University of North Texas 
Data Literacy in Action Webinar Series II:
Building Data Literacy in Practice: Tools, Lessons, and Strategies
Webinar Coordinator
Nelson Santana
Bronx Community College (CUNY)
Nelson Santana is an Associate Professor and Deputy Chief Librarian at Bronx Community College (CUNY), where he also chairs the Student Technology Fee Advisory Committee and leads collection development and campus-wide initiatives that advance student success, digital equity, and experiential learning. A 2025 recipient of the American Library Association “I Love My Librarian” Award, Nelson serves as Chair of ACRL’s Community & Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) and Vice President/President-Elect of SALALM (2025–26). His work spans grant-funded projects, including the exhibit, Transnational Dominican Activism. In addition to presenting in national and international venues, Nelson has published book chapters, journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and other academic works ranging from exiles to the student experience in academic libraries. A two-time CUNY graduate, he mentors first-generation students and builds partnerships that connect classrooms, community, and careers.
Webinar Speakers
Emily Mann
University of South Florida
Emily Zoe Mann is an associate librarian at the University of South Florida in the Research and Instruction department. Her liaison areas include Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. She leads a community project called Data Literacy for Community Action, a program that focuses on teaching data literacy to private citizens and non-profit groups interested in health equity. Her research interests include data and privacy literary, student and faculty success, and how the two areas intersect.
Michael Cummings
Iowa State University
Michael Cummings is a Digital Scholarship Librarian at Iowa State University, where he supports faculty and students in using digital tools and methods for research and teaching. His work includes developing and delivering instruction sessions on data visualization, geospatial humanities, and qualitative data analysis. Prior to joining Iowa State, he served as an adjunct librarian at Des Moines Area Community College, providing reference services and instructional support to a wide-ranging community college population. Michael holds an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and political science from Grinnell College. His current work focuses on helping researchers make data more insightful and actionable through practical, human-centered approaches to data literacy.
Katherine E. Koziar
California State University, Fresno
Prior to her current role at Fresno State as the Agricultural Sciences and Technology Librarian, Kat Koziar was Data Librarian at University of California, Riverside (UCR). Kat has provided instruction for various literacies (information, data literacy, AI), research data management (RDM), and data science (DS) to a wide variety of learners at multiple types of universities and colleges. She loves to discuss the intersections of these literacies with RDM and DS instruction, and how good pedagogy practices can apply to all areas. Her most recent exploration of instruction practices is how to better emphasize the ethics side of data science, AI literacy, and RDM. She holds a Bachelor’s in Physics from UCLA, a Master’s in Library Science from University of North Texas, and a Master’s in Data Science from UCR.
Data Literacy in Action Webinar Series I:
From Principles to Practice: Data Literacy in Academic Libraries
Webinar Coordinator
Jill Sodt
Mott Community College
Jill Sodt is the director of library services at Mott Community College in Flint, MI. Jill has been a member of ACRL for 14 years and is currently serving as the Chair of the ACRL Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS).
Webinar Speakers
Gabriele Hayden
University of Oregon
Gabriele Hayden is an Associate Librarian and Head of Data Services at the University of Oregon Libraries. She leads workshops and consults with students, faculty, and researchers on research data management, data sourcing and sharing, qualitative data analysis, and quantitative data cleaning and visualization in R, Python, Excel, and Power BI. Gabriele holds a PhD in English Literature from Yale University and a BA in English from Reed College. She has written about reproducible research best practices and is always looking to deepen her skills by contributing code or data wrangling to co-authored papers.
Ashley Rockwell
Georgia State University
Ashley Rockwell is a Data Literacy & Learning Specialist and a member of the Research Data Services Department at Georgia State University Library. She has led the development, implementation, and assessment of the Get Data Ready! initiative, which focuses on building data literacy curriculum and programming for undergraduates through course-based instruction, video tutorials, data-related micro-credentials, and data events (e.g. Love Data Week, Scary Data Week, Data in the ATL and Hack4Good).
Theresa Burress
University of South Florida
Theresa Burress is an Associate Librarian at University of South Florida, liaison for students and faculty in College of Marine Science, CAS Mathematics & Statistics, and Honors College. Theresa’s research explores the intersections between information and data literacy, student research success, and digital scholarship. Her research is practitioner focused, while advancing theory within librarianship and expanding the professional framework for data literacy. Recent publications investigate the value and relevance of data literacy from the perspective of faculty and students in higher education, especially as related to the support of student research success.
Clarence Maybee
Purdue University
Clarence Maybee is Associate Dean for Learning and the W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy at Purdue University Libraries. With more than 10 years of experience as an information literacy educator in higher education, Clarence's research focuses on uncovering the experiences of information literacy in higher education to inform pedagogical practices that better help students engage with information as they learn. He received his PhD from the Gateway PhD program, jointly offered by San Jose State University and Queensland University of Technology, and his MLIS from San Jose State University.
Jesse Akman
Elon University
Jesse Akman is the Health and Life Sciences Librarian and Assistant Librarian at the Carol Grotnes Belk Library, Elon University. He currently serves as the library liaison to Elon’s life and health sciences programs, including, but not limited to, the School of Health Sciences, Public Health Studies, Exercise Science, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, and Neuroscience. He is also a member of the Department of Library Research and Scholarly Services, where his work focuses on Open Educational Resources, Open Access Publishing, and data visualization and management.
Ben Chiewphasa
Columbia University
Ben Chiewphasa is the Social Sciences and Policy Librarian at Columbia University, working closely with faculty and students on information literacy, research support, and collection development in the School of International and Public Affairs and several social science departments. Additionally, he is a certified Carpentries Instructor and Instructor Trainer and an alum of the ARL Kaleidoscope Program. Ben publishes and presents on data literacy, government information dissemination and access, and diversity matters in academic libraries. He holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, M.A. in Anthropology (Cultural Heritage) from the University of Montana, and B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Geosciences from Denison University.