CURRENT POSITION Early Literacy Services Manager, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL DEGREE MLIS, Dominican University, 2015; MA in Children’s Literature/MFA Writing for Children, Simmons College; pursuing PhD at the School of Information Studies at Dominican FAST FACT Clausen is a strong animal advocate and has a Golden Retriever named Opal who’s the love of her life. FOLLOW linkedin.com/in/katie-clausen-634853221; bit.ly/ALSCblogClausen; youtube.com/watch?v=PNCBSO0Djk0 Photo by Laura Espinoza

Resiliency Reinforcement

In addition to being a beloved story time leader and early childhood literacy advocate, Katie Clausen—“Miss Katie” to her youngest stakeholders—holds a professional certification in Adverse Childhood Experiences. When she realized that families in her community needed age-appropriate mental-health resources, she and colleague Elizabeth Forkan created a circulating collection of Resiliency Kits—books, games, activities, and information for adults and children on themes of grief and loss, divorce, addiction, emotions, and bullying. “Therapists have mentioned using them with their clients,” says Clausen. “Even if one family is helped through a book or activity in a kit, that’s a success.” Mental health is an ongoing issue, and she expects that the collection will grow.

Clausen came to librarianship because she’s always loved storytelling and working with children. She thinks children’s literature “is the highest form of creative expression and articulates deep truths in a way no other art form does.” She is currently auditing the library’s story time materials to make sure they are inclusive and don’t fall back on racial or gender stereotypes, a project she hopes to complete by the end of 2023. Clausen brings this advocacy to her graduate studies as well, analyzing lesser-known fairy tales from a feminist perspective. “I want to discover how to use fairy tales in healthy ways,” she says.

It’s a privilege to do this work, Clausen notes. “Being a part of a child’s journey through their young life is the highest honor I have.”