Each year, the USF School of Information (SI) hosts a State of the Program event where we discuss accomplishments of the M.A. in Library and Information Science (MLIS) program, where we aim to be over the next few years, and where we recognize our Jean Key Gates Distinguished Alumni Award winner along with our USF SI Outstanding Student Award winner. This year, the SI faculty selected Celia C. Pérez to be awarded the Jean Key Gates Distinguished Alumni Award and Maria Feliciano for USF SI Outstanding Student Award.
Celia C. Pérez is the author of The First Rule of Punk (Viking/Penguin, 2017), a 2018 Boston Globe–Horn Book honoree, a Pura Belpré Author Honor book for narration, and a winner of the 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award; Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers (Kokila/Penguin, 2019); and Tumble (Kokila/Penguin, 2022). When not writing about quirky kids who break rules, she works as a community college librarian at Harold Washington College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, where she has spent the past twenty years and currently serves as department chairperson. She is a former co-chair of 's Children and Young Adult Services Committee, served on the 2014 Pura Belpré Award committee, and has written and reviewed for The Horn Book Magazine. She is originally from Miami and is a graduate of the University of Florida (B.A., M.Ed.) and the University Â鶹ÊÓƵ (M.A).
MarÃa Feliciano is in her final semester of the MLIS program at the University of South Florida. She served as secretary and president of the Student Organizations of Library & Information Science (SOLIS), providing opportunities for students to engage with each other and established professionals in the field. In addition, she co-moderated USF's prestigious Alice G. Smith Lecture, "Changing the Face of Librarianship: REFORMA and Library Services to Latino Communities" in 2021. MarÃa is drawn to libraries to help children and families enrich their lives and to promote diversity and inclusion. She received the Patricia Andrew Cone Endowed Scholarship during her first semester and also a REFORMA de Florida stipend to attend the 4th National Joint Council of Librarians of Color () Conference. She has spent the last decade working in international education and youth services after graduating from the University of Florida (B.A.).