Symposium Facilitators

Jacquelyn Coughlan

Jacquelyn Coughlan, M.S., M.L.S., has been a librarian for more than 20 years at the SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica, N.Y. She was one of the founding board members of MAMI (the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters), a non-profit agency in Central New York ,and she taught the cross-cultural segment of the 96 hour MAMI training program for several years. She has also co-taught classes on cross-cultural nursing issues along with faculty of SUNY's School of Nursing.

Jackie has been a volunteer for the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees as an English tutor for several years. She receives email reference questions on multicultural health issues from all over the world and answers every one of them.

Ann Duesing

Ann Duesing is an Outreach Librarian for the University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Charlottesville, Virginia. She was appointed to the position in August 1995 to serve the southwest Virginia Region. Her office is located at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, Wyllie Library in Wise, Virginia. Through a cooperative arrangement with that library, she serves as a reference librarian for the Wyllie Library as well as providing health sciences information outreach services for the region from Roanoke south.

An early focus of the outreach efforts in southwestern Virginia included computer equipment placement and health information access training in regional hospitals, clinics and resource centers through a program developed by the Virginia Medical Information System, and supported by a grant from the Southeastern/Atlantic Region National Network of Libraries of Medicine. More recent projects have included working with a community cancer coalition to develop a cancer resource and support center, working with regional public libraries to incorporate MedlinePlus into their health information services; and working in partnership with several regional organizations to develop and provide a program in which high school students were trained to work with Alzheimer's caregivers to utilize internet access for communication and health information access.

Ms. Duesing also participates in local and regional health sciences library professional groups such as the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association, serving as Chair during 2005; she is a member of the Southwest Virginia Health Information Librarians, the Virginia Council of Health Sciences Librarians, and is a member of the Medical Library Association. She received her BA from the University of Missouri, Columbia and her Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Patricia Hammond

Pat Hammond, AHIP, has been the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System's (VCUHS) Community Health Education Center (CHEC) Librarian since 2002. CHEC is a partnership of the VCUHS, the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Auxiliary of VCUHS and the VCU Libraries. She has managed daily operations since the opening of the Center. This includes training and supervising a volunteer staff of fifteen, building and organizing a consumer health collection, coordinating internal and external promotional activities, managing budgets and teaching educational classes.

Jacqueline Leskovec

Jacqueline Leskovec is currently the Communications and Outreach Coordinator at the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Greater Midwest Region, Chicago, Illinois. One of her upcoming responsibilities within the GMR is working with special populations.

She most recently was Assistant Librarian at the University of South Florida (USF) Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program. In addition to her work with clinicians working with underserved and underrepresented populations, Jacqueline was a member of the Strategic Work Group on Diversity at the College of Medicine.

While at USF, Jacqueline was a member of the team from the Florida Area Health Education Center (FLAHEC) Network who, in partnership with the Florida Department of Health, developed a comprehensive health literacy curriculum for health care professionals. Entitled Health Literacy: A Prescription for Clarity, the curriculum was designed to support health professionals striving to meet the Healthy People 2010 Goal of "improving the health literacy of persons with inadequate or marginal literacy skills". The curriculum was chosen as the recipient of the 2006 National AHEC Organization Center Award for Excellence in Continuing Education.

Jacqueline has taught health care professionals and others about multicultural resources available online.