Larra joined OITP in late 2010. She shares responsibilities for overall management of OITP, along with overseeing its telecommunications portfolio and day-to-day administration of the Program on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century, and supporting a range of grant-funded collaborations. She is the co-principal investigator for the Policy Revolution! initiative, a three-year effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and advance national policy priorities for libraries. Larra also is the OITP staff lead supporting the Digital Inclusion Survey managed by the ALA Office for Research & Statistics and serves as a board member for the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition.
Previously, she served as the project manager in the ALA Office for Research & Statistics for three years. Larra provided day-to-day management of the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, including conducting qualitative research, contributing to and editing final annual study reports, and leading outreach and communications efforts around study findings and materials. She began her ALA career in the Public Information Office as Manager of Media Relations in 2000, following more than a decade of experience in non-profit public affairs, government relations, media relations and print journalism. Larra received her M.S. from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
