Leadership Transitions of Key Employees
March 5, 2026
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Register now
Organizational stability and sustainability rely in part on effectively preparing for and shepherding leadership transitions for key employees, to smoothly fill critical vacancies, develop staff potential, preserve institutional knowledge, and support long-term success.
Join Kathy Parker and Kate Hall, authors of The Public Library Director’s Toolkit and long-time library directors, for a session exploring effective leadership transitions. Parker and Hall will discuss the role of staffing analyses in assessing and planning for vacancies, staff leadership development, and tools and methods for documentation of knowledge, including special considerations for small or rural institutions.
Supervisors and staff from all types of institutions—museums, archives, academic libraries, public libraries, and more—are welcome to join. The session will NOT be recorded. Ample time will be provided for Q&A, and feel free to submit your questions for the presenters in advance via the registration form. This is the first in a series, sponsored by the Empire State Library Network, on select human resources topics. Please email amy@nnyln.org with questions.
About the presenters:
Kate Hall is the Executive Director of the Northbrook Public Library, a Library Journal 5 Star Library located in northern Illinois, after serving as a teen librarian, youth services manager, and director at various Chicagoland libraries for over 20 years. Kate graduated with her MLIS from Dominican University in 2002 and received her MBA from Marylhurst University in 2010. Kate is the recipient of the 2021 Illinois Library Association Librarian of the Year Award and has just launched Illinois Libraries Present, a new statewide joint programming cooperative.
Kathy Parker was the director of the Glenwood-Lynwood (IL) Public Library District from 2002-2018 after serving as Assistant Director at the Harvey (IL) Public Library. She has worked in public and private libraries for over 40 years in nearly every department and co-founded Director’s University, an intensive training program that has trained over 300 new Illinois Public Library Directors.