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Evidence-Based Practice for Health Sciences Librarians: An Introductory Workshop

Workshop Instructors

Tutors

Amy Blevins, MALS
Associate Director for Public Services
Ruth Lilly Medical Library
Indiana University School of Medicine

Amy is responsible for overseeing her library's research, liaison, education, and data services. She has devoted her career over the last 17+ years to online instruction, instructional design, and evidence-based medicine (EBM). Since 2017, Amy has served as the Thread Leader for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) for IUSM. In this role, she works with a team of EBM enthusiasts to develop learning objectives and longitudinal curriculum-based integration of EBM into the existing undergraduate medical student curriculum. She is a statewide course director for two-year-long courses for health systems science and EBM for first and second-year medical students. In 2019, Amy began working as a founding instructor/curriculum developer for the newly created Critical Appraisal Institute for Librarians. In addition to participating in evidence-based practice workshops, she has worked on over 14 published systematic reviews and co-edited the book, Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment, in 2014.

Sarah Cantrell, MLIS
Associate Director for Research & Education
Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives

Sarah is the Associate Director for Research & Education at the Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives, liaison to the Graduate Medical Education programs at Duke Health, and co-director for Duke’s national Evidence-Based Practice workshop for clinicians and librarians. She is also adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, where she co-teaches the “Evidence-Based Practice and the Medical Librarian” online course with Megan von Isenburg, MSLS. Sarah teaches courses on evidence-based practice across the health sciences curricula and graduate medical education at Duke. Along with von Isenburg and librarians at UNC, Sarah is a creator of the Evidence-Based Practice online tutorial series, an open educational resource of modular asynchronous tutorials. She has co-authored over 15 systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses. Prior to her position at Duke, Sarah established the clinical librarian service at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, co-directed the EBM curriculum for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and joined teaching rounds with Medicine and the Intensive Care Unit.

Rebecca Graves, MLS, AHIP
Educational Services Librarian
J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library
University of Missouri

Rebecca is responsible for coordinating instruction for students in the School of Nursing, the School of Medicine, and the College of Health Professions.  She was introduced to Evidence-Based Practice in the 1990s when it was still controversial.  She teaches evidence-based practice and searching to students and residents, frequently consulting with them one-on-one.  In addition to teaching, Rebecca also puts her own skills into practice by working with faculty on clinical questions, literature reviews, and systematic reviews. She is an active member of MCMLA and MLA.

Sami Kaplan, PhD, MLIS
Research and Education Liaison Librarian
Medical Center Library and Archives
Duke University

Sami Kaplan is the Research and Education Liaison Librarian for the Duke School of Medicine. She offers research services to School of Medicine teaching faculty, staff, and students. She works to enable and promote evidence-based practice at Duke Health. 

Juliana Magro, MLIS, MA
Assistant Curator
Medical Library at NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York University

Juliana Magro is the education and research librarian at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. In this role, she designs and teaches evidence-based medicine classes in the undergraduate medical education curriculum, in addition to providing education and research support to students, faculty, and staff. Juliana holds an MLS from Queens College (City University of New York) and an MA in linguistics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Joey Nicholson, MLIS, MPH
Chair and Director
NYU Langone Health's Health Sciences Library

Joey Nicholson is the Department Chair and Director of NYU Langone Health's Health Sciences Library, working with students, staff, and faculty in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and across NYU Langone Health. He has been teaching EBM as part of undergraduate medical education for over 15 years. Beyond teaching EBM, he is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Professions Education with a focus on the assessment of competency in EBM for medical students.

Rachel Pinotti, MLIS
Information Services Consultant
Self-Employed

Rachel Pinotti is the owner and operator of Pinotti Information Services, a consulting firm that provides expertise and services in the fields of evidence-based practice (EBP), research synthesis methodology, and software business analysis. Previously, Rachel worked at the Levy Library at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she served as the co-director of the longitudinal EBP curriculum for medical students and taught courses in systematic review methodology, scholarly publishing, and critical appraisal. Rachel believes that EBP enhances both patient outcomes and the patient experience and she enjoys serving as an EBP educator.

Elizabeth Stellrecht, MLS
Head, Health Sciences Library Services
University at Buffalo

Elizabeth Stellrecht, MLS, is a full librarian at the University at Buffalo where she serves as the Head of Health Sciences Library Services and Liasion to the School of Dental Medicine. Liz played a pivotal role in integrating evidence-based principles (EBP) into the curriculum, promoting the development of critical appraisal skills and informed clinical decision-making among students. Her research interests include exploring the evolving role of information professionals in supporting EBP. She is also a frequent collaborator on evidence syntheses.

Rachel Whitney, MLIS
Research and Education Informationist
MUSC Libraries
Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Rachel Whitney joined MUSC Libraries as a Research and Education Informationist in October 2020. She is the liaison to the College of Pharmacy and the College of Heath Professions Speech-Language Pathology program. In this role, Rachel provides reference assistance, research consultations, instruction, and outreach. Her areas of interest are evidence-based librarianship, epidemiology, health information literacy, and data management and visualization. Rachel contributes to professional knowledge by publishing and presenting at local, regional, and national conferences. 

Jamia Williams, MLS
Consumer Health Program Specialist
NNLM Training Office

Jamia Williams(she/her) is the Consumer Health Program Specialist with the Network of the National Library of Medicine(NNLM) Training Office. She earned her Bachelor of Science in History from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Brockport and earned her Master of Library Science from North Carolina Central University. Williams is the co-creator and co-host of the podcast LibVoices, which amplifies the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who work in archives and libraries. Jamia founded The Diversity Fellow’s blog, a platform to document her journey as a Black librarian. Her research interests are diversity, inclusion, equity, social justice, and health equity in and outside librarianship.

Teaching Fellows

Elisa Cortez, MILS
Medical Education and Clinical Outreach Librarian
UC Riverside Library
University of California, Riverside

Elisa's main responsibility is to support, develop and implement instructional, outreach and liaison services that support the needs of the faculty, students, staff and affiliated faculty and clinicians of the School of Medicine.

Don Jason, MLIS, MS
Clinical Informationist
Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library
University of Cincinnati

Mr. Jason utilizes his strong background in informatics to deliver services and resources to the UC Academic Health Center. Mr. Jason’s unique role, allows him to develop resources and services that focus on informatics, patient care and clinical research. Immediately preceding his appointment at UC, Mr. Jason completed the National Library of Medicine’s Associate Fellowship Program. This early career success was made possible by a strong academic foundation. 

Amy Blevins, MALS
Associate Director for Public Services
Ruth Lilly Medical Library
Indiana University School of Medicine

Amy is responsible for overseeing her library's research, liaison, education, and data services. She has devoted her career over the last 17+ years to online instruction, instructional design, and evidence-based medicine (EBM). Since 2017, Amy has served as the Thread Leader for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) for IUSM. In this role, she works with a team of EBM enthusiasts to develop learning objectives and longitudinal curriculum-based integration of EBM into the existing undergraduate medical student curriculum. She is a statewide course director for two-year-long courses for health systems science and EBM for first and second-year medical students. In 2019, Amy began working as a founding instructor/curriculum developer for the newly created Critical Appraisal Institute for Librarians. In addition to participating in evidence-based practice workshops, she has worked on over 14 published systematic reviews and co-edited the book, Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment, in 2014.

Emily Brennan, MLIS
Evidence Synthesis Informationist
Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Libraries

Emily is an Evidence Synthesis Informationist at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Libraries. Emily is actively involved in teaching EBP to residents and clinicians, As a member of the hospital’s Value Institute, she provides literature for hospital guidelines, evidence briefs, and clinical decision support tools. 

Sarah Cantrell, MLIS
Associate Director for Research & Education
Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives

Sarah is the Associate Director for Research & Education at the Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives, liaison to the Graduate Medical Education programs at Duke Health, and co-director for Duke’s national Evidence-Based Practice workshop for clinicians and librarians. She is also adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, where she co-teaches the “Evidence-Based Practice and the Medical Librarian” online course with Megan von Isenburg, MSLS. Sarah teaches courses on evidence-based practice across the health sciences curricula and graduate medical education at Duke. Along with von Isenburg and librarians at UNC, Sarah is a creator of the Evidence-Based Practice online tutorial series, an open educational resource of modular asynchronous tutorials. She has co-authored over 15 systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses. Prior to her position at Duke, Sarah established the clinical librarian service at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, co-directed the EBM curriculum for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and joined teaching rounds with Medicine and the Intensive Care Unit.

Joey Nicholson, MLIS, MPH
Chair and Director
NYU Langone Health's Health Sciences Library

Joey Nicholson is the Department Chair and Director of NYU Langone Health's Health Sciences Library, working with students, staff, and faculty in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and across NYU Langone Health. He has been teaching EBM as part of undergraduate medical education for over 15 years. Beyond teaching EBM, he is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Professions Education with a focus on the assessment of competency in EBM for medical students.