Speakers: 2026 President's Institute

M.J. D’Elia creates and facilitates learning adventures, workshops, and custom courses related to leadership development, strategic thinking, and high-performing teams. After 20 years as an academic librarian at two ARL member libraries, M.J. turned his passion for developing others and designing unmistakable learning experiences into a full-time mission. Thirdway Think equips library and public sector leaders with the skills to lead more productive conversations with their teams and within their organizations.

During his career, M.J. has facilitated strategic planning sessions, designed staff training programs, and co-organized multiple Startup Weekend events. He has taught university courses on leadership, information management, product and service development, and entrepreneurship at three different universities in Canada.

M.J. is a past ARL Leadership Fellow (2016–2017 cohort). He is also the director of the LLEAD Institute, a cross-sector and cross-continent leadership development program for libraries and information organizations.

Masud Khokhar is the chief digital and information officer at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He has previously held senior roles in several libraries, as the university librarian and keeper of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds (2021–2025), director of Library and Archives at the University of York (2018–2021), assistant director for Digital Innovation and Research Services (2013–2018), and in different roles at Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (2009–2013). A computer scientist by education, Masud’s interests span across strategic leadership, digital transformation, learning spaces, cultures of innovation, and equitable access to knowledge.

Between 2023 and 2025, Masud also held the role of chair of Research Libraries UK (RLUK), a consortium of 39 research-intensive libraries in the UK and Ireland. He has served on Cambridge University Library Syndicate, Wellcome Collection Advisory Committee, and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Infrastructure Advisory Group, and he currently serves on the Library Advisory Group for JSTOR.

Masud has delivered keynotes for several major national and international conferences including IATUL Conference (2024), Dubai International Library Conference (2024), IFLA Information Futures Summit (2024), LIBER Annual Conference (2024), CARL Spring General Meeting (2023), UKSG Conference (2023), CILIP Conference (2023), and RLUK21 Conference (2021), to name a few.

Helen Kula (she/her) is the associate university librarian, Teaching and Learning at McMaster University Libraries, where she is responsible for the Teaching and Learning Division, serves on the libraries’ leadership team, and advocates for the libraries as a valued partner in teaching and learning on campus.

Helen previously worked within the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) system for over 20 years in progressively more senior roles. While at UTL, she spent 7 years as a cross-appointment to MaRS Discovery District, Canada’s largest innovation center. At MaRS, she learned models and tools used by innovators to start, adapt, and grow their businesses, and these frameworks have continued to inform her work within libraries. Helen also co-organized the world’s first Startup Weekend for Libraries that brought librarians, designers, developers, and others to pitch and prototype new library products or services in 54 hours.

Helen holds a master of information studies from the University of Toronto and a master of arts in English literature from McGill University. When she is not working, Helen likes to garden, bake (not always successfully), and spend time with her husband and two daughters.

Lee Vinsel is associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and host of the technology studies podcast Peoples & Things. Lee is the author of two books: Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States, a history of American automobile regulations from 1893 to the Google Car, and, with Andrew Russell, The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work that Matters Most, a criticism of innovation-speak and defense of the importance of maintenance and repair. Also with Andrew Russell, Lee co-founded The Maintainers, a global, interdisciplinary, research and action network dedicated to maintenance, repair, care, and the ordinary work that keeps our world going. His work has appeared or been covered in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde, and many other publications around the globe.