I want to see makerspaces and library programming grow

My passion lies in being at the heart of community engagement, which is how I’ve found myself in libraries. I’d love to help you unlock your library's potential with tailored classes and workshops for staff and patrons. In a digital world, continual education is crucial, and investing in these types of programs strengthens our community ties and fosters collaboration as well as life long learning.

Please fill out the form below to contact me about hosting a class, workshop, or other resources that might be useful to you and your team. Examples and samples are below.

Two people holding an award certificate.

ILA Crosman Memorial Award 2024

Freedom Quilt

Freedom Quilt

Hands arranging floral quilt pieces used in the Palatine Library Freedom Quilt

Books, Batting, and Beyond: Engaging the Community with a Freedom Quilt

I'm always looking for ways to inspire and empower others to explore new skills in our makerspace. Celebrating Black History Month allowed me to deepen our community connection through the Freedom Quilt project. In this session, I'll share how the quilt helped me bring together creativity, community, and skill-building. I'll also show you how to apply this collaborative process to your own community quilt or library projects, and offer new ways to engage and inspire others.

Maximizing Makerspaces: Empowering Makers and Upcycling Materials 

Makerspaces often juggle identifying community interest, demystifying equipment, and empowering users to take on new skills. This session outlines how we upcycled our unpopular materials, incentivized our community to dive into new equipment, and created instructional binders for everyday use with the start of our passport activity program. 

Five project binders labeled for Cricut, Sewing, Sublimation, 3D Printer, and Laser Cutter, on a wooden table.
Hand sewn green and red felt dinosaur with a button eye

Feltosaur Handsewing Kit

I can come in person or pass along a downloadable kit to use for leading a handsewing class creating cute feltosaurs or other seasonal toys.

Picture of a canon camera to promote professional headshots in the chicagoland area

Professional Headshots

I’m happy to come out to take portraits of your patrons for their professional profiles or family portraits.

Photo showing a group meeting that supports library program and development in chicagoland area

Professional Development

I’m happy to come talk about how to design, teach, and sustain engaging makerspace programs. I want to share practical tools for selecting activities, supporting staff, and building creative spaces that reflect and grow with your community.

Check out my latest article in the ILA REPORTER (March 2025 Issue)

I had the pleasure of working with an amazing team not only on our presentation for Reaching Forward 2024, but also with an ILA Reporter Article that is now available to view all about the community impact of makerspaces.

Read Here