction. She serves as the Vice President of Administration for the Louisiana Academic Advising Association. In 2023, she was selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellow and as a Great Questions Foundation Faculty Fellow. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Volunteers in Public Schools.
Wesley Welch is an adjunct instructor and College Advisor for the College of Arts, Education, and Sciences at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He received his B.A. and M.A. in History with a minor in Spanish from the University of Louisiana of Monroe. He has been a History adjunct instructor at ULM for 7 years while fulfilling the role of advisor to many of the programs in its College of Arts, Education, and Sciences.
