Organization

Sylvia Vardell is professor of Literature for Children and Young People at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX. As an active member of USBBY she has served on many committees and as President in 2006. In 2017, she was presented with the USBBY Alida Cutts Lifetime Membership Award in recognition of her contributions. Sylvia served as co-editor of IBBY’s quarterly journal Bookbird from 2009-11. She served a two-year term as the chair of the ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award Committee, from 2016-18.

Sylvia has written over eighteen books, numerous book chapters and journal articles. She also has a popular blog, Poetry for Children. Sylvia has collaborated with poets around the world to create anthologies of poetry that provide strategies for teachers. She taught at the University of Zimbabwe as a Fulbright Scholar, studied at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, and participated on a study tour of Yemen and Syria on a McGovern scholarship with the Middle East Policy Council. Sylvia has conducted over 170 presentations at conferences around the world. She has attended many IBBY World Congresses: Cape Town, Macau, Copenhagen, Santiago de Compostela, Auckland, Athens and Moscow (virtually), as well as the 2013 Asia and Oceania IBBY Regional Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Naturally, she has attended many of the IBBY Regional Congresses held in the USA. Also, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and IFLA Congresses in Cape Town, South Africa and Wrocław, Poland. She says, that all these events have expanded her learning and growth further through meeting colleagues from around the world who share the same vision of promoting reading for children.

Sylvia served on the IBBY EC from 2018 to 2022, and became a member of the Bookbird Inc. Board. She was chair of the IBBY Reading Promotion Award Jury for the 2022 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award and the 2022 IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reading Promoter Award.

Read her interview about IBBY here.

Email: svardell@gmail.com

Denis Beznosov is a poet, critic and translator. He joined the Russian State Children’s Library in Moscow in 2013, and is now is the Deputy Director for Project Management and Public Events. His main responsibilities include the management and coordination of large-scale library projects focused on reading promotion among children and teenagers, and the development and implementation of exhibitions based on works of prominent children's authors and illustrators. His other areas of expertise are event management in the cultural and educational sphere; international library cooperation; cultural exchange. He develops and organizes exhibitions of Russian authors, as well as international projects aimed at instilling tolerance and understanding based on children’s literature. As a member of Russian IBBY section, he has organized many projects and was the head of the programme committee for the 37^th IBBY World Congress. He was a member of the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury for the 2018 and 2020 Awards, and a member of the IBBY EC from 2020 to 2022.

Email: iozef_k@mail.ru

Tina Bilban earned a BSc in Philosophy and Comparative Literature, and went on to achieve a PhD in Literature. She became a literary critic and focussed on YA and children’s literature. Since 2007, Tina has been a member of the professional national board for the evaluation of children’s literature in Slovenia, which assesses the complete production of children’s literature in each year. She has also authored three titles that encourage critical thinking in early readers and up to YA. She analysed the presentation of aging in children’s literature that resulted in four projects funded by the Slovenian National Committee of UNESCO, and resulted in a new dialogue on the subject. Tina has been a member of IBBY Slovenia since 2010 and in 2020 became its President. Tina was a member of the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury for the 2020 and 2022 Awards.

Email: tinabilban@gmail.com

Doris Breitmoser studied at the universities of Passau, Germany, and Parma, Italy, and completed a MA degree in International Cultural and Business Studies at the University of Passau. She began her career in a publishing house and has been employed since 1997 at the head office of the German IBBY Section, Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur, in Munich. In 2003, she became the managing director of IBBY Germany. She has served as co-editor of the quarterly children’s literature magazine JuLit since 1997. She is responsible for the organizing and awarding process of the state-sponsored Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and also organizes national and international workshops and conferences on children’s literature and reading promotion. She was part of a cultural delegation to China in 2007, attended the BIB in Bratislava in 2013 and regularly attends the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Doris served on the EC 2020-22 and has been the European Liaison Officer, and was on the board of Bookbird Inc. since then.

Email: breitmoser@jugendliteratur.org

Christian Elongué is an author and researcher in literature for children and young people. He has experience in both the educational technology and the philanthropy sectors and is skilled in establishing and maintaining collaborative partnerships. He also has experience in designing and implementing advocacy and educational programmes. He gained a PhD in children’s Literature from the University of Liège in France as well as three MAs: Instructional Design (France), Management of Cultural and Creative Industries (Egypt) and African Studies (Cameroon). He currently works to promote reading and children’s literature in Africa. Dismayed by the lack of black characters in books available to African children, in 2017 Christian founded Muna Kalati, which is a literary non-profit organization that is building international recognition for African children’s book authors, illustrators and publishers. Its online magazine aimed at writers, researchers, as well as librarian, teachers and parents, was first published in 2018. In 2019, he was a founding member of IBBY Cameroon. He looks forward to being able to contribute to the production and distribution of quality children’s literature as well as diversification in children’s books.

Email:: elongue@munakalati.org

Sunjidmaa Jamba gained a diploma in Engineering and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, Czech Republic. She was a member of the Board at the Council for Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility. She also graduated from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, MA, USA and holds a Degree of Global Master of Arts. Between 2005 and 2011 she was the Communications and Partnership Officer at the World Bank, where she was responsible for external affairs of the Bank operation and activities in Mongolia. She had served as a Governing Committee Member of Global Development Learning Network for Asia and Pacific. As part of her volunteer work and also her strong commitment to children’s intellectual development, she has been involving in children’s reading promotion activities in Mongolia since 1997. Sunjidmaa is co-founder and Executive Director of Mongolian IBBY. She served on the IBBY Executive Committee from 2014 to 2018 and was President of the 2018 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Jury, and chair of the IBBY Projects Subcommittee.

Email: sunjidmaaj@gmail.com

Ingrid Källström works as a senior advisor for the Accessible Books Consortium. She has overall responsible for the Agency’s work with children and young adults on the strategic as well as the operational level. She is also a member of the working group for the Läsgudet award. Ingrid has worked in school libraries for children aged 6-19 and in public libraries in the Stockholm area for many years, as well as a pre-school teacher and a special-needs teacher. From 2013 to 2014 she was a library consultant at the County library of Sörmland, responsible for training the staff in the children's libraries of the county. Between 2002 and 2011 she was the children’s librarian at the Culture House of Stockholm, where her main task was the coordination and training of library staff. She has been a member of IBBY Sweden for many years and a member of the IFLA standing committee for Libraries for Children and Young Adults, serving as secretary for the years 2015-17.

Email: ingkegu@gmail.com

Akoss Ofori-Mensah earned a BA in English at the University of Ghana. In 1974, she received an internship from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in New York for six months and from there she went to the University of Chicago for an MA in Population Education. She returned to Ghana in 1976 and in 1993, established her own publishing house, Sub-Saharan Publishers. Akoss has been honoured internationally for her contribution towards the development of children’s books in Ghana as well as winning the Ghana Book Award for Promoting Environmental Awareness through Publishing. She collaborates with the Ghana Book Trust and the Osu Library Fund to promote children’s books and reading in Ghana. Akoss has participated in IBBY activities both in Ghana and abroad. She has served on the IBBY Executive Committee from 2012-16, serving as IBBY Vice President from 2014-16. She was elected again to the EC 2020-22 and served on the project subcommittee. Akoss has also served on the jury of the Biennale of Illustrations, Bratislava in 2017 and in 2019. She organized the IBBY African Regional Conference in Accra in 2019.

Email: saharanp@africaonline.com.gh

Elena Pasoli graduated in Classic Literature from the University of Bologna in 1980. She joined the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 1987 as a special events manager, and went on to become its project manager. In 2006, she directed the Communications department of the University of Bologna Foundation, but returned to the BolognaFiere in 2011, where she was appointed director in 2014. After the first editions of the Global Kids Connect Conference, created in New York in partnership with Publishers Weekly, Elena contributed to the creation in 2018 of the New York Rights Fair (NYRF), which was held for two editions before the Covid 19 pandemic. Her international activities continued with the China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair (CCBF), which is co-organized by BolognaFiere through its subsidiary company BFChina since 2018. Elena works together with her Chinese colleagues searching and assessing the best in children's literature, illustration and books in the Asia Pacific region, and creating connections and dialogue across the western and eastern children's publishing communities.

Email: elena.pasoli@bolognafiere.it

Junko Yokota gained a PhD in Reading Education and Library Science from the University of North Texas in 1988 and is currently Professor Emerita at the National Louis University, where she was the Founding Director of the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books. She is the co-author of the children’s literature textbook, Children’s Books in Children’s Hands, now in its 6th edition, numerous book chapters and professional articles. Junko has participated on many award and illustration juries including as the chair of the inaugural and two subsequent Nami Island International Illustration Concours (2013, 2015, 2017) and chair of the 2015 Caldecott Committee in the USA. She is a Past President of USBBY and was secretary of the Bookbird, Inc. Board for a number of years. Junko served three terms on the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Jury (2006, 2008, 2018) and was elected as the IBBY Andersen Jury President for the 2020 and 2022 Awards.

Email:  junko.yokota@mac.com

Born in Barcelona, Luis Zendrera grew up in a bilingual household and went on to study Economy and Law at the University of Barcelona. He works for the publishing house Editorial Juventud S.A., which was established by his grandfather in 1923, and has been the manager for the past 27 years. His achievements in Spain are considerable and include spending eight years in the Board of the Publishers Guild of Catalonia; six years in the Export Commission of the Guild of Publishers of Catalonia; four years as head of the Commission for Young Children’s Literature in the Guild of Publishers of Catalonia; six years in the Organization Committee in the Liber Fair; and co-founded the Association Album. Luis became the President of IBBY Catalonia in 2019, and became the President of IBBY Spain (OEPLI) in 2021.

Email: luis@editorialjuventud.es

Anastasia Arkhipova graduated from the Moscow State Academy of Art named after Surikov in 1978 and has been a member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1986. She is currently a professor at the Stroganov Moscow Academy of Arts and Industry.

She began working as an illustrator while still a student and has illustrated many of the classics, such as by the Brothers Grimm, H.C. Andersen, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. She has published books across the world from Brazil to Korea. In 2002, she won the first prize in the All Russia contest of ‘Book of the Year’ as best illustrator.

She has been a member of IBBY Russia since 2005 and was elected to the IBBY EC from 2006 to 2020. Anastasia has been a member of many award juries for children’s literature and art. From 2010 to 14, and again from 2016-20, she was a member of the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury, and was a member of the BIB jury for the 2007, 2009 and the 2015 Awards. From 2013 to 2021 she was a member of the Jury of the Nami Island International Concours. She is a highly qualified and very experienced specialist in the field of illustration for children and young people.

Email: arkhipova.a@gmail.com

Liz Page grew up and lived in England until 1985 when she and her family moved to Basel. She soon became involved with JuKiBu, the Intercultural Children’s Library in Basel, of which she was a founding member. Later she was elected President of the Intercultural Children’s Libraries Association of Switzerland. She joined IBBY as Executive Assistant in 1997, worked as Administrative Director from 2003-2006 and Director of Member Services, Communications and New Projects until March 2009. She served as IBBY Executive Director from March 2009 to September 2022. 

liz.page@ibby.org

Patricia Aldana was born and brought up in Guatemala and moved to Canada in 1971. In 1978 she founded Groundwood Books with a mandate to publish high-quality Canadian and international children's books for all ages; she remained the publisher until 2012. She was honoured with the Order of Canada in 2010 and has won prizes in Canada for her work in advocating the freedom to read for children and adults. She was elected to the IBBY Executive Committee in 1996 and served for four years. She was later re-elected in 2004 and served for two years as Vice-President before she was elected IBBY President in 2006 serving for four years until 2010. In 2014 she was elected President of the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury and served for the 2016 and 2018 Awards. Patricia is currently President of the IBBY Trust. 

Carolina Ballester was born in Paris and studied in Spain and France, obtaining an MA in Political Science from the Madrid Complutense University and degrees in Chinese and Arabic from the French National Institute of Oriental Studies (INALCO). She worked as a translator and as cultural attaché at the Consulate of Spain in Shanghai. In 2013, she joined the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair team as programme manager and during ten years she promoted and developed international interest in children’s illustration as well as served on juries for children’s illustration catalogues and contests. Carolina brings to IBBY an interest and wide knowledge in children’s literature and illustration, as well as international experience and fluency in several languages, including French, Spanish, English and Mandarin. Carolina joined IBBY as Executive Director on 1 September 2022.

carolina.ballester@ibby.org

Liz Page grew up and lived in England until 1985 when she and her family moved to Basel. She soon became involved with JuKiBu, the Intercultural Children’s Library in Basel, of which she was a founding member. Later she was elected President of the Intercultural Children’s Libraries Association of Switzerland. She joined IBBY as Executive Assistant in 1997, worked as Administrative Director from 2003-2006 and Director of Member Services, Communications and New Projects until March 2009. She served as IBBY Executive Director from March 2009 to September 2022. 

liz.page@ibby.org

Susan Dewhirst was born and grew up in Canada. She studied international relations at the University of Toronto and continued her graduate studies in international economics in Geneva. After working for an investment bank in London, she returned to Switzerland in 1990 and worked on financial projects for a pharmaceutical company in Basel. Thereafter, she pursued studies in English and German literature. She joined IBBY as Administrative Assistant in November 2014.

susan.dewhirst@ibby.org