EBCE Team

Portrait Image of Michael Atwood Michael Atwood, Senior Director, Ebooks and Community Engagement

Michael Atwood is the Senior Director of the Ebooks and Community Engagement division. Prior to being acquired by Lyrasis in 2021, he was the Chief Technology Officer and equity partner at BiblioLabs where he played a critical role in the creation of the BiblioBoard platform, which provides tools connecting libraries with their local communities. With roles both as a leader and individual contributor, Michael has developed software solutions to solve complex problems for over 20 years. He has worked closely with authors, publishers and libraries for the last decade providing technical and strategic solutions to help them stand out in our increasingly competitive digital world. Michael holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science and B.S. in Computer Information Systems from the College of Charleston. He is also a member of the College of Charleston Computer Science Industry Advisory Board.

Portrait Image of Tara Carpenter Tara Carpenter, Implementation Leader

Tara Carpenter is an Implementation Coordinator for the Palace Project, focusing on providing a positive user experience by ensuring that participating libraries are onboarded, trained, and configured correctly. She has a background in nonprofits and public libraries, previously working in roles including Program Manager of Adult Education, Library Services Manager, and Library Branch Manager. Tara is a passionate advocate for providing unfettered access to information for as many people as possible. She believes that The Palace Project is the perfect avenue to reach numerous underserved library populations worldwide. Throughout her career, Tara has concentrated on the democratization of technology, encouraging the usage and adoption of digital materials and tools in libraries through public programming and staff training initiatives. She also currently works part-time as a project management consultant. Tara holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.

Portrait Image of Courtney Dalessandro Courtney Dalessandro, Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst

Prior to joining Lyrasis, Courtney served in a variety of library roles. She was a school librarian in private and public schools in the Pittsburgh area, and worked as a Research Librarian for a biopharmaceutical consulting company. Courtney also served academic, public, and school libraries across Pennsylvania, providing technical support and training on POWER Library’s statewide interlibrary loan program, eresources, and the PA Photos and Documents digital repository. She is currently serving as a part-time Archivist for the Sisters of Divine Providence. Before joining the world of libraries, Courtney spent the first part of her career working for the United States Senate. Courtney received her B.A. in Global Policy Studies from Chatham University, an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Digital Libraries from Kent State University.

Portrait Image of Tim DiLauro Tim DiLauro, Sr. Engineering Lead

Tim has worked in a variety of IT-related roles — statistical programmer, sysadmin, systems programmer, researcher — over more than 30 years, most of which has been spent at academic institutions. He has also had consulting and contracting jobs with private sector and non-profit companies and the U.S. government. Since the early ‘90s, his work has concentrated on using technology to improve and simplify access to information, including the integration of repositories and services to support digital collections, learning, and publishing. In recent years, his efforts have been focused on services and policies to support long-term access to library content and research data. Tim has participated in a number of technical committees and advisory groups, including the Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE) Technical Committee and the Jisc RDSS Expert Advisory Group. He continues to serve on the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) Technical Advisory Board. He is also one of the maintainers of the BagIt Profiles Specification and a contributor to the BagIt Profiles Validator Python software.When he’s not working, he enjoys sailing, SCUBA diving, kayaking, motorcycle touring, and a bit of gardening. He is an avid reader and has recently taken up the NYTime Crossword.

Portrait Image of Carissa Egan Carissa Egan, Operations Manager

Carissa Egan, Operations Manager for the Palace Project, joined the Lyrasis team in April 2017 as Digital Technology Services Outreach and Engagement Manager. As Outreach & Engagement manager she developed strategies to expand the services that Lyrasis offers as well as for implemented improvements to the existing suite of Lyrasis hosted services. She has over a decade of experience working with open source technologies and developing cloud-based services for cultural heritage organizations. Prior to Lyrasis, Carissa was the Services Manager at DuraSpace where she coordinated the direction of the DuraCloud, DSpaceDirect, and ArchivesDirect services. As brand manager, Carissa brings a passion and dedication for creating sustainable open source services that meet the needs of the community. She is a proud alumnus of Syracuse University's School of Information Science.

Portrait Image of James English James English, Director of Business Development for Ebooks and Community Engagement

James English currently works as Director of Business Development for Ebooks and Community Engagement where he manages business development activities, partnership development, and new market entry. He also works across the company from time to time on community programs to help build scalable and sustainable services and drive innovation. Prior to Lyrasis James worked at The New York Public Library to lead creation of the Library Simplified Program and SimplyE platform. Before coming to work in the non-profit sector, James was Chief Product and Executive Officer of Telemetry Labs and prior to that the Chief Product and Operations Officer for Guardian Networks. As such, he lead development, engineering and application hosting operations for web and mobile product development as a service for providers specializing in machine-to-machine technology, application development, R&D and managed services for utilities, municipalities and fortune 500 companies. James holds a BSE in Systems Engineering from The United States Military Academy, West Point and an MBA from Goizuetta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta.

Portrait Image of Jonathan Green Jonathan Green, Senior Engineering Lead

With over 15 years of experience in software engineering, Jonathan Green is a highly skilled professional who was part of the original team that developed Islandora 7.x and authored the Tuque Library. He previously served as Chief Technology Officer for discoverygarden, a prominent contributor and service provider for Islandora. An advocate of open source, Jonathan enjoys contributing to open source projects both as part of his work at Lyrasis and in his personal time. As a technical lead, he ensures the smooth and secure operation of all backend servers and software, freeing up our hosting clients to focus on their core mission.

Portrait Image of Valerie Kavanagh Valérie "KAV" Kavanagh, Manager Outreach

Valérie "KAV" Kavanagh, MBA, is The Manager of Outreach (Ebooks & Community Engagement) with a primary role and responsibility around creating awareness, promoting the brand, selling public libraries the Palace Project service, and creating a new and impactful conversation around how Lyrasis leading the Palace Project service creates huge impacts for libraries desiring a patron digital experience that meets the patron where they are in their information and cultural discovery.

Valérie’s professional experiences in enterprise sales and marketing are vast: in addition to her legal background and legal software sales experiences, she has been very successful selling and marketing Library software and solutions and is naturally mission-aligned in her aspirations, as she desires, through her direct efforts, to impact and affect others through creating access to knowledge and resources.

Portrait Image of Jill Scarson Jill Scarson, Partner Success Leader

Jill is the Partner Success Leader with the Palace Project, serving as liaison to our library partners and aiding in the successful adoption and usage of the Palace platform and app. In this role she aims to assist library partners as they navigate post-implementation, focusing on developing long-lasting relationships. She believes that libraries serve as beacons of democracy by providing equitable access to information, and that Palace is uniquely poised to assist them in navigating the changing, and sometimes challenging, e-publishing ecosystem.

Prior to joining Palace, Jill worked for healthcare non-profits, as a freelance artist, within academic and public libraries, and spent much of the last decade in high education program support. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Master’s of Library & Information Science from Syracuse University, where she focused her studies on information literacy instruction, disinformation, and the policies that impact libraries and their users.

Portrait Image of David Wilcox David Wilcox, Product Manager

David Wilcox is the Product Manager for The Palace Project. He has more than ten years’ experience managing open source projects, teams, and communities. David manages the Palace platform and apps throughout their lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer needs, and defining the future vision and product roadmap. He works closely with engineering, outreach, marketing, and the leadership team to ensure the long-term success of The Palace Project. Previously, David served as the Program Leader for Fedora at Lyrasis, where he worked together with the Technical Lead to oversee key project processes, and led international engagement through public speaking, developing and delivering workshops, facilitating user group meetings, and pursuing partnerships and grant funding. David holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Thomas University.

Ebooks & Community Engagement Team