2019 News
Congratulations to Trent and Amanda (Arzigian ’12) Dietz. Daniel “Danny” Simon Dietz was born at 8:22 p.m. on June 17, 2018.
Darren Wilson became the Director of the Maker Lab, and Nil Santana (M.S. ’00) was appointed the Associate Director of Design in the Maker Lab.
Melinda (Stucker ’93) Isbell was appointed to ACU Library Faculty as Assistant Professor and the title of Research and Instruction Services Librarian.
Congratulations to Alyssa Terrill (’18) for joining the library team as the new Library Acquisitions and Periodicals Coordinator. She is a May graduate with a B.S. in Psychology and plans to obtain a Library Science degree in the future.
Congratulations to Amos Gutierrez (’19), who joined the library team as the new learning technologist in the Innovation Foundry. Amos will serve as ACU’s Adobe Ambassador, leading outreach to campus for utilization of Adobe’s creative tools.
Congratulations to administrative coordinator Penny Ruot, who celebrates 10 years on our staff.
Congratulations to our budget assistant, Jan Bower, who retired after 15 years of service to Brown Library.
We are excited to introduce our new budget assistant, Wei Ji.
We are pleased to welcome Sam Britten as the new Evening Circulation Desk Manager, working 10pm-2am Sunday through Thursday evenings.
Dr. Melissa (Johnson ’94) Atkinson will participate in a commencement ceremony at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia on May 11. Dr. Atkinson earned a Ph.D. from Regent’s School of Education with a concentration in Distance Education. Dr. Atkinson is currently ACU Library’s Online Learning Librarian, and has been a librarian at ACU for 19 years.
Congratulations to Holly Dameron (’18) for joining the library team as the new Library Acquisitions and Collections Coordinator. She has been serving as an adjunct instructor for ACU’s Language and Literature department and earned her M.A. in English from ACU in 2018. She has also served as an office assistant with ACU’s McNair Scholars program.
2020 News
Congratulations to Deanna Tuttle (’16), who joined the library team as the new Training and Support Manager in the Learning Studio. Deanna is a 2016 graduate from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and has been working at ACU since July 2016.
Congratulations to Duane Anderson, Director of Sales and Operations, ACU Press, who celebrates 10 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Dr. Marisa Beard, Director of Educational Technology, Innovation Foundry, who celebrates 5 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Dr. Carisse Berryhill, Special Collections Librarian, Special Collections, who celebrates 15 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Stefan Bushey (’14), Circulation Supervisor, Information Services. who celebrates 5 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Erica Pye, Scholarly Communications and Outreach Specialist, Scholars Lab, who celebrates 5 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Erica Pye, Scholarly Communications and Outreach Specialist, Scholars Lab, who obtained a graduate degree this past Dec. in library science online through Texas Woman’s University.
Dr. Kyle Dickson (’92), Director of the Learning Studio – 20 years
Jason Fikes (’92, ’96), Director of ACU Press, who celebrates 5 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Amanda (Arzigian ’12) Dietz, CA, for successfully completing recertification through the Academy of Certified Archivists.
Congratulations to Stefan Bushey (’14), Library Circulation Supervisor, for completing the online Master of Arts in conflict management and resolution program through ACU.
Congratulations to James Wiser, ACU Dean of Library Services & Educational Technology, for being named to the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) Board of Directors to represent Texas. SCELC is a library consortium of private university academic libraries in California and Texas that develops resource-sharing among libraries, and is one of the top five consortia in licensing volume in North America. ACU was the first Texas university to join SCELC, and fellow Texas members of SCELC include SMU, TCU, Trinity University, Austin College, and several other private universities.
Congratulations to José Garcia (’19) for joining the library team as the new Library Circulation Supervisor. José was previously a student employee in the Library from 2016-2019, and served as our evening and weekend closing student during that time.
2021 News
Chai Green (’10), Library Digital Design Specialist, transitioned to ACU’s Online Bachelor of Science in Digital Media Program as their new director. While we are very sad that Chai left the Library to be the full-time director of the program, we are excited that he is taking on this new responsibility for ACU and will continue to collaborate closely with us in his new role.
Congratulations to Micah Heatwole for joining the library team as the director of ACU’s Maker Lab. Micah comes to us from Lubbock Christian University where he served as an Assistant Professor of English. In addition to his experience teaching college students, he has relevant technical experience, having worked in home remodeling, photography, and videography since 2000.
James Wiser, Dean of Educational Technology and Library Services, announced Distance & Online Library Services as a new library department. Dr. Melissa (Johnson) Atkinson (’94) will serve as its director and Avery Weems (’13) will serve the role of Distance & Online Services Librarian.
Erica Pye, the Scholarly Communications and Outreach Librarian, will transition to new areas of library service in 2021, including the lead administrator for ACU’s institutional repository, Digital Commons, and managing the Alternative Textbook Initiative.
Congratulations to Laura Baker (’87), Librarian for User Experience and Assessment, who celebrates 25 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Shan (Pamplin ’86) Martinez, Director of Technical Services, who celebrates 15 years on our staff.
Congratulations to Al Estrada, Warehouse Manager, ACU Press. who celebrates 10 years on our staff.
Dr. Carisse Berryhill was appointed Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Initiatives. Congratulations Carisse!
Melinda (Stucker ’93) Isbell transitioned from Research and Instruction Services Librarian to Director of Public and Reference Services. Congratulations Melinda!
Dr. Mark McCallon, Associate Dean for Library Information Services, participated in a panel discussion on the ACU Library’s Shared Print Project on the Southern California Electronic Library Consortium’s weekly Channel One broadcast on April 30th. Congratulations Mark!
Dr. Melissa (Johnson ’94) Atkinson, director of distance and online services, was an invited panelist at the Christian Scholars’ Conference at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. The panel discussion, titled “What We’ve Learned: Recovering Hope for Christian Universities,” was led by Dr. Mindi Thompson (ACU) and included panelists from ACU, Harding University, and Liberty University.
Laura Baker (’87), librarian for user experience and assessment, was featured in Dttp: Documents to the People, which is the official journal of the Government Documents division of the American Library Association. It has a column called “Get to Know…” that profiles notable librarians who work with government publications.
Amanda (Arzigian ’12) Dietz, archivist, and Mac Ice, director of archives and special collections, attended the Society of American Archivists virtual conference, Archives*Records 2021: Together/Apart in early August. Highlights include sessions on research in archives and case studies on the increase of digital and distance initiatives over the last few years that will serve archives well into the future.
In June Mac Ice presented a paper at Christian Scholars Conference. Drawing from our extensive collection of hymnals in the Taylor Hymnal Collection, Mac surveyed the impact of John Moody’s McCaleb’s gospel song ‘The Gospel Is for All.’ The song became a missionary anthem for Churches of Christ in the 20th century in large measure because of its inclusion in Great Songs of the Church, which was published one hundred years ago, and was unveiled on Restoration Day as a new Special Collections exhibit celebrating the centennial of Great Songs of the Church.
Shannon Odom joined ACU Press as their customer relations and office administrator. Shannon has served roles at ACU as a textbook manager for the Campus Store and administrative coordinator for the Biology department.