Author name: Lucas Carter

Jessica Stroud, assistant director, is HCPL’s Who’s Awesome winner for October. There were 13 nominations for the honor this month.

Library Director Alisa Burch, nominated Jessica writing, “Jessica has had a busy month overseeing the staff education day and training the incoming assistant director. I appreciate how much effort she has put into both stressful endeavors. She continues to show great leadership. Jessica is awesome!”

In April Jessica received this nomination, “Jessica did a great job creating social media posts and a blog post featuring HCPL staff for National Library Workers Day during National Library Week. She planned a  volunteer reception for all of HCPL’s volunteers for National Volunteer Month and designed an ornament for each volunteer to acknowledge how special they are. She created a blog post for the volunteers as well. She was very busy this month. Jessica is awesome!” And in January she was recognized in this nomination, “Jessica quickly threw together the Indiana legislator postcard campaign after information from Brown County was shared with her. It was a great way for patrons to advocate for the library. Jessica is awesome!”

Jessica, who has been with the library for more than 24 years, was also named the Who’s Awesome winner in January of 2024.  She first joined HCPL as a library assistant while completing her undergrad degree at U of L. She quickly advanced to serve as IT support, administrative assistant to the director and assistant circulation manager. After obtaining her Microsoft Systems Administrator Certification, she was named network and systems administrator and then head of information technology. Jessica currently serves as assistant director and will assume the director helm January 1, 2027.

Each month a winner is selected by random drawing. Other staff members nominated in October include: Ann Allen, Amanda Applegate, Nikki Esarey, Jessica Gonzalez, Connie Gresham, Debbie McClanahan, Eden Ransdell, Trevor Smith, Tiffany Thieneman, Savannah Wallace, and Brandy Wilkerson.

Article by Alisa Burch, Director