Sarah Amazing, Branding Specialist

Sarah Amazing is the teen services supervisor at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library and creator of zen-teen.com. She loves graphic design and creates all her own marketing, including the Teen Think Tank logo.  When she’s not at the library wrangling the teens of Warren, Ohio, she’s playing with her pup or watching Let’s Plays with her husband.

​Sarah can be reached at amazing@wtcpl.org

amy burkard

Amy Burkard is currently the Teen Programming Lead Librarian at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. Amy runs her library’s Teen Advisory Board, facilitates a teen led beginners D&D program, provides STEAM programming for tweens and teens, conducts several YA books clubs that serves different community groups, and more. Amy views her position as an advocate for teens in her library, and wants to empower teens through her programming. Amy will read anything YA; even though she works at a library, she buys too many books and adds infinitely more books to her ‘To Be Read’ pile than she would like to admit. Amy will give any book a chance, and she is always looking for recommendations to find the next favorite book. If not found with a book, Amy loves to spend time with her family and friends.

​Amy can be reached at aburkard@libraryvisit.org

christina getrost

Christina has worked as teen librarian/adult reference librarian at the Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library in Stow, Ohio since the year 2000, a fact that often boggles her mind. Christina's other current professional commitments include serving on the advisory board of the Virginia Hamilton Conference for Multicultural Literature for Youth, and the planning committee for the Six District Educational Compact Reading and Writing Festival, and she is currently the Vice President of the Buckeye Children’s and Teen Book Awards Council. When not reading a book or watching tv or movies, she can often be found behind a camera or on a hiking trail.

Christina can be reached at cgetrost@smfpl.org

Valerie Laukhuf, Registration Coordinator

Valerie Laukhuf currently works at the Putnam County District Library as the Youth Services Supervisor. Over the last 17 years Valerie has done storytime, school visits, teen advisory, and collection development for all 8 library locations, etc., etc., etc.. She has LITERALLY done it all. In her free time, Valerie spends countless hours protecting her home from the destruction of 2 teenage boys. She also enjoys long walks, historical romances, and feeding her shopping addiction. You can usually find her at a local shopping mall or clipping coupons.

Valerie can be reached at vlaukhuf@seolibraries.org

Steve Moser, Founder, Web & Design  Coordinator

Steve Moser is the Teen Services Librarian at the Trotwood Branch of the Dayton Metro Library.  Before moving to Dayton, he was the teen librarian at Lima Public Library for 11 years where he oversaw the creation of a Teen Advisory Group and a Teen Spot Lounge.  In his current position, he ensures teen services are adequately represented, that teens are given their voice, and that teens receive the programs and services they both want and need. In his free time, Steve loves listening to audiobooks, collecting pop culture decorations, crafting, and taking his dogs Lucy and Puppy, for walks.  He has an unhealthy obsession with The Big Bang Theory TV show.

Steve can be reached at smoser@daytonmetrolibrary.org

Rachel Rausch, Social Media Coordinator

 Rachel Rausch works at the Delaware County District Library Orange branch as a Youth Services Librarian, where she does everything from storytime to teen programming to collection development.  She loves any library program that allows her to dress up and enjoys working with all ages, with a special place in her heart for tweens.  In her spare time she is an all around Star Wars fangirl, as you can see in the photo of her with her Prince Charming.  She reads across all age groups and genres, but lately has been into ghost stories, feminist retellings of Greek mythology, and Russian folklore featuring Baba Yaga.  

Rachel can be reached at rrausch@delawarelibrary.org

Mary Beth Rogers, pre-con coordinator

Mary Beth Rogers currently runs teen programming at the New Lebanon branch of the Dayton Metro Library. The teens there call her their Library Mom because she tells them that they have to play nice with each other. They also never leave the teen area with fewer than four books. In her free time, Mary Beth loves to read, write, and craft.. In November you will find her furiously attempting NaNoWriMo.

Mary Beth can be reached at mrogers@daytonmetrolibrary.org

Caitlin Wichterman, craft coordinator

Caitlin is the Head of Youth Services of the Fairborn Community Library, a location of the Greene County Public Library System. Along with managing the department, she runs a Preschool Story Time, a Rainbow Cafe (LGBTQ hangout), and a high school book club. When not at the library, you might find her dangling from the ceiling on aerial silks as part of an Aerial Troope with Femme Fatale Fitness; walking pups at SICSA Pet Adoption Center; or curled up on the couch reading or watching horror movies.

Caitlin can be reached at cwichterman@gcpl.lib.oh.us.

Erin Gillespie, founder & Past Planner

Erin Gillespie worked at the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library as the teen librarian.  Erin's colleagues lovingly have nicknamed her "The Idea Queen" because Erin is their go-to person when they need help developing an idea.  She excels at helping others overcome their creativity failures. She also is the Teen Think Tank agenda writing master! In her free time, Erin loves to spend time with her family and watch Downton Abbey.

Bryan Overholt, Past planner

Bryan Overholt is the Teen Librarian at Bexley Public Library. He has several nicknames, but the one that stuck was broverholt, a combination of his last name and the fact that he's a bro to everyone he meets! In his free time, he plays in a pop-punk band called "We Are the Movies", works part-time for the Columbus Blue Jackets on the cannon crew, plays beer league hockey, watches the Jackets and Red Wings as a die-hard fan, and somehow still has time to hang out with his wife and pets, mostly on the couch watching TV and movies. 

Jason Sharp, past blogger

Jason Sharp was a Youth Services Librarian at Worthington Public Libraries that got to work with all ages, but specialized in teen services. He’s passionate about introducing teens to the hottest new technologies and spends a little too much time outside of work keeping up with pop culture. When he’s not reading to his daughter or playing the latest video games, he can be found scouring the web for the newest teen-friendly websites that encourage content creation rather than content consumption.

Rikki Unterbrink, Founder & Past planner

Rikki is the Youth Services Director at Shelby County Libraries. She bravely leads a team of five brilliant youth services librarians into the creative depths of deep library space. She enjoys wearing costumes even if there is barely an occasion to wear one. Rikki’s patronus is a chow chow dog – super fierce, but equally snuggly. Like her personality & nickname, Rikki likes to be ‘all over the place.’ She frequently travels the world with her handsome, nerdy husband leaving behind four adorable literary cats. 

Kristin Wilson, past program coordinator

Kristin Wilson is a Branch Manager at the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library. She has spent much of her career bouncing between storytime and talking to teens about "life choices".  Teens often come to Kristin to have "real talks" about their love life, home life, and mental health. She can often be found giving talks about the gritty side of teen services

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