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I'm a librarian in Western North Carolina. I officially worked in public education from 2005-2023. I was a North Carolina Teaching Fellow and knew I wanted to work with both children and adults to build a lifelong love of learning and reading. I now work in corporate librarianship, specifically in Knowledge Management, where I get to stretch my transferable skills and challenge my brain.

I am an organizer at heart

Information. Ideas. Words. Books. People. Projects. I want to make things make sense.

So I became a librarian.

But that job title does not cover the wide variety of skills and experiences I have or the many things that I excel at.

Managing Projects

I've been put in charge of and taken over many projects over the years, both expected and unexpected (and even accidentally). I've had to be resourceful, creative, and willing to learn new things, all while becoming comfortable with being the "face" of a project, managing teams of people, and advocating for needs.

Thinking and Planning Strategically

I'm not one to shy away from asking why we do something. As a teacher, I learned backwards design, which I continue to use in much of my work. Why we are doing something is the end goal; I am outstanding at understanding both the big picture goal and the strategic thinking and planning that gets us there.

Helping People Learn

Instructional design in the 21st century is a tall order. Not only must it effectively meets each learner's individual needs, but it must also include instructional technology, be available around the clock, and address best practices like student-centered learning, project-based learning, and backwards design. It has to be empathetic in its core makeup and appealing in its design.

Communicating Effectively

As my role in schools grew over the years, my need to effectively communicate the many things I was working on with my colleagues became greater. While writing has always come easy to me, especially after teaching grammar and writing to my students, I've found that creative ways to communicate the necessary information are often more effective and efficient.

Building Relationships

Truly, the most important thing I do is build positive relationships with all of the people I work with, both children and adults. Knowing not only their strengths and weakness, but also what makes them tick as a person helps me empower them to push forward and continue to grow. And this is probably the thing I am most passionate about when it comes to my work. Seeing someone else's successes and knowing that I helped them get there is extremely rewarding and gratifying, and so I work hard to be able to do that. I learn names quickly, I strive to have all of the answers or know exactly where to find them, and I want to be everyone's first call.

Learning Things Myself

I'm always looking for new and interesting things to learn. Because of that, I have a lot of general skills in a lot of different areas and a lot of random experiences that shape how I work. My two favorite non-career related jobs were both in Chapel Hill. For the two years I was there, I hosted trivia nights. I engaged with audiences in a different way than I did as a teacher, perfected my public speaking skills, and even learning some audio engineering basics. I also spent a semester planning, editing, producing, and hosting a podcast where I interviewed important figures in public education who came to campus. I had so much fun and the skills I learned transfer elsewhere so easily.

email lainastapleton at gmail dot com or find me on LinkedIn