Closing General Session
250/150: Intellectual Freedom, Public Engagement, and the Infrastructure of Democracy Panel Session
Monday, June 29 | 4:00PM - 5:00PM CT
Panelists: Sam Helmick ALA President, Maria McCauley ALA President-elect, Sarah Lamdan Executive Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, and Moderator: Dan Montgomery, ALA Executive Director
As the United States celebrates 250 years of democracy, ALA leadership, ALA President Sam Helmick, ALA President-elect Maria McCauley, Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom Sarah Lamdan, and ALA Executive Director Dan Montgomery, will discuss the issues at the heart of the profession: librarians as vanguards of intellectual freedom, information literacy and civic engagement, and libraries as welcoming spaces that provide a sense of community and belonging for patrons.
Sam Helmick
ALA President
Sam Helmick (they/them) is the 2025-2026 ALA President. Helmick served as a member on the ALA Executive Board and a past president of the Iowa Library Association. They previously served as former chair-elect on the Intellectual Freedom Round Table and chair of the Iowa Governor’s Commission of Libraries. They have served on committees for the Network of the National Library of Medicine, the Stonewall Book Awards, the ALA Policy Monitoring Committee, Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Michael L. Printz Committee, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Sophie Brody Award Committee and the YALSA Fundraising Task Force. Helmick is a 2016 Emerging Leader, as well as an author, consultant, and instructor for social media marketing and graphic design.
Helmick holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Iowa Wesleyan University and a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois.
Maria McCauley
ALA President-elect
Maria McCauley, who was a Spectrum Scholar, is a current member of Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures; the Public Library Association; and the Association of College and Research Libraries. She is also a current member of the Rainbow Round Table, Sustainability Round Table, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, and the International Relations Round Table. She is also a member of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Chinese American Librarians Association, Black Caucus of ALA, REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, and the American Indian Library Association, and the Freedom to Read Foundation. She is also a member of the Massachusetts Library Association and the New England Library Association.
She has held several leadership positions, including At-Large Councilor, ALA Council, Executive Board member, and Fiscal and Audit Committee. She also was PLA president (2022-23) and a PLA board member.
McCauley holds a Doctor of Philosophy, Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions, Simmons University; an MLIS from University of Pittsburgh; a BA in Theater from Ohio Wesleyan University; Leadership Certificate Program, Northeastern University; Library Leadership for New Managers Program, Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
Sarah Lamdan
Executive Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom
Sarah Lamdan is the Executive Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. She is a lawyer and librarian who earned her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and her M.L.I.S. (with a specialty in legal information) from Emporia State University’s School of Librarian and Information Management. She has lived in New York since 2005, where she has worked as a law librarian in several international law firms, as a Help Desk developer at Bloomberg Law, and as a librarian and law professor at CUNY School of Law specializing in a span of information-related topics ranging from government transparency, personal privacy, and other legal issues related to librarianship. She's written several books including Environmental Information: Research, Access & Environmental Decisionmaking (Environmental Law Institute) and Data Cartels (Stanford University Press). She was a Senior Fellow at SPARC, a fellow at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at NYU School of Law, and a member of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative. She's also worked with Library Freedom Project and Library Futures on issues related to privacy. She has an array of hobbies including running, knitting, and creative writing.
Daniel Montgomery
ALA Executive Director
Daniel J. Montgomery assumed his role as Executive Director of the American Library Association (ALA) in November 2025. A longtime advocate for public education and workers’ rights, Montgomery previously led the 103,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) as president and chief operating officer, overseeing policy initiatives, programs, and a statewide professional staff. His extensive experience leading organizational change, navigating complex challenges, and building consensus across diverse communities has made him an outstanding leader for the Association.