CURRENT POSITION Teacher Librarian, Edmonds Heights K–12, WA DEGREE MLIS, University of Southern Mississippi, 2019 FAST FACT Duffee is always up for an adventure, especially if it involves riding her motorcycle, a 2013 Triumph Bonneville. FOLLOW linkedin.com/in/erynduffee; sites.google.com/view/k12libraries4allwa Photo by Wesley Duffee-Braun

Leadership Extraordinaire

When Eryn Duffee moved to Washington from Tennessee in early 2021, she immediately jumped into leadership at the Washington Library Association (WLA), where she is working to transform the statewide school system. She serves the WLA executive board as cochair of the WLA advocacy committee and as a member of the legislative committee.

As the legislature prepares to revisit the state’s Basic Education Law, Duffee is actively fighting to change its language to require a certified school librarian in every school. She has helped spearhead the #k12libraries4allwa campaign, an initiative to inform the public and stakeholders about why Washington libraries need qualified teacher-librarians. She testified at three legislative committee hearings and has led grassroots efforts to show public support for the bill. Thanks to her and other advocates’ hard work, the bill made it to the Education Committee’s executive session, and an amendment was added stating that any district with more than 2,000 students must have one certified teacher-librarian per 100 students. This development will save numerous teacher-librarian jobs currently in danger of being cut.

To help others learn more about how to step up, Duffee is coauthoring and -editing a book on library advocacy with three others on the American Library Association’s Committee on Library Advocacy Ecosystems subcommittee. “Eryn models leadership extraordinaire,” says Christie Kaaland, director of school library certification at Antioch University’s School of Education in Seattle.

“I will keep fighting for more school librarian positions in Washington state,” Duffee says. “Perhaps one day down the road, I’ll run for political office so I can champion education and library causes from within the State House.”