Mark A. Puente is the Associate Dean for Organizational Development, Inclusion, and Diversity at the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies. Previously, he served for over 11 years as the Senior Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). At ARL, Puente directed all aspects of the Association’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and leadership development programs.. Puente has designed and administered numerous programs that seek to recruit people of color into careers in academic and research libraries and archives. He directs and serves on the faculty or advisory groups to numerous leadership development programs such as the ARL Leadership Fellows Program, the ARL Leadership and Career Development Program, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries’ Leadership Fellows Program, and the Southeastern Museum Conference Leadership Institute.

A frequent clinician, speaker, facilitator, and writer, Puente also works with numerous organizations (i.e. library, archive, museum, K-12 education) on strategies for accelerating change in organizational culture, inclusion in the workplace, strategic planning, racial equity, diversity recruitment and retention, organizational climate, and numerous other topics. Puente has worked extensively with organizations and institutions across the United States and Canada and has presented internationally. He is a past participant of the ALA Spectrum Scholarship Leadership Institute, the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians, and the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians at Harvard.

Puente’s career in libraries included positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the University of North Texas, and the University of Arizona. Mr. Puente is a graduate of the Knowledge River Program at the School of Information Resources and Library Science (now iSchool) at the University of Arizona. The program seeks to recruit Latinos/Hispanics and Native Americans into the field of librarianship. He earned a Master of Arts in Music (voice) from Stephen F. Austin State University and a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, TX. Prior to entering the library profession, Puente was an applied voice instructor in his hometown of San Antonio for 13 years and also worked in opera administration in Texas and Arkansas.

Locations: Illinois, Indiana, Texas

Keywords = Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Social Justice, Unconscious Bias/Implicit Bias, Leadership, Mentoring, Change management, Music Libraries/Performing Arts Libraries, Organizational culture, Libraries, Archives, Museums, Racial Equity, Climate Assessment

$ Speaker Fee (Depends on the context and audience. If no honorarium is provided for speaking engagements, he asks that sponsoring organizations consider the engagement a contribution to the group and that documentation is made to that effect.)

Willing to Travel

Spectrum Scholar

Carson Williams

Las Cruces, New Mexico
Gabrielle Barnes

Windsor, Connecticut
K.T. Vaughan

Lexington, Virginia
Twanna Hodge

Gainesville, Florida