Associate Fellowship Program: 2003-2004 Associate Fellows

Left to right:
Erinn Faiks, Lonelyss Charles, Andrea Ryce, Barbara Few, Julie Gaines, Nancy Pulsipher, Theodora Bakker, and Jeffery Loo.

Meet the Associates

Theodora A. Bakker
Ms. Bakker received her MLIS in August 2003 from the University of Illinois. She has experience in academic libraries, including the Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, where she focused on reference services and subject guides. There, she also gained experience in bibliographic instruction and collection development. In graduate school, she studied reference services and theories of the dissemination of information, including information literacy and the commodification of information. She also completed multiple projects on web-based information. One project compiled resources of government health statistical information available on the Internet. Another examined the minimally invasive repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms, analyzing the influence of the availability of information pertaining to the procedure upon the implementation and spread of knowledge of this new technology. She continues to review medical and scientific texts for E-Streams: Electronic reviews of Science & Technology References covering Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Science. Theodora's professional interests include information policy, health policy and information theory. Her undergraduate degree is in Philosophy.

Lonelyss B. Charles
Ms. Charles received her MLIS in August 2003 from the University of Pittsburgh. As a Highmark Fellow in the library school, Ms. Charles worked on a project to facilitate access to culturally sensitive information resources for minority health consumers. She also was an investigator in a pilot study on how low literacy adults search the Internet for health information. Ms. Charles has several years experience in business and public relations.

During her tenure at Meharry Medical College, she was able to assist the College in its mission of outreach to at risk, rural and under served populations. In addition to the MLIS, she holds a Masters in Education and a B.A. in French Studies and Liberal Arts. Ms. Charles’ primary interests are health literacy, traditional medical practices, history of medicine and the dissemination of health information to developing countries and underserved and at risk populations in the US.

Erinn E. Faiks
Erinn Faiks comes to NLM with six years of experience in academic libraries. Erinn's interest health sciences librarianship developed during her four years of work at Public Health Information Services & Access (PHISA), the public health library at the University of Michigan. At PHISA, Erinn supported reference and instruction, worked as a HealthWeb editor, and implemented the library's first electronic reserves service. Erinn's professional interests involve helping people become independent researchers and teaching people to effectively use information to support their work. As part of this goal, Erinn developed information and computer literacy courses for the University of Michigan community, and received grant funding to provide similar courses for public health professionals throughout Michigan. While working at PHISA, Erinn also completed a Masters of Science in Information from the University of Michigan School of Information where her extracurricular activities included the development of an online tutorial during her internship at the University's Taubman Medical Library and the provision of online reference services as a volunteer for the Internet Public Library. Erinn's undergraduate degree in Spanish and linguistics was also received from the University of Michigan.

Barbara J. Few
Barbara Few earned a Masters degree in Pediatric Nursing from UCSF and completed a Masters degree in Information Science with a specialization in Human Computer Interaction from the University of Michigan. She has worked in three different academic medical centers, coast to cost in the U.S., and has over 25 years experience in healthcare providing services to patients as a member of the healthcare team; teaching; developing standards of clinical nursing practice; and supporting a multidisciplinary approach to performance improvement.

While pursuing her MSI at the University of Michigan, Barbara worked in a consulting capacity with the Department of Pharmacy Services at Yale-New Haven Hospital. There, she designed a database to analyze aggregate medication error data and established mechanisms for communicating the information to various constituent groups. She also completed a practicum at Taubman Medical Library that included teaching and providing reference support to students enrolled in advanced practice nursing programs at the University.

Her current interests include performance improvement in healthcare, supporting evidence-based clinical practice, medical informatics, and distance learning.

Julie K. Gaines
Julie Gaines comes to NLM from the University of South Carolina, where she recently earned her MLIS in May 2003. While working on her graduate degree, Julie worked as a graduate assistant at Lexington Medical Center, gaining experience working with the public and with medical staff in the hospital. At Lexington Medical, she focused on consumer health and promotion of health literacy in the Columbia, South Carolina area. She also interned at the South Carolina State Library, where she developed the summer reading program website for South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. Julie developed an “easy to understand” medical terminology website while working on her graduate degree as well. In addition to her library experience, Julie has worked for an e-commerce company where she sold medical equipment and assisted in the web maintenance. Julie’s professional interests include consumer health and health literacy, specifically for rural populations; telemedicine; Senior Adult Health and website evaluation. Julie holds a BS in Exercise Science with a minor in Mathematics from Lander University in Greenwood, SC.

Jeffery Loo
Jeff was a Graduate Academic Assistant in the Woodward Biomedical Library at UBC and has had varied experiences in public and academic libraries. He has worked as a research assistant with the Canadian Biotechnology Secretariat, with the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Science, and with a chemistry and a pharmacology laboratory. He received his MLIS degree in May 2003 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. His undergraduate training was in chemistry.

Nancy Pulsipher
Nancy Pulsipher received her MSI in April 2001 from the University of Michigan, specializing in Library and Information Science at the University’s School of Information. As a Graduate Student Research Assistant, she worked with Native Americans throughout the country on issues relating to connectivity and information resource management and allocation. She also gained experience in collections at the Social Work Library, in consumer health at the Patient Education Resources Center at the University of Michigan Cancer Center and in public services at the Public Health Library.

After graduating, she obtained a position as the Reference and Instruction Librarian at the Public Health Library at the University of Michigan. In addition to heading the reference and instruction services for two years, she played a significant role in many of the Public Health Library’s new and collaborative projects including electronic reserves, development of campus-wide copyright guidelines for the libraries, and the development of a distributed education program within the School of Public Health. She has a strong interest in medicine and public health. She hopes to focus her efforts on information access and dissemination in public health to prevent the spread of disease and improve community health conditions.

Andrea N. Ryce
Andrea N. Ryce received her MLIS degree in May 2003 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. After graduation, she worked at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Family Resource Library cataloging their collection and providing reference to staff, patients, and families. She also has previous reference experience as a Graduate Academic Assistant in the Woodward Biomedical Library at UBC, as well as additional varied experience including a project on digitizing and cataloging an editorial cartoon collection for the Special Collections Division of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. Andrea’s professional interests include hospital librarianship and enhancing the role of the librarian within the clinical team, as well as the study and development of projects in international health collaboration. She has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario.