Lisa Larson, Senior Director, Lyrasis Membership Development
Lisa Larson is the Senior Director of Membership Development at Lyrasis. In this role, she leads the Membership program, which includes Outreach & Engagement and Research, Discovery & Impact (RD&I), and is responsible for ensuring that membership remains a meaningful, mission-driven foundation for everything Lyrasis does.
Lisa’s work connects institutional insight to organizational strategy, shaping a membership program that gives libraries, archives, and museums collective strength. Through shared expertise, trusted partnerships, and member-exclusive benefits, Lyrasis membership helps institutions reduce costs, expand access, and increase their capacity to lead—so organizations of all sizes can achieve greater impact, sustainability, and influence than they could alone.
Lisa oversees global outreach teams that build strong relationships with member institutions and bring critical insight back into the organization to inform programs, services, and priorities. Through RD&I, she leads a team of experts advancing assessment, research, consultative services, and grants administration—supporting libraries and cultural heritage organizations as they understand their environments, articulate their value, and make informed, future-focused decisions. Together, these functions ensure Lyrasis remains responsive, adaptive, and aligned with the evolving needs of the field.
With more than 25 years of experience working with libraries, archives, and museums, Lisa brings deep expertise in relationship-centered leadership, strategic program development, and sustainable growth. She is especially committed to ensuring that smaller or less-resourced institutions have access to the same opportunities, insight, and collective influence as larger organizations—strengthening the cultural heritage community as a whole.
Lisa champions membership not as a transaction, but as a transformation: a catalyst for community, shared learning, and collective impact. She holds a B.A. in Communications from Florida Atlantic University and was accepted into the MLIS program at University of South Florida. She has spent over a decade at Lyrasis advancing a membership model that integrates engagement, research, and strategy in service of the public good.
Leigh Grinstead, Senior Manager, Research, Discovery & Impact (RD&I)
Leigh A. Grinstead has more than 20 years of experience working in museum administration, overseeing collections, and conducting preservation assessments and collection inventories. Leigh also spent years writing, reviewing and managing successful grant projects. Including National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute for Museum and Library Services grants, and she served as the project manager for the Colorado Statewide Connecting to Collections planning grant and consulted on five others. In addition to her grants work, Leigh used her nearly half a decade with the Collaborative Digitization Program to deepen an interest in digital collections and digital humanities work. She consults with collection-holding institutions around the nation, facilitating meetings and advising them on digital project and preservation planning, workflows, standards and best practices for capture, metadata creation, access and preservation.
Shania Belcon, Technical Support Representative
Shania Belcon has been with Lyrasis since February 2021 as a Technical Support Representative in the Research, Discovery & Impact Division (RD&I) department. She provides support for live classes, registration, and billings. Shania is a native of Trinidad and Tobago, with IT certifications in A+ and Fundamentals of Computer Repairs. She is currently pursuing more certifications within the IT field to gain more knowledge and follow her passion. Shania has a background in web development and basic coding. She is extremely passionate about her work.
Jenn Bielewski, Lyrasis Membership Program Lead
Jenn Bielewski is the Membership Program Lead at Lyrasis, where she directs strategic initiatives to enhance membership value, engagement and advocacy for more than 1,100 member institutions. With more than 30 years of experience in the library field, her work focuses on developing collaboration within Lyrasis for membership awareness, added benefits, and building strategic processes that demonstrate the ongoing value of membership and community.
Throughout her tenure at Lyrasis, Jenn has held a variety of technical, operational, and strategic roles. She has served as an instructor for cataloging and open-source technologies, as the implementation manager for open-source software platforms including Evergreen ILS, ArchivesSpace, and Islandora and served as the Member Services Support Manager, providing her with a comprehensive understanding of both library operations and member relations. Immediately prior to becoming the Membership Program Lead, she worked as the Lyrasis Marketing Operations and Campaign Manager.
Jenn holds a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Florida State University and a Digital Marketing Specialist certification from the Digital Marketing Institute. Previously, Jenn held positions at Georgia State University Library and at the Bartow County Library System in Georgia.
Thomas Clareson, Senior Consultant, Digital & Preservation Services
Tom Clareson is Project Director of the Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help performing arts organizations nationwide learn how to protect their assets, sustain operations, and be prepared for emergencies. He serves as Senior Consultant for Digital & Preservation Services at Lyrasis, consulting and teaching nationally and internationally on preservation, disaster preparedness, digitization, digital preservation, special collections/archives, remote storage, funding, strategic planning, and advocacy for libraries, archives, and museums. Clareson serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.
Sam Eddington, Program Leader, Lyrasis Learning
Sam Eddington is the Program Leader for Lyrasis Learning. He holds an MLS from Southern Connecticut State University, and a BA in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Houston. His work experience includes time spent in academic, public, school, special, regional, and correctional libraries. He has presented widely to information professionals on topics such as unconferences, job searching and hiring, programming for adults, library history, and performance evaluations.
Kathryn Edwards, Outreach, Mid-Atlantic / Great Lakes
Kathryn serves as the Lyrasis Regional Representative for Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes of the United State (DC, DE, IL, IA, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, NC, OH, PA, VA, WI, and WV). She 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. Schedule to meet with Kathryn.
Vanessa Gamet, Outreach, West
Vanessa Gamet is the Lyrasis Member Outreach Representative for the western United States (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OR, SD, UT, WA, and WY), where she works directly with academic and public libraries to translate member priorities into sustainable digital strategies. Her background spans roles as a collections librarian and commercial ebooks sales director, giving her a dual perspective on the challenges libraries face and the market forces that shape digital content ecosystems. She has experience in digital collections, licensing, OER advocacy, and library sustainability. Schedule to meet with Vanessa.
Teddy Gray, Senior Manager, Membership Outreach - 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.
Donna Harnish, Sr. Administrative Specialist
Donna Harnish has more than 25 years of experience between PALINET and Lyrasis. She has held numerous positions including Secretary, Events Coordinator and Member Support Specialist. Donna is currently Senior Administrative Specialist for Engagement & Programming focusing on Membership and Professional Development.
Katy Klettlinger, Program Leader, Consulting Services - MLIS
Katy Klettlinger has over twenty years of experience in public and state libraries, academic institutions, historical societies, museums, and government agencies. She began her career in local history archives, advancing to supervisory roles, including serving as manager of the Records and Archives Program at Licking County Government in Ohio, where she built the county's program from the ground up and created its first countywide digitization program. Before joining Lyrasis, Klettlinger’s interest in serving colleagues led to her role as a Library Consultant for the State Library of Ohio. There, she assisted public libraries with digitization, space planning and strategic planning. She also enjoys working with young professionals as a career counselor for the Society of American Archivists. Klettlinger's commitment to program development, strategic thinking and mentorship continues to guide her, inspiring her to seek opportunities that celebrate growth and success in the institutions she serves.
Michele Mennielli, Director Global Outreach
Michele Mennielli is Director of Global Outreach at Lyrasis, where he leads international engagement and partnerships to support the preservation and open accessibility of cultural heritage and academic resources worldwide. His work focuses on expanding global collaboration, membership, and strategic relationships across research, library, and cultural heritage communities.
He has held leadership and advisory roles in several international organizations, including OpenAIRE (Advisory Board Member), euroCRIS (as Board Member and Executive for External Relations), ORCID (Chair of the Repositories Task Force), and EUNIS (Secretary and Board Member). Michele has also served on Program and Organizing Committees for major international conferences such as EDUCAUSE, Open Repositories, and many national events worldwide.
Kait Neese, Outreach, South
Kait Neese serves as the Member Outreach Representative for the South region at Lyrasis (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MO, MS, OK, PR, SC, TN, TX, and 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. Schedule to meet with Kait.
Michelle Nielson, Grants Administrator
Michelle Nielson joined Lyrasis in 2024 as the Grants Specialist. She has 20 years of experience in nonprofit organizations and volunteers as the Executive Director for Child Life Disaster Relief. She has many years of experience with grant writing, fundraising, program management, curriculum design, teaching and nonprofit leadership.
Michelle holds a Bachelor in Healthcare Administration from Bellevue University and a Master’s in Education with a focus on administration and curriculum design from the University of Nebraska.
Laura Sinhur, Membership Outreach Northeast & Consulting Representative
Laura serves as the membership outreach and consultant representative to the Northeast region (CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, and VT). She has extensive archival and museum 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 received FEMA Incident Command Certification in 2018 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Cultural Response Team, training in the disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery for cultural heritage institutions. She has extensive knowledge in digital preservation of at-risk cultural heritage, particularly in areas of conflict and has published works in the Society of American Archivists (SAA) for her research on cullural sensitivity statements for online collections. Laura is passionate about digital volunteerism: a long-standing volunteer with SUCHO (Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online), a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer, and the Community Contributor for ArchivesSpace's Ukrainian translation. Schedule to meet with Laura.