Christie Kaaland, EdD, Professor Emerita, administered the K-12 Library Media Endorsement program for 23 years—a program she developed after seeing the need for certified school librarians in the Pacific Northwest. She joined AUS in 2000 as an adjunct instructor and, in 2003, joined the Core Faculty, teaching in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. 

In 2003, Christie developed the School Library Endorsement by partnering with Mansfield University (PA), which offered a completely online master’s degree in School Library and Information Technologies. From 2003- 2015, Christie led AUS’s partnership with Mansfield University and co-authored several federal grants with Mansfield faculty member, Deb Kachel, to provide library curriculum development and scholarships for teachers seeking to become school librarians. The grant writing succeeded in being awarded almost $2M from the Institute for Museums and Library Service for several grants from 2003 through 2023. In addition to using funds for scholarships, some of the grant funds were used to educate administrators in local school districts on the benefits of having school librarians help improve student learning.

While administering the endorsement program, Christie taught School Library Administration, Information Literacy, and her favorite course, Selections for Collections, a children’s and young adult literature course, for which, in 2025, she published The Children’s Literature Selection Handbook K-8, a text for library science university programs and practicing librarians. Kaaland is the author of many articles published in School Library Connection, Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, Knowledge Quest, and School Library Media Monthly.

From 2014 through 2020, she joined the founder of the Multicultural Children's Literature Celebration, Dr. Jeana Hrepich, and helped administer the week-long multicultural event in local and underserved schools, bringing in award-winning diverse authors and illustrators. 

Prior to her years at Antioch, Christie was a secondary English and drama teacher and the Language Arts Department Chairperson. However, she found her love when she took a position as an elementary school librarian. 

As a strong school library advocate, Christie was a leader in the Washington Library Association’s Advocacy Committee, testifying before the state legislature to require librarians in every public school and earning her lifetime emeritus status with the association. In 2017, she lobbied OSPI to continue to require that school librarians become endorsed through an authorized library science program rather than simply testing out. With Deb Kachel, she co-founded Act4SL (Act for Student Learning; Act for School Libraries), a national grassroots school library advocacy group that today provides free online professional development for school librarians. 

During her tenure at AUS, Christie has been a prolific writer, author, and presenter. In addition to the IMLS grants, she co-wrote two PESB state grants called Alternative Routes to Certification Block Grants, which provided scholarships and an accelerated pathway to teaching certification for paraprofessionals in the Kent School District. In 2010, she was awarded a Chancellor’s Discretionary Academic Innovation grant. From 2015-2022, she served as the Associate Editor of the only scholarly, peer-reviewed school library journal, Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals. Additionally, she was guest editor for the April 2023 issue of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Journal of Education and the March-April 2020 issue of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians. She was also a frequent conference presenter at the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Washington Library Media Association Conferences.