Member Outreach Team

Portrait Image of Lisa Larson Lisa Larson, Senior Director, Outreach & Engagement

Lisa Larson is the Senior Director of Outreach & Engagement and has worked with the library community for over 25 years. Lisa is dedicated and driven by her work with libraries, archives, and museums and how Lyrasis programs and services might bring them closer, through open technologies, services, and community engagement. The Outreach and Engagement teams are not only responsible for introducing the diverse array of services and programs to cultural heritage institutions, but also for bringing back critical news and feedback into Lyrasis, so that Lyrasis is a responsive and adaptive organization, focused on the now and the future. Lisa drives the Membership program, which is that the heart of every program or service we develop, adopt or partner around. The Outreach and Engagement teams under Lisa’s guidance stretch across the globe. It is through this local and regional engagement strategy that Lyrasis able to operate as a global organization, yet scale to engage locally and recognize regional opportunities and issues. Lisa’s particular passion is ensuring that smaller or less-resourced cultural heritage institutions have access to the same opportunities that come more readily to larger or better endowed institutions. Lisa graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in Communications.

Portrait Image of Kathryn Edwards Kathryn Edwards, Member Outreach Representative, Mid-Atlantic & Great Lakes

Kathryn graduated from UNC Greensboro with a BS in Textiles and Merchandising. She worked in the retail industry for the first half of her career in sales, sales management, and buying. She moved into outside sales and has worked in various industries, including digital and print media, pharmaceuticals, and nonprofit business development. She spent the past eight years working at SAGE Publishing and worked on all four sales teams, which included Commercial Sales, Institutional Sales, Library Sales, and College Sales.

Portrait Image of Vanessa Gamet Vanessa Gamet, Outreach, West

Vanessa Gamet is the Outreach Representative for members in the Western United States. Vanessa has over 15 years of experience working in and with libraries. Before joining Lyrasis, she spent 5 years at King’s College London as the law librarian where she secured funding for and collaborated on legal research OERs for the law school and previously she was the collection development librarian at BPP University. She has also worked in small startups like EBL (Ebook Library), large companies such as ProQuest, as well as midsized ones like Kanopy. In these positions, she always worked consultatively with librarians to make sure they obtain the best value from these companies.Originally from Seattle, Vanessa received her BA from the Evergreen State College, studied abroad at the University of Oxford and received her MLIS from the University of London (City University). She enjoys reading, hiking the pacific crest trail, and brewing her own kombucha.

Portrait Image of Teddy Gray Teddy Gray, Regional Outreach and Engagement Manager - MLIS

Teddy Gray, who serves Lyrasis members in the South, brings over 20 years experience of working in libraries. Before joining Lyrasis, he spent 14 years at Duke University in a variety of positions, including science liaison, branch manager, collection development librarian, and head of the acquisitions department. This unique blend of experience gives him a deep understanding of the challenges libraries face on both the public and technical services side. His strong understanding of the resource lifecycle, including budgeting, selection, licensing, and access, allows him to effectively help members in their eResource acquisitions. He is especially committed to ensuring that Lyrasis members get the most value out of their membership. A native of Louisiana, Teddy received a BS in Geography from Louisiana State University and an MS in Geography and MLIS from the University of Tennessee.

Portrait Image of Michele Mennielli Michele Mennielli, International Outreach Representative

Michele is the International Outreach Representative at Lyrasis. His primary responsibility is to broaden and extend the organizational reach and strengthen global partnerships in support of the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage and academic resources globally. He’s currently a Member of the OpenAIRE Advisory Board and served as Board Member, Executive for External Relations at euroCRIS (the International Organization for Research Information), Chair of the ORCID in Repository Task Force and Secretary and Board Member of EUNIS (European Organization of University Information Systems). He’s been a member of Program and Organizing Committees for several international events in the field of Higher Education Technology, Research and Repository such as EDUCAUSE, Open Repository Conference, euroCRIS Conferences, etc. Before joining Lyrasis (former DuraSpace), Michele had experience in private and public organizations supporting universities, research and cultural institutes in managing and realizing digital projects.

Portrait Image of Kait Neese Kait Neese, Outreach, South

Kait Neese serves as the Member Outreach Representative for the South region at Lyrasis (FL, AL, GA, MS, LA, AR, TN, NC, SC, PR, VI), where she works directly with member institutions. With over 15 years of experience in academic and digital publishing, Kait brings a strong background in strategic partnerships, consortia relations, and open access initiatives. Prior to joining Lyrasis, Kait has held roles at Springer Nature and Taylor & Francis. She has been a featured speaker at international publishing conferences and previously served on the Advisory Board for the OA Switchboard and as a Library Board Trustee member for Martin County, Florida. She holds an MBA from Florida Atlantic University with a focus in information systems and marketing strategy. Kait is passionate about building sustainable models that increase access to knowledge and strengthen the work of libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations across the South.

Laura Sinhur, Outreach, Northeast

Laura (she/her/hers) serves as the Outreach Representative to the Northeast region (CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, and VT). Laura has extensive archival background, having worked in corporate archiving and museum curation for eight years. She has led and participated in a multi-million-dollar digitization program, supervised archival repository migrations, and obtained customization skills in Vancouver, BC for proprietary software. Laura is also an active participant in the Alliance for Response (AFR) group, a national volunteer group that trains cultural heritage workers on the foundations of disaster prevention, preparedness, and recovery. Having been Chair of the Northwest Pennsylvania region for five years, Laura received FEMA Incident Command Certification in 2018 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Cultural Response Team. She has extensive knowledge in digital preservation of at-risk cultural heritage, particularly in areas of conflict. Laura has her MA in Museum Studies and Digital Curation from Johns Hopkins University, and her research is published through Johns Hopkins as well as the Society of American Archivists.