Executive Committee Advisory Council Members

These individuals assist the Board of Directors by providing mentorship and making recommendations for setting benchmarks, building partnerships, and strategically positioning The Library Collective for sustainable growth and long-term success.

Sarah Cohen is a strategist, facilitator, and coach. Her practice - Big Questions Collaborative - supports leaders and organizations in libraries and other sectors to be community centered, authentic, and impactful. She is a teaching fellow at the Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania. Before starting her own practice, she served as the Senior Managing Director at the Open Education Network. She is a two-time ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries winner.

Jose Fernandez is a founding partner of Florida Compass Group. He is recognized as one of Florida’s leading government regulatory experts. Mr. Fernandez leads the Infrastructure, Public Private Partnerships, and Energy Division.. Before establishing Florida Compass Group, Mr. Fernandez had a distinguished public service career. He was named City Clerk by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer; the very first appointment of Mayor Dyer’s administration. Soon after, Mr. Fernandez was also given the additional responsibility of Director of General Administration. He was later selected to serve as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Public Policy and Business Development. In that role, Mr. Fernandez provided senior level guidance to the Mayor on a variety of public policy matters and served as the voice for commerce on the Mayor’s Cabinet.

Rachel Fisher is the Parliamentary Engagement and Research Manager the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA). Her passion at OUTA is to promote accountability and to achieve social justice. Rachel collaborates with entities ranging from academic institutions, civil society organisations, as well as intergovernmental organisations, specifically UNESCO and their Informational For All Programme (IFAP). She is an IFAP Working Group member for Information Accessibility, as well as the Secretary to the UNESCO MIL Alliance Africa Steering Committee. She is currently completing her PhD in Information Science, with the specific focus on developing a framework to guide the design of value-pluralistic AI Ethics Policies. This research is fuelled by the rapid pace in development of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies, and specifically the ethical implications of these technologies on humans and the environment.

David Ownby is a former acquisitions and technical services librarian with more than 15 years experience in academic and public libraries. He holds a master’s degree in information science from the University of Tennessee. Mr. Ownby currently works as a data analyst for Above the Treeline, the makers of Edelweiss, where he enjoys supporting librarians, publishers, and retailers across the book industry!

John Stewart is a financial advisor with over 28 years of experience. Prior to working in the financial services sector, he served in the United States Air Force as an F-16 crew chief during the Gulf War. A strong believer in community service, he is an active member of the Mount Dora Area Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club of Mount Dora, Mount Dora Library Advisory Board, Lake County Florida Sheriffs Charities and many more.