June 9, 2011

2011 Nominating Committee Report

The DCHE 2011 Nominating Committee (Teri Vogel, Bob Buchanan, Val Tucci) has identified these candidates for the open positions in the SLA Chemistry Division:

For Chair-Elect in 2012 (a three-year term, including Chair in 2013 and Past Chair in 2014)

  • Susan Makar from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD USA
For Secretary, 2012-2013 (a two-year term):
  • Lee Pedersen from Brown University, Providence, RI USA


Susan Makar is a librarian and chemical information specialist in the Information Services Office (ISO) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Previously, she worked as the science reference librarian at Georgetown University where she gained extensive experience assisting chemistry department faculty and graduate students. Susan received her MLS from the University of Iowa and a B.A. from Luther College.

In her current position at NIST, Susan is ISO’s web manager and a member of the lab liaison team. Her professional interests and expertise include citation and impact analysis, sci-tech publishing, web content management, chemical information resources, and digital repositories.

Susan’s professional memberships include DCHE, DST, DBIO, and the DC and MD Chapters within SLA. She is also a member of the ACS Division of Chemical Information and the Society for Scholarly Publishing. As an SLA Chemistry Division member, she was a co-program planner on the 2009 conference planning committee. Susan has presented at SLA and ACS national meetings. She was an invited speaker at the SLA MD Chapter’s Xtreme Reference conference in October 2010.


Lee A. Pedersen is currently serving as the Secretary for DCHE. Her term of office ends in 2011. She became a librarian in 2003 with an MLIS from Dominican University. Before then, she was a seasoned professional chemist with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and years of experience doing research in industry and later serving in chemistry faculty positions. Her first job as an academic librarian has been at Brown University. She started at the end of 2004. She is currently the subject librarian for the physical sciences, developing the collections, doing reference research, conducting instruction, and creating outreach opportunities. As a research chemist, she published in journals, presented at national and international meetings, and been granted two patents and a WO international patent application. She also was elected as the secretary and later the alternate councilor for the Pittsburgh section of the American Chemical Society. As a librarian, her research is currently in instruction and outreach. She has presented at SLA and ASEE national meetings. Her other professional memberships in SLA are PAM, DST, and the RI Chapter. She is also a member of the Engineering Libraries Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.

A notice was sent to the Chemistry Division discussion list on May 27 to solicit other potential nominees for these positions.

Respectfully submitted,
Teri M. Vogel
2011 Nominating Chair and Past-Chair - SLA Chemistry Division