Kudos for Chapter Members
Congratulations to fellow Chapter Members! With this issue we have so much to celebrate! So much so that we went over the capacity of one blog entry. Here is the full list of Kudos!
By Trina Keith, Memberhsip Committee Chair
Marie Elias, MLS, AHIP, Health Sciences Library, Montefiore Medical Center
Congratulations to Marie, who has recently accepted the position of Library Director of the Health Sciences Library at Montefiore.
Barnaby Nicolas, MSIS, AHIP, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Barnaby has been promoted to a new additional role at the NYU Health Sciences Library: Director, Digital Information Strategy and Access.
In this new role, Barnaby will lead a new division within the NYU Health Sciences Library to enhance how the Library acquires, manages, and delivers information resources across NYU Langone Health. His work will focus on aligning and optimizing digital infrastructure, collections, and library systems to improve access and efficiency throughout the health system.
Barnaby will continue to serve as Director of the Hollis Health Sciences Library at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine and NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island, a role he has held since 2016, and as Associate Curator in the Department of Foundations of Medicine. In addition to his leadership at NYU Langone Health, Barnaby brings deep experience from his time at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he served as Assistant Director for its health system libraries—supporting the integration of library services across newly affiliated hospitals—and as Manager of New & Emerging Technologies, where he led efforts to strengthen library systems and resource sharing
Marie T. Ascher, MS, MPH, Lillian Hetrick Huber Endowed Director, Phillip Capozzi, M.D. Library, New York Medical College
Marie Ascher is the 2025 recipient of the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award! Named in honor of Lucretia W. McClure, a legendary educator and mentor in medical librarianship, this award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field through teaching, curriculum development, mentoring, leadership, and scholarship.
Marie is the creator and director of the Critical Appraisal Institute for Librarians (CAIFL), a nationally recognized workshop that has trained over 200 librarians in evidence-based practice. Her work has been supported by multiple NIH grants and has had a lasting impact on the profession. In addition to her instructional leadership, she has served on the MLA Board of Directors, the Nominating Committee, and currently contributes to the AI Imperative Task Force.
Most importantly, Marie has been the "go-to" mentor/advisor/teacher/co-worker/friend for so many of us in this chapter! We can't be happier for Marie to receive this prestigious award.
Congratulations Marie!!
The NYU Health Sciences Library at NYU Langone Health
Congratulations to the NYU Health Sciences Library for the Research Advancement in Health Sciences Librarianship Award 2025! This award recognizes organizations whose exemplary actions have served to advance health information research and evidence-based practice in health sciences libraries. MLA presented the award to two institutions this year: the London Health Sciences Centre, Health Sciences Library and the NYU Langone Health, Health Sciences Library. Both institutions have demonstrated outstanding commitment to integrating librarians into the research, clinical, and educational missions of their organizations, setting a high standard for innovation and scholarly impact in the profession.
NYU Langone Health supports librarian research with financial backing, professional development, and sabbaticals. Their efforts in data management, collaborative research, and education highlight their essential role in advancing health sciences librarianship. Notably, their librarians have co-authored more than 75 publications since 2022 and secured nearly $500,000 in grant-supported research funding, underscoring their leadership in scholarly productivity and institutional impact.
Judy Lee, MBA, MLS, Maimonides Medical Center
Judy received two professional development awards that helped her attend MLA’25. One was from METRO and the other was from the Medical Library Association for the 2025 Hospital Libraries Professional Development Grant.
Judy also celebrated her birthday with her sister and child in Sarasota, Florida (May 26).
Michael Huang, MLS, MSEd, MSAc, Lac, Stony Brook University
Michael Huang, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University and SUNY Distinguished Librarian, has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) Outstanding Library Leadership Award, in memory of Dr. Margaret Chang Fung.
Laurel Scheinfeld, MLS, AHIP-D, Stony Brook University
Laurel Scheinfeld, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University, has been selected to receive the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship, 2024-2025.
Sunny Chung, MLIS, AHIP, Stony Brook University
Sunny Chung, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University, presented her Medical Library Association Rising Stars research project results virtually on June 4, 2025.
Mina Ghajar, MLS & Maria Deptula, MLS, MA, AAPC, Rutgers University
Mina Ghajar and Maria Deptula presented a poster: Exploring Faculty Needs and Perceptions on Open Access Publishing at the New Jersey Library Association Annual Conference in Atlantic City on May 30, 2025.
Mina and Maria will also be presenting a poster: Open Access & Transformative Agreements – Awareness, Perception, Experience during the ALA Conference in Philadelphia on June 29.
Jeannine Creazzo, MLIS, MBA, AHIP & Ryan Norman, MI, AHIP, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset; Pam Hargwood, MLIS, AHIP, Rutgers University
Jeannine, Pam, and Ryan were co-authors of this article:
Markus-Rodden, M., Creazzo, J., Hargwood, P., Norman, R., Vose, C., & Russell, M. B. (2025). Partnering Alongside Librarians. The American Journal of Nursing, 125(6), 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJN.0000000000000095
Jeannine and Ryan were co-authors of this article:
Barlow, P., Creazzo, J., Norman, R., & Levitt, L. (2025). Coffee across the pond – Implementing a transatlantic Randomised Coffee Trial for hospital nurses. Information Professional, (Summer), 29–29.
Travis Nace, MSLIS, Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, Temple University
Travis co-authored the following scoping reviews:
April 2025. Unexpected Admissions and Patient-Directed Discharges - Understanding Trauma Patients: Scoping Review
Lara Lasner-Frater. MA, MLS, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine/Touro School of Pharmacy
Lara has a resource review published in the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries:
Lasner-Frater, L. (2025). Books@Ovid® Review. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 22(1–2), 40–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/15424065.2025.2496620
John Mokonyama, MS, MBA, MSLS, AHIP-D, Penn Medicine
Congratulations to John for his achievements!
Conference Presentation:
John presented a poster at the 2025 Medical Library Association (MLA) Annual Meeting. His presentation was part of the Research Training Institute program focused on: Exploring nurses’ Perceptions of Using Library Databases for Evidence-Based Research in Hospital Settings.
Research Collaboration:
John co-presented a paper at the 2025 MLA conference as part of the Rising Stars Program, 2024-2025. His colleagues in this presentation included Angela Murrell, Sunny Chung, and Kay Strahan. The session was titled: Modern Time Capsule: Shaping the Future and Building a Better Tomorrow.
Media Feature:
John was featured in Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital’s institutional LinkedIn and Facebook pages, highlighting his contributions and achievements.
Publication Success:
John authored the inaugural issue of the Quarterly Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital Medical Library Newsletter. Now it is in its third edition. The Newsletter has been very well received, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community.
