Meet the Experts Bios

Dianne Babski

Dianne Babski is the Associate Director, Division of Library Operations (LO) at the National Library of Medicine. In this role, Ms. Babski is responsible for overall management of one of NLM’s largest divisions with more than 450 staff who provide health information services to a global audience of health care professionals, researchers, administrators, students, historians, patients, and the public. Ms. Babski also serves as the Scientific Review Administrator to the federal advisory committee recommending journals for MEDLINE (Literature Selection Technical Review Committee) and represents NLM to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the Association of Research Libraries.

Ms. Babski began her NLM service in 2005 as a Technical Information Specialist. Three years later, she became Head of the MEDLARS Management Section, and she advanced to the positions of Deputy Associate Director for Library Operations in 2013 and Acting Associate Director of Library Operations in 2020.

Prior to joining NLM, Ms. Babski worked in the Scientific Review Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, developing peer review tools and database resources. She also worked on NASA’s SPACELINE data project that supplied space life sciences citations and indexing to MEDLINE. She has a BS in Biology and Biochemistry and Master of Information Management degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Sherri Holland Bailey, MLIS

Sherri Holland Bailey, MLIS is an NCBI Customer Experience team member specializing in assisting customers with My NCBI account tools including SciENcv and My Bibliography. Before joining NCBI, her experience included, account management, library and training experience working with professors, students, teachers and state officials in academia, public school systems, and public and government libraries.

Nicole Baker

Nicole Baker is a Reference Librarian at the National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, Rare Books and Early Manuscripts Section. Nicole has been working in HMD since the summer of 2015 as a Pathways Intern. Since then, she has completed a Bachelor of Arts in English at Salisbury University and a Master of Library and Information Science at University of Maryland, College Park. Her professional interests include working with patrons to broaden their understanding of library resources through education and outreach. Nicole feels lucky to spend her days on projects like researching the history of tattooing for a blog post or studying early printing and illustrating methods. She’s excited to see what this field has in store for her career and loves to share it with others.

Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD

Dr. Brennan is the Director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she oversees the world’s largest biomedical library. She has positioned the Library to be the hub for biomedical data science at NIH and across the globe.

Dr. Brennan holds an appointment as associate investigator in the National Institute of Nursing Research Division of Intramural Research, where she directs the Advanced Visualization Laboratory. Before joining NIH, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor in the School of Nursing and College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Brennan is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Edward Caldwell, MPH, CHW

Edward Caldwell is the Health Professions Coordinator for the South Central Region. In this role, he provides support to academic librarians, public health departments, and community-based organizations. Edward holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health and Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Tyler.

Kathi Canese

Kathi Canese joined NCBI in the early days of PubMed.  She is the program manager for PubMed, NCBI MeSH, and the NLM Catalog databases, and is also responsible for the submission and editing of citation data by publishers via the PubMed Data Management (PMDM) system. Kathi received her master’s degree in library and information science from the NY University at Albany.

Brianna Chatmon, MLIS

Brianna Chatmon received her MLIS at the University of Missouri in 2020. While obtaining her degree, Chatmon interned at the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library. During her internship she worked on various assignments to grow her professional network and develop a deeper knowledge of medical librarianship. Chatmon helped create easy follow along virtual tutorials to assist health professionals and medical students in their database searches. Chatmon also assisted with community health outreach activities at regional and local conferences. Additionally, Chatmon, worked at Hugh Stephens library where she helped coordinate monthly library programming and interactive exhibits and assisted with a stack maintenance project to downsize a 300,000-book collection digitally and physically. Chatmon holds a BG in Liberal Arts and Science from the University of Kansas.

Javier Chavez

Javier Chavez is a New York City transplant residing in Derwood MD. A graduate of St John’s University in Queens NY, he majored in Biology and Education. Over the past 20+ years, he has served as an SME for Biodefense Operations in the US Army Reserve, specializing in Chemical and Biological Defense and implementing Defense Support of Civil Authorities operations. He is a Veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. He is currently serving as the Company First Sergeant for the 485th Chemical Battalion HHC, located in Newark, DE.

Prior to joining NLM, Javier Chavez served in the FDA Office of the Commissioner as a Patient Advocate and Representative within the Office of Health and Constituent Affairs, which is the liaison between the FDA and patient advocates and professional health organizations. He prioritized bilingual health programs, including international disaster response, recruitment of minorities for clinical trials, and targeted consumer communications in English and Spanish.

At NLM, Javier serves as a Technical Information Specialist and Bilingual Programs Lead for MedlinePlus en Español. One of the program’s main goals is to present high quality, relevant health, and wellness information to consumers in both English and Spanish. As a bilingual lead, Javier advises on cultural issues to ensure that the mission of providing accessible health care information transcends linguistic boundaries.

Allison Cruise, MLIS

Allison Cruise received her MLIS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in December 2019. While completing her degree, she worked as an intern at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, engaging in data entry tasks, providing document delivery services and assisting research analysts and library visitors. While at North Carolina Biotechnology Center, she became a full-time research associate, maintaining a client database, assisting with an embedded librarianship contract and providing literature searches and other research projects. She holds a BS in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jennifer Diffin, MLS

Jennifer Diffin, MLS, is Head of the Library Technology Services Section at the National Library of Medicine, where she currently chairs the Digital Repository Working Group. She also oversees management of the ILS, discovery, OpenURL resolver, and other homegrown systems as well as technical support for the Technical Services Division. She holds an MS in Library Science from Simmons College and has over 15 years’ experience as a systems librarian.

Levi Dolan, MLIS

Levi Dolan received his MLIS from the University of Missouri-Columbia in the Spring of 2020. At MU, he was the graduate library assistant for the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library and a research assistant for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. During his time in library school, he also worked as a library supervisor and tutor at Stephens College in Columbia, MO. For his practicum, he was a teaching assistant and co-project manager for a Library Carpentries workshop held in St. Louis, sponsored by the Missouri Hub of the Digital Public Library of America. He was elected president of MU’s ALA Student Chapter for 2018-2019, and served on the University Libraries Student Advisory Committee. He holds a BTh in Theology from Ozark Christian College.

Kristina Elliott, MLS

Kristina Elliott supports the PubMed literature databases PubMed Central and MEDLINE as a Publisher Liaison with NLM’s Technical Services Division. Prior to this position, Kristina worked for ClinicalTrials.gov on communications, outreach, and policy efforts. She is a former National Library of Medicine Associate Fellow, and led research projects on clinical trial registration and data sharing. She holds a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland.

Lisa Federer, PhD, MLIS

Dr. Lisa Federer is the Data Science and Open Science Librarian at the National Library of Medicine, focusing on developing efforts to support workforce development and enhance capacity in the biomedical research and library communities for data science and open science. Prior to joining NLM, Lisa spent five years as the Research Data Informationist at the National Institutes of Health Library, where she developed and ran the Library’s Data Services Program. She holds a PhD in information studies from the University of Maryland and an MLIS from the University of California-Los Angeles, as well as graduate certificates in data science and data visualization.

Anna Fine, PharmD, MS

Anna Fine, PharmD, MS, Assistant Director for ClinicalTrials.gov at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), oversees communication about policies related to the program, including engagement with stakeholders on the ClinicalTrials.gov modernization. Prior to joining the NLM family, Anna worked at the Food and Drug Administration for more than a decade and was Director of the Health Professional Engagement program. After obtaining a Doctor of Pharmacy from Northeastern University, she completed a post graduate residency program in drug information at Stanford Hospital and Clinics in California and has previously served in honorably in the United States Air Force.

Valerie Florance, PhD

Valerie Florance is Director of Extramural Programs (EP) for the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Blending background experience from medical anthropology, medical libraries and biomedical informatics, she is as multi-faceted and leading edge as the NLM division she heads. Extramural Programs provides funding to people and organizations studying how computers and telecommunication technology can improve the way we store, retrieve, access, and share biomedical information. Dr. Florance completed her doctoral studies in information sciences at the University of Maryland. She came to the NLM in 2001.

Patricia E. Gallagher

Patricia Gallagher has been a Librarian in NICHSR (National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology) since 2012. As part of her responsibilities, she works on “Health Service Research Information Center,” a web portal with current information relevant to health economics, policy and access, and on HSRProj, NICHSR’s database of projects in progress. Prior to that, Patricia was Senior User Services Librarian at the New York Academy of Medicine, where she worked for 16 years. She also worked as Associate Director at Beth Israel Medical Center and as Librarian at the Helene Fuld School of Nursing (both in New York City). While at NYAM, she served as a liaison and Librarian Coordinator to the Section on Evidence-based Health Care for their EBHC workshop; as the managing editor for NOAH: New York Online Access to Health (a quality-filtered, bilingual consumer health portal), and was on the project since the planning stages. She has presented and published on topics related to EBM, History of Medicine, and Consumer Health. Patricia has an MLS from Queens College, and an MA from Hunter College, is a Distinguished Member of Academy of Health Information Professionals; and is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and of the Medical Library Association.

Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD, AHIP

Stephen Greenberg received his doctorate in Early Modern History from Fordham University in 1983 with a dissertation on early printing and publishing. After teaching for several years, he returned to school and earned his library degree from Columbia University in 1991, specializing in Rare Books and Archival Management. Since 1992, he has worked in the History of Medicine Division at the U.S. National Library of Medicine where he currently heads the Rare Books and Early Manuscripts Section.  His research and publications span a number of fields, including the history of printing and publishing, the social history of medicine, the history of medical librarianship, and the history of medical photography. In the past few months, his publications have ranged from the historiography of medicine in the 20^th century, the history and future of library card catalogues, the influence of Florence Nightingale on the occasion of her 200^th birthday, and the history of medicine in the “Outlander” books and TV series.

Dr. Greenberg is also an adjunct professor at both the Catholic University of America and the College of Library and Information Studies at the University of Maryland (College Park) where he lectures on the history and curatorship of rare books.

David Hale

David Hale is an Information Technology Specialist at the National Library of Medicine. In addition to leading Data Discovery, David is also project lead for NLM’s Pillbox, a drug identification, reference, and image resource. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physical Science from the University of Maryland.

Jennifer Jentsch, MLS

Jennifer Jentsch, MLS is an information specialist at the National Library of Medicine. Since 2001, she has contributed to a variety of NLM health information products including PubMed, PubMed Central, and MedlinePlus. She currently serves as project manager for MedlinePlus Connect.

Darlene Kaskie, MLS

Darlene Kaskie, MLS, in partnership with diverse organizations in a seven-state region, she advances health information equity with a community-driven focus on behalf of the Network of the National Library of Medicine. She extends funding, programming, and training opportunities for collaboration.

Molly Knapp, MA, AHIP

Molly Knapp, MA, AHIP, is a Training Development Manager for the Network of the National Library of Medicine Training Office (NTO). She has over 19 years of experience in academic health sciences libraries and NNLM. Her current roles include developing and leading national level training projects and initiatives for the NNLM. You may know her from popular NNLM series such as “How PubMed Works: Introduction” and “Bioinformatics and Biology Essentials for Librarians.” A Distinguished Member of the Medical Library Association’s Academy of Health Information Professionals, she has been a librarian since 2002, and joined the NNLM Training Office in 2016.

Jennifer Marill

Jennifer Marill is the Chief, Technical Services Division, responsible for building and organizing the modern collection of biomedical literature and other resources in support of research, health care, and the community of health sciences libraries. She also oversees many of the library systems used to support the selection, acquisitions, cataloging, and preservation of the NLM collection, as well as serves as the NLM Collection Development Officer.

Patrick McLaughlin, MLIS

Patrick McLaughlin holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Clemson University. He was a member of the 2008-2009 NLM Associate Fellowship cohort. For several years, he served as the user services coordinator for RxNorm, DailyMed, and AccessGUDID, as well as working on the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) team. In 2016 Patrick took on the role of Head of Terminology QA and User Services in the Bibliographic Services Division. His team supports many of NLM’s health data standards products and services.

Virginia Meyer, PhD

Dr. Meyer received her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Denver and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. She transitioned to a training role at NIH in 2015 and worked as the Director of Student Services for the Undergraduate Scholarship Program until 2020 when she became the Training Coordinator at the National Library of Medicine. Dr. Meyer now oversees and advises postdoctoral, postbaccalaureate, and student researchers in the NLM Intramural Research Program.

Stephanie M. Morrison, MPH

Stephanie has been the head of MedlinePlus at the National Library of Medicine since 2018. Prior to that, she was the head of Genetics Home Reference, another online resource from NLM. Her primary interests are in consumer health and health literacy.

Stacy Lathrop

Stacy Lathrop is the Bookshelf Program Manager at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. She has over 16 years of publishing experience, from acquisitions to peer review, editorial and production, and online content management. Working with volunteer and staff teams of writers, designers, editors, and developers, she has developed and overseen a variety of publication workflows to make diverse forms of content available to scholarly and public audiences.

Jen Ortiz, MLS

Jen Ortiz is the Consumer Health Coordinator for Region 3 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine which covers Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. Region 3’s office is based in the Gibson D. Lewis Library at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas. A former public librarian in the north Texas area, Jen now works with public libraries and community organizations to improve health literacy and access.

Andrew Plumer

Andrew Plumer is an Outreach Librarian. He began at the Johns Hopkins, Center for Communication Programs (CCP). In 2004, he joined the National Library of Medicine as a Reference Librarian. He worked on MedlinePlus, NLM’s consumer health information website. In 2012, he joined the Division of Scientific Information Services of the NLM where he managed social media and worked on HIV/AIDS and environmental health information. He returned to reference in 2017 and continues to assist library patrons, serve on the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) review panel, and provide training on NLM databases.

Margie Sheppard, MLS

Margie Sheppard, MLS, is the Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator for the Network of the National Library of Medicine - Region 3 based at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She has an undergraduate degree in nursing and works with libraries and community organizations interested in improving the health and wellbeing of their communities by connecting them with NNLM resources.  She is part of the NNLM Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science working group.  She is active in informing members and non-members about Wikipedia as a health and medical resource by taking part in the bi-annual #CiteNLM Edit-a-thons.

Michele Spatz

Michele Spatz is the NNLM All of Us Community Engagement Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest. She has extensive experience providing consumer health information and a passion for health literacy. Michele truly believes, "Because of you, Libraries Transform.®"

Alvin Stockdale, MLIS

Alvin R. Stockdale, MLIS, is a cataloger at the National Library of Medicine, Technical Services Division, Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS). He catalogs both monographs and serials, and works on several metadata projects, including NLM’s Digital Repository and NLM’s Dataset Metadata Modeling Working Group. He is also the chair of NLM’s Holdings and Items Working Group.

Bart Trawick, PhD

Dr. Trawick has worked at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)/National Library of Medicine (NLM) since 2000. He is currently the Director of the Customer Services Division at NCBI. He was in charge of developing and running the NIHMS at its inception in 2005, when the voluntary NIH Public Access Policy was announced. Since that time, over 700,000 author manuscripts have been processed and archived in PubMed Central. He also manages My NCBI, which includes the tools SciENcv and My Bibliography. Researchers can use SciENcv to quickly fill out an NIH biosketch profile and My Bibliography to store their supported citations and associate them with awards for reporting on the RPPR.

Elisabeth (Lis) Unger

Elisabeth (Lis) Unger is Technical Information Specialist for the National Library of Medicine. Her areas of expertise include: DOCLINE, Interlibrary Loan, Resource Sharing, OCLC Relais, Agile development, analytics and reporting. Lis Unger became the DOCLINE Team Lead in August 2015. Ms. Unger has been working at NLM for 12 years, all within Collection Access Section (CAS). Prior to becoming DOCLINE Team Lead, Lis served as the customer service primary, and was involved in all aspects of DOCLINE documentation and development. During that time Lis also supported systems used by CAS, including Relais, and provided technical support and data reporting to the entire unit. Prior to joining NLM, Ms. Unger was the Deputy Project Manager for Document Delivery at the National Agricultural Library. She earned her MLIS from Drexel University in 1997.

Sharon Willis, MLS

Sharon R. Willis, MLS, is the Senior Cataloging Specialist at the National Library of Medicine, Technical Services Division, Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS). She serves as the chair of the NLM Classification Editorial Team, the NLM coordinator for the CIP (Cataloging-In-Publication) program, and the CaMMS liaison to the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) External Review Panel. She is a past chair of the MLA Technical Services Section (2018-19), former chair of the Leiter Committee (2017-18), and a member of the African American Medical Librarians Alliance.