Rand named WEMTA Professional of the Year

GREEN BAY – Raquel Rand, district library media coordinator for the Green Bay Area School District, was selected to receive the Professional of the Year Award during the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association (WEMTA) annual conference.

The Professional of the Year Award recognizes a WEMTA member who has demonstrated individual excellence in the library, media, or educational technology profession through service to students, teachers and the community at the K-12 level.

This award is intended to recognize outstanding leadership and professionalism.

Rand has served the Green Bay Area Public School District as a librarian, technology integrator, and now as the district’s library coordinator.

“I oversee the library program as a whole for the Green Bay School District, so I help manage the budget that we get from the state and support the librarians as they are spending it,” Rand said. “I also use that budget to buy resources for our staff and students to be doing research or other activities that are often then supported by the librarians. And I help make sure that across the district, the things that are happening in all of the different libraries are similar so that we don’t have one elementary building doing something completely different from everyone else’s. There’s individuality between each of the buildings, but I do a lot of making sure that all of our teams have the training so that all have the same knowledge across the buildings in the libraries.”

In this role, Raquel enjoys supporting library programs, empowering staff, and helping students discover a love of reading and learning.

“I love books, but I also love the joy that students get in the library spaces,” Rand said. “It’s very different from the classroom. There’s a little bit more of that student choice that happens in the libraries. They get to come in and find what really, truly interests them for no reason other than it interests them… It’s always just so exciting to be able to find those books and connect it with the students so that they can read what really excites them.”

Rand has also been deeply involved in statewide advocacy through the WEMTA board.

During her time with WEMTA, including serving as president, Rand valued the opportunity to strengthen and celebrate Wisconsin’s library and educational technology community.