Meet John Sandstrom!: An RT member profile by Tess Goldwasser

By Tess Goldwasser

John has served several roles in the GLBTRT (and its predecessor, the GLBTF).  He served on the book award committee back in the late 1980’s, and was co-chair the year they had Quentin Crisp and Armistead Maupin as guests. He also served as our Stonewall Book Award Brunch chair for a few years. In fact, he was the one who made it a brunch rather than a breakfast! Most recently, John was our first RT Councilor, and one of the RT’s representatives to the Diversity Council.

Through the exposure he received working for the RT, he is now serving his second term on the Office of Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) Advisory Committee. In fact, this year begins his second stint as Chairperson of the OLOS Advisory Committee. He is also an At-Large member of ALA Council.

Professionally, he is an Associate Professor of the College Faculty and Acquisitions Librarian at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  His career has been circular: he started in academic libraries, moved to public libraries, then to working for a vendor, back to public libraries, and now he’s landed back in academia.

His hobbies are weaving, spinning, and school. He’s currently working on a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Development. He’s active in music and reading, and he is finishing up editing his first book.  He’s an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and (for something completely different) a novice of the Franciscan Community of Mercy, part of the American National Catholic Church.

John has a passion for social justice.  He says, “Being down here on the Mexican border where over 70% of the population is non-Anglo but all the power (i.e. Politics, money, and land) is owned by them has brought home to me that we do not live in a post-racial society and that as minorities ourselves we must all hang together lest we be hung separately. This is part of my activity on my campus, in my personal life, in my professional life, and as part of my doctorate.”

He is very proud to have mentored 4 people through their MLS degrees. He is also proud that he was able to maintain his GPA for his second masters while continuing to work full time and undergoing treatment for Testicular Cancer. He adds “Although I honestly hope that I never have to repeat the experience!”

His goals are to finish his book, and his EdD, write a cookbook of murderous recipes, be elected to the ALA Executive Board, become the Dean of Libraries somewhere in New Mexico, and end his life as “a gentleman farmer surrounded by alpacas, yaks, and other exotic mammals.”

If John were an animal, he’d like to be a magpie. He says, “At least then most of my stuff would be shiny.”

If he could have a dinner party with five culturally or historically significant figures, living or dead, he would invite His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Chinggis Khan, J. R. R. Tolkien, Nicolai Tesla, and Queen Elizabeth II.