Mark A. Puente, Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), will visit the University of Tennessee Libraries to discuss ARL’s diversity recruitment programs. The university community and library professionals are invited to his talk on Tuesday, February 5, at 2:30 pm in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium (1015 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN).

Puente directs ARL’s Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP) and Research Library Leadership Fellows program (RLLF). The LCDP is an 18-month program to prepare mid-career librarians from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups to take on increasingly demanding leadership roles in ARL libraries. Applications to LCDP have doubled in the four years that Puente has led the program.

Puente has presented at regional and national conferences on topics such as networking, minority recruitment strategies, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and residency programs in academic libraries.

Puente has been actively involved with diversity and leadership issues since the beginning of his library career. He was a 2003 ALA Spectrum Scholar and has been actively involved in the coordination of and programming for the Spectrum Scholar Leadership Institute since his scholarship year. He is also a graduate of the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians and the Knowledge River Program at the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona. The Arizona program seeks to recruit Latinos/Hispanics and Native Americans into the field of librarianship.

He also participated in the UT Libraries’ own diversity recruitment and career development program. He was a member of the 2005-2007 class of Diversity Librarian Residents. Members of the UT community may remember Puente from the Music Library. In addition to his master’s in information and library science, Puente holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice performance.

For further information, contact Megan Smith at msmith93@utk.edu or 865-974-6903.