Dawn Betts-Green

Dawn Betts-Green is an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with additional appointments as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Florida State University and Adjunct Lecturer at Old Dominion University. She teaches courses including Children's Materials, Teen Materials, and Community Archives.

Her academic credentials include a PhD and MLIS in Library and Information Studies, alongside three Bachelor's degrees in Women's Studies, Religion, and English (Creative Writing), all from Florida State University.

Her research centers on radical and social justice librarianship frameworks, with primary emphasis on LGBTQIA+ representation in young adult literature, intellectual freedom advocacy, and information literacy pedagogy through equity-focused lenses. She investigates rural library services in the U.S. South, comics/graphic novels as information resources, and systemic diversity challenges within Library and Information Studies education and practice.

Notable recognitions include:

• Point Foundation LGBTQ Scholar (2016)
• iSchool Excellent Instructor Award (2022-2025)

As a first-generation college graduate from a low-income Alabama background who has been openly LGBTQIA+ since 1996, she champions visibility and inclusive pedagogy. Her dissertation examined LGBTQ resources in rural Alabama libraries, with plans to expand this research across the Southeast.