FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2016
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Gov. Ricketts Names Appointments to Nebraska Library Commission
Gov. Pete Ricketts recently appointed Charles (Chuck) Peek, of Kearney, and Sandra (Sandy) White, of Sidney, to three-year terms on the Nebraska Library Commission. Gov. Ricketts also reappointed Michael LaCroix, of Omaha, to a second three-year term.
A former member of the board for Kearney Public Library,
Chuck Peek is an Emeritus Professor of English at University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK). He served for some time as a board member and president of the Nebraska Center for the Book, and received its Mildred Bennett Award in 2011. Since retiring in 2008, he has published two books of poetry and one volume of homilies given at Red Cloud’s Grace Church for Cather events—and currently serves on the Willa Cather Foundation Board of Governors. Chuck teaches occasionally for Kearney’s Senior College, Lincoln’s OLLI, and the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry in Topeka.
Sandy White was a Nebraska educator for more than forty years. Before retiring, she served panhandle schools for several years as the Library-Media Services Director for Educational Service Units 13 and 14. She served on the board of the Western Library System (formerly known as the Panhandle Library System). She also served on the board, including a term as president, of the Nebraska School Library Association (formerly known as the Nebraska Educational Media Association). She currently serves on the board of the Sidney Public Library.
Michael LaCroix served as Director of the Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University and as interim dean of the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library. He formerly served as library director at Greensboro College and Wingate University in North Carolina, and at Albright College in Pennsylvania. He is a member of the board of directors for United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and previously served on the Nebraska State Advisory Council on Libraries—including a term as chair—and on the North Carolina State Advisory Council on Libraries. LaCroix was elected to the board of directors of ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries and served as Nebraska’s representative to the Online Computer Library Center Member’s Council. Formerly the treasurer of the Nebraska Library Association (NLA), he chaired the NLA College and University section.
They join current Commissioners Molly Fisher (Lincoln), Susan Warneke (Norfolk), and Debby Whitehill Bloom (Omaha) serving on the Nebraska Library Commission—the policy-making body ensuring that the agency is fully responsible for the statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library programs and services.
As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “
bringing together people and information.”
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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website,
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases
