About the Speakers and Instructors Midwest Chapter MLA Conference Cincinnati, Ohio        September 22-26, 2000 Enter the Future - Press Any Key

Laura Pulfer

Laura Pulfer is an award-winning journalist for the Cincinnati Enquirer  who was inducted into the Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame by the Society of  Professional Journalists Queen City Pro Chapter in 1998 and has been honored by national news organizations as well.  Her 1998 collection of essays, I Beg to Differ: Politically Incorrect, Proudly Midwestern, Potentially  Funny, garnered top honors in the Gannett News columnists competition.  Before joining the Cincinnati Enquirer she was editor and publisher for the award-winning Cincinnati Magazine for 15-years.

James B. LaValle, R.Ph., D.H.M., N.M.D., C.C.N.

Dr. Jim LaValle has been involved with natural medicine for the past 15 years and is a nationally recognized figure in the field of natural therapeutics.  He has formal training in Pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, with a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (Central States College of Health Sciences) and certifications in nutrition, homeopathic medicine, and homeopathic pharmacy.  He is currently president and founder of Natural Herb Resources, Inc., and he maintains a practice at Tri-Health Integrative Medicine Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.  In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. LaValle is adjunct associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy and professor of Pharmacology at Central States College of Health Sciences School for Naturopathy.  Additionally, he has written numerous books and is a much sought-after speaker and educator, combining his broad knowledge of natural medicine with a high-energy presentation style.  In 1998, he was named one of the “50 Most Influential  Druggists” by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine.
 

George Manning, Ph.D.

George Manning, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Business at Northern Kentucky University, is an internationally known speaker, author of 10 books, and consultant to businesses such as AT&T, GE, the American Medical Association, as well as, government agencies. In his most recent book, Stress: Living and Working in a Changing World, he presents a pragmatic approach to facing the challenges produced by rapid change in the workplace.  Dr. Manning is a highly sought after speaker in the healthcare sector. Audiences respond positively to his warm and humorous presentation style and feel a sense of personal connection as he shares his insights.  He was selected as "Outstanding Professor" at Northern Kentucky University and has received the "Strongest Influence Award" given by the Northern Kentucky Alumni Association.
 

Charles P. Friedman, Ph.D.

Dr. Friedman is Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics for the University of Pittsburgh and the UPMC Health System.  He holds the academic rank of Professor and is Chief of the Section of Medical Informatics within the Department of Medicine.  He also holds faculty appointments in the School of Information Sciences, the Intelligent Systems Program, and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.  He is director of the Pittsburgh IAIMS (Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems) initiative and the Pittsburgh Medical Informatics Training Program.  Dr. Friedman is an elected fellow and president-elect of the American College of Medical Informatics.  He is currently national chairman of the Group on Information Resources of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
 

Trisha L. Davis

Ms. Davis is an Associate Professor and Head of the Serials & Electronic Resources Department at The Ohio State University Libraries.  She also serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science, teaching graduate courses in technical services, serials, cataloging and academic libraries.  She also has taught courses for Ohio Dominican College and the OSU College of Education.  Since 1997, Ms. Davis has served as the Visiting Program Officer for Licensing of Electronic Products at the Association of Research Libraries.  She was recently awarded the ALA ALCTS 2000 Bowker/Ulrich's Serials Librarianship Award for 2000 which recognized her distinguished contributions to serials librarianship.

Virginia (Ginger) Saha

Ms. Saha began working at the Allen Memorial Medical Library in 1969 and earned her degree in medical librarianship from Case Western Reserve University in 1971.  She returned to CWRU in 1974 and has been at the Cleveland Health Sciences Library ever since.  Ms. Saha has chaired or served on numerous campus and regional committees involved with these developments.  In addition to her responsibilities at CHSL, she taught medical librarianship for 10 years as an adjunct professor at the CWRU School of Library and Information Science from 1975 to 1985.  Ms. Saha was named Director of CHSL in 1999.  She considers herself fortunate to be involved in the introduction and development of computerized systems in interlibrary loan, acquisitions, and public access to electronic resources.
 

Ellen Westling, M.S.L.S, M.B.A, AHIP

Ms. Westling is Manager, BioMedical Products at EBSCO Publishing in Ipswich, MA.  In this new position Westling will lead and coordinate the development, production and marketing of EP biomedical databases and related products. Westling’s previous professional experience includes Sales Executive of The Dialog Corporation and Associate Director of the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University.  She also worked at the Treadwell Library in The Massachusetts General Hospital as Head of Public Services.  She is a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.
 

R. Kathy J. Davies

Ms. Davies is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM, GMR) and is responsible for development of classes and educational materials for National Library of Medicine products and services.  Previous to working for GMR, Ms. Davies was an Information Services Librarian at the Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago where she served as Online Services Coordinator and assisted in training new staff.  She holds a MLS from the University of Southern Mississippi.
 

Mary E. Jackson

Ms. Jackson is the Senior Program Officer for Access Services for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in Washington, DC.  In that position she directs the North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (NAILDD) Project and chairs the NAILDD ProjectÆs ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG).  Ms. Jackson is an internationally recognized authority on interlibrary loan, document delivery, resource sharing, and copyright issues.  She has written extensively on these topics, regularly called upon as a consultant to libraries, consortia, and networks, and has given presentations and workshops in the U.S., Canada, and over a dozen other countries. Her major publications include Measuring the Performance of Interlibrary Loan Operations in North American Research and College Libraries, Uses of Document Delivery Services, and Maximizing Access, Minimizing Cost.  Ms. Jackson was awarded a MLS from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
 

K. Ann McKibbon

Ms. McKibbon received her Master of Library Science degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1972. Since 1981, Ms. McKibbon has been a Research Coordinator in the Health Information Research Unit at McMaster University and is now Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Statistics. Her responsibilities include the supervision and day-to-day production of ACP Journal Club, Evidence-Based Medicine, Evidence-Based Nursing, and Evidence-Based Mental Health and other related research in medical informatics projects. She has recently been nominated as having made outstanding contributions to the information profession by the Canadian Health Librarians Association.  She has taught many courses in MEDLINE searching and evidence-based health care for librarians and clinicians.
 

Lorna Springston

Ms. Springston, MIS is the Director of Medical Library Services for Cardinal Health System, Inc., Muncie, Indiana, and is a member of the Indiana MEDLINEplus Development Team.  Previous positions include Consumer Health Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM, GMR),  Chicago, Illinois, and Library Coordinator, Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, Indiana.
 

Charles B. Wessel

Mr. Wessel, M.L.S., Coordinator of Affiliated Hospital Services, Health Sciences Library System (HSLS), University of Pittsburgh is responsible for developing, implementing and administrating outreach services. These services include coordination of a variety of library services and access to online systems to hospitals and physician practices in the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center Health System. He is responsible for the operations of two Mid-Atlantic Region subcontracts: Partners in Information Access (Internet training to 350+ public health professionals in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania) and Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public.  Mr. Wessel works on all major HSLS web projects, including problem-based learning sites, guides for locating health statistics, and development of HSLS new consumer web site. His Alternative Medicine Homepage at http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html, continues to receive international recognition as a great starting point for locating quality information on complementary and alternative medicine.
 

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