Opening Keynote: Kaetrena Davis Kendrick

Kaetrena Davis Kendrick is the leader in collective care practice for library workers, workplaces, and organizations. She earned her MSLS from the historic Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies. Known for her groundbreaking studies on library workplace morale, Kendrick is committed to centering self-preservation, creativity, and empathy in the workplace and promoting career clarity and rejuvenation to workers. Kendrick is the Founder of Kendrick Consulting and Communications, LLC, and she is the 2024 2025 Follett Chair with the Dominican University School of Information Studies. In 2019, she was named the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Academic/Research Librarian of the Year.

Featured Authors

Rosemary Wells

Rosemary Wells is the award-winning and bestselling author/illustrator of more than 120 books for children across a remarkable forty-five-year career. Beloved by generations of readers, she is best known for creating Max and Ruby, the spirited sibling bunnies who became stars of their own hit television series on Nick Jr. Her body of work also includes unforgettable characters such as McDuff and Yoko, each the center of series that have entertained and comforted young readers for decades.

With warmth, humor, and a deep understanding of childhood, Wells has written enduring favorites that capture the emotional truths of growing up, friendship and family: classics including Voyage to the Bunny Planet, Noisy Nora, and My Very First Mother Goose and recent publications Sharing and The Little Chefs. January 2027 brings the publication of Kindness: A Handbook, an alphabet story of how kindness is everywhere.

A tireless advocate for literacy, Wells travels throughout the country speaking to educators, librarians, parents, and children about the transformative power of books and storytelling. Learn more at RosemaryWells.com.

About Rosemary Wells’ latest book: 
Kindness, a Handbook, due to be published in January 2026 from Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, is an alphabet story of how kindness is everywhere and shows caring behaviors for our young children. It's a book for all Americans together, young or grown-up, because what we all need now is a little kindness to and from each other.