Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada is an American librarian. She is the adult services assistant manager for the Palos Verdes Library District in Southern California. In 2021, Pelayo-Lozada was elected as president of the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
for the 2022-2023 term; she is the youngest person to be elected ALA president as well as the first
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
.
Early life and education
Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo was born in Southern California. She is
multiracial
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
, describing her heritage as "half white and half Hawaiian-Filipino-Portuguese-with a smidge of Chinese." Pelayo-Lozada has described her background as a multiracial
Native Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawa ...
raised on the Continent as being influential in her work in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
She grew up in Torrance and Gardena, graduating from
Bishop Montgomery High School
Bishop Montgomery High School (commonly referred to as "BMHS" or simply "Bishop" by students) is a Catholic high school serving twenty-five parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. BMHS was founded in 1957, and staffed by the S ...
in 2003.
Pelayo-Lozada attended
El Camino College
El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a two-year public community college located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County known as Alondra Park. She went on to earn two degrees from the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...
: a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2007 and a Master of Library and Information Science in 2009. She wrote her master's thesis describing how cultural information is retained and disseminated among those in the Native Hawaiian diaspora in Southern California.
Career in librarianship
Pelayo-Lozada has worked in multiple public libraries in the Los Angeles area, beginning as a library aide for the
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the lar ...
Rancho Cucamonga
Rancho Cucamonga was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Bernardino County, California, given in 1839 to the dedicated soldier, smuggler and politician Tiburcio Tapia by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant formed parts of p ...
. She joined the Palos Verdes Library District in 2016 as a youth services librarian. In 2018 Pelayo-Lozada became the library district's adult services assistant manager.
Service to librarianship
Pelayo-Lozada has held multiple leadership roles within the American Library Association (ALA), including chairing the Advisory Committee for ALA's Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services from 2016 to 2017. She has served on the ALA Council for several terms, as well as a term on the ALA Executive Board from 2017 to 2020.
In April 2021, Pelayo-Lozada was elected as president of ALA for 2022-2023. After winning, she released a statement discussing her intention to work to make ALA a more inclusive and antiracist organization as well as "a model of organizational excellence and sustainability." She is the first Pacific Islander and the youngest person to be elected president of ALA.
From 2016 to 2017, she was the president of the
Asian Pacific American Librarians Association
The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), also known as the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association,Yamashita, Kenneth A.(2000), Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association— A History of APALA and Its Founders, Library Tr ...
, later going on to become the organization's Executive Director. She also helped establish "Talk Story: Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture," a literacy program specifically designed for Asian Pacific American and American Indian/Alaska Native children.