The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Scholarships and Awards Committee is excited to announce that Noelle Cruz has been selected as APALA’s 2022 American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leader.
APALA will provide funding for Cruz to attend both ALA LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience Conference in January 2022 and the 2022 ALA Annual Conference in June to participate in the Emerging Leaders program. ALA Emerging Leaders is a leadership development program that provides support for early career library professionals to meet, network, and collaborate with their peers through the planning and development of sponsored group projects. The program also provides participants with opportunities to learn more about ALA’s governance and structure, as well as guidance on becoming leaders within the library profession.
Noelle Cruz is a Teen Services Librarian at the San Lorenzo Branch with the Alameda County Library. She fills many different roles, including leading children’s programming, creating outreach partnerships with the local school librarians, and being San Lorenzo Library’s in-house social chair – helping strengthen the bond and relationships with her colleagues by celebrating special days is one of her favorite parts of her job.
Aside from her regular duties, she is also an active core member of ACL’s JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) Team. Cruz uses her energy, enthusiasm, and extroversion to lead and facilitate monthly system-wide meetings and book clubs, which help introduce and create a safe learning environment for ACL’s staff to discuss and learn about race equity and its role and relevance to the field of librarianship. She has also been an active member of APALA and was part of APALA’s Scholarship Committee during 2019-2020.
Cruz has had extensive experience outside of librarianship as a concert venue usher at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Coliseum Box Office staff at the Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino, and assistant manager at a low-income senior housing in Las Vegas, NV before transferring to the Bay Area. Despite having an unconventional path to librarianship, these past experiences helped shaped how she connects with members and her colleagues as she strives to make ACL and the library field to be race-conscious and bravely encourage the library field to directly face its history of racial inequality.
APALA is so thrilled to have Noelle Cruz as our 2022 Emerging Leader!