Cheryl Abbot is Regional Economist with the Southwest Information Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). As Chief of the Information Unit, she is responsible for regional data analysis, publication of news releases, and public outreach in the five-state region. Through interactions with the press, researchers, business and labor organizations, and the general public, she promotes a better understanding of BLS data and its potential impact on day-to-day life. Ms. Abbot began her BLS career as a Field Economist working in the Atlanta Regional Office in 1980. She has worked in Dallas since 1981, becoming Regional Economist in 2005. She received her B.S. in Economics from Texas A&M University (College Station) in 1980 and her M.S. in Economics from Texas A&M University (Commerce) in 2000.

Dan has served as Director of the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library at the University of North Texas Health Science Center since September of 2009 and Director of the regional office of the National Library of Medicine (Regional Medical Library, South Central Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine) since May of 2016.  Prior to coming to Fort Worth, Dan held librarian positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater and served as an intelligence analyst for the United States Army.

George Dailey is a demographer and rural sociologist by training and a geospatial cheerleader, matchmaker, and evangelist by trade. Geography, maps, and spatial analysis have been foundations of his life since childhood.

Since late 1993, Dailey has been a member of Esri's education program team. Esri is the world leader in GIS and mapping technology and solutions. The company’s commitment to the use of GIS in education is long-standing with its education team and program formally launched in 1992. Dailey and his colleagues work to bring GIS and geographical thinking into K–16 education and areas of public access and informal education to bolster such things as critical thinking, spatial literacy, workforce development, and the planning, operation, and sustainment of educational institutions.

Maristella Feustle is the Music Special Collections Librarian at the University of North Texas, the current chair of the Music Library Association Preservation Committee, and the editor of the Music Library Association’s Index and Bibliography Series. Her research interests include digital humanities, geographic information systems, and jazz history (sometimes all at once). She lives in Denton, Texas, and is active as a jazz guitarist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Shari Laster is the Government Information Librarian and Data Services Librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently serves as Assistant Chair/Chair-Elect for the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, and is a past chair of the Depository Library Council, the advisory body for the Federal Depository Library Program.

Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. She also holds appointments in the Departments of African American Studies, Gender Studies, and Education. Her research on the design and use of applications on the Internet is at the intersection of race, gender, culture, and technology.

Susana Privett is the Data Dissemination Specialist for the U. S. Census Bureau covering Texas and Oklahoma.

As the Data Dissemination Specialist, Susana gives presentations and conducts workshops about Census Bureau data, various surveys and census.gov. She works closely with organizations, local governments, businesses, Federal and State agencies to provide a clear understanding of the Census Bureau and the data they collect.

Most of Susana’s professional experience has been in customer service and she has enjoyed her employment with the Census Bureau for over twelve years. She lives near Dallas and in her downtime works on her family history and creating a blog on her experiences.

Bernard F. Reilly is president of the Center for Research Libraries, an international consortium of university, college and independent research libraries, based in Chicago. CRL is the largest and most enduring collection development cooperative, with holdings of over 5 million volumes and growing digital resources covering all world regions.

Nick is a NASA data scientist and evangelist with a passion for human spaceflight. He currently serves within the Technology and Innovation Division of the Office of the Chief Information Officer at NASA Headquarters. Nick has leadership experience in EVA crew training, flight operations integration and hardware development, as well as research in biomechanics and human physiology in microgravity.

Michael Rondelli joined the University of North Texas in December, 2015 as the Associate Vice President of Innovation and Commercialization. In this role, he is responsible for managing the technology transfer function within UNT as well as other projects related to intellectual property negotiations, development of new research clusters, and developing entrepreneurial activities on campus. Prior to UNT, Michael with the Director of Licensing for the University of Southern California’s Stevens Center for Innovation where he was able to turn around the licensing function which was under-performing license goals for many years prior to his term. Prior to that, Michael built San Diego State University’s Technology Transfer Office into one of the most efficient university licensing operations.

As the Director of the Texas Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Hope Shimabuku carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Texas regional office. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Shimabuku ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

David Walls is responsible for developing strategic initiatives for the preservation and life-cycle management of both tangible and digital Federal government information for the Library Services and Content Management Program at the United States Government Publishing Office.

Kathy joined Rice University's Fondren Library in 2015 as Head of the Kelley Center for Government Information, Data and Geospatial Services.  The Kelley Center is a select federal government publications depository with the USGPO's FDLP and a member of the USPTO Patent and Trademark Resource Center and a member of the LOCKSS-USDOCS program.  Kathy serves on Rice University's Research Data Management Team which provides training and support for data management plans, data storage, organization and preservation.  She co-chaired a data rescue event held at Rice University on March 4 which had seventy attendees from around the Houston region.  Kathy is co-editor of the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, and co-chair (co-founder) of the GeoHumanities Spe