Meet the GNCRT Board
July 2023 - June 2024 GNCRT Board
Robin Brenner
President (July 2023 - June 2024)
Robin Brenner is Teen Librarian at the Public Library of Brookline in Massachusetts. When not presenting programs and providing reading guidance, she writes features for publications including The Horn Book, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. She is an active member of YALSA and has served on awards committees including the Michael L. Printz Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. She is the editor-in-chief of the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights.
Moni Barrette
Past-President (July 2023 - June 2024)
Moni Barrette is a sixteen year public librarian who expanded her expertise in libraries, comics, and relationship building through her role at LibraryPass as the Director of Content Management and Publisher Relations. As co-founder of the nonprofit Creators Assemble, she is dedicated to promoting literacy through the use of comics and popular culture. Moni attends comic conventions, hosts industry networking events, and helps librarians and educators implement comics into their learning spaces. She also loves hanging out with her husband and two growing girls.
Shira Pilarski
President-Elect (July 2023 - June 2024)
Shira Pilarski is a public library director in the Philadelphia area. They are the chair of the 2024 Stonewall Youth & Teen Book Award committee, and in the past have chaired GNCRT and YALSA committees, as well as serving on the RRT Executive Board. When Shira is not putting comics and queer books into the hands of excited children and teens, they can be found snuggling all the cats, playing drums in cheesy rock bands, or listening to audiobooks at 1.8 speed while completing color gradient jigsaw puzzles.
Soline Holmes
Secretary (July 2023 - June 2025)
Soline Holmes (She/Her/Hers) is a librarian and the Information Services Department chair at Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is the Secretary (and was a Member at Large) for ALA's Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable. She is also a member of ALSC's "Children and Libraries" Editorial Advisory Committee, serves on the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award committees for K-2 and 3-5, and is a Teaching with Primary Sources Network Mentor. She has given presentations on graphic novels, Mother Goose and STEM, Primary Sources, and Global Education at local and national conferences. Soline also co-authored, with Alicia Schwarzenbach, an article about graphic novels as informational texts for "Children and Libraries," was interviewed for "Book Links" about how to best use graphic novels in the classroom, and is co-authoring a chapter in ALA's forthcoming Mental Health and Children's Literature: Evaluating, Curating, and Sharing Books with Children. Soline is the proud recipient of a 2019 Judith F. Krug Banned Books Week grant for her school library, was honored to participate in ALSC's 2022 Bill Morris seminar, and is excited to be a member in the second cohort for Online Ready: Designing Culturally Competent and Impactful K-12 Online Learning sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Liz Brown
Treasurer (July 2022 - June 2024)
Liz Brown (she/her) is a Circulation Assistant with the Baltimore County Public Library and a recent graduate of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Master of Library & Information Science program. She is an active member of the Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table as well as the Games & Gaming Round Table. Her research interests include visual literacy, the preservation of self-published and small press works, library events and programming, as well as access and equity.
Amanda Toth
Member-at-Large (July 2023 - June 2025)
Amanda is the Manager of the Lane Libraries Community Technology Center. She has worked in libraries for over 15 years, and received her MLIS from Kent State University in 2014. As well as providing Collection Development of comics and graphic novels for her library system, she is an avid reader and reviewer of all things comic-related, with cozy fantasy and romance being her favorites.
Dr. Frederick Luis Aldama
Member-at-Large (July 2023 - June 2025)
Frederick Luis Aldama, aka Professor Latinx, is the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin, where he is also founder and director of the Latinx Pop Lab and the annual BIPOC POP: Comics, Gaming & Animation Arts Expo & Symposium. He is an award-winning author, co-author, editor, and coeditor of over dozens of books and editor of numerous book series, including Latinographix and Brown Ink that publish Latinx graphic fiction and nonfiction. He is the producer and co-creator of the first documentary on Latinx comic book superheroes He is author of several children’s books, including The Adventures of Chupacabra Charlie (published in English and Spanish) and Con Papá / With Papá as well as producer and co-creator of the animation short, Carlitos Chupacabra, that just screened at Cannes Film Festival 2023. He has been inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters and Ohio State University's Office of Diversity & Inclusion Hall of Fame. His forthcoming comics and books include The Absolutely (Almost) True Adventures of Max Rodriguez, Labyrinths Borne, Pyroclast: First Flame, and The Steampunkera Chronicles.
Martha Boksenbaum
Member-at-Large (July 2022 - June 2024)
Martha Boksenbaum is a Youth Services Librarian for the Cranston Public Library in Cranston, RI. She is the Features Coordinator for the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights. She works every day to champion graphic novels, manga and anime from her library branch, and tries to keep up with the amazing number of comics being published today.
Diana Ford
Member-at-Large (July 2022 - June 2024)
Diana Ford is a middle/high school librarian in Severna Park, Maryland where she works to get graphic novels and manga into the hands of eager students. She also serves on YALSA's Amazing Audiobook Blog Team and worked on the team for Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers in the past.
Shanna Hollich
Interim GNCRT Councilor (July 2023 - Jun 2025)
Shanna Hollich is currently the Learning and Training Manager for Creative Commons, where they identify and develop educational opportunities for librarians, educators, and creatives to enable better sharing of knowledge and culture in the public interest. Prior to that, Shanna served as a librarian for over 15 years, first in technical services and later in administration at K-12 school, public, federal, and academic libraries. They're very partial to webcomics and blame both Ryan North and Dr. McNinja for getting them into comics in the first place.
