Congratulations to Amy Blevins, MALS, Associate Director for Public Services and Gabe Rios, MLIS, Library Director at the IU School of Medicine Library on being named 2026 Medical Library Association (MLA) Fellows.   

Medical Library Association Fellows are association members who are selected by a jury of their colleagues in recognition of sustained and outstanding contributions to health sciences librarianship and leadership in furthering the vision, values, and mission of the association.   

Amy Blevins has an accomplished professional background, including her service as board member, treasurer, and president of the Medical Library Association and a recipient of the Lucretia W. McClure Award for Teaching Excellence and the Ida and George Eliot Prize for the BMJ EBM article she co-authored. This year, she is also receiving the MLA President’s award for her work with the MLA/AAHSL Joint Legislative Task Force, a group that tackles requests for information from the NIH and also looks works on statements, etc on issues that health sciences librarians may be facing. She is currently co-chairing an MLA/AAHSL Educational Research task force that is developing standards for health sciences librarians who are conducting and reporting on educational research. Her leadership in evidence-based practice training initiatives has played a significant role in standardizing and promoting high-quality Evidence-Based Medicine instruction for health sciences librarians, thereby enhancing the profession’s influence on evidence-based healthcare. 

Gabe Rios is a nationally recognized leader, educator, and innovator in the field of medical librarianship. His significant national service includes a tenure on the MLA Executive Board of Directors (2011–2014) and serving as the National Program Committee Chair for the 2011 MLA Annual Meeting. Currently, he shapes the future of the profession as the Chair of the MLA AI Planning Taskforce. Rios has demonstrated a profound commitment to professional education, having taught over 40 accredited MLA Continuing Education (CE) courses for state, regional, and national associations over the past twenty years. This distinguished teaching record was a central pillar in his election as an MLA Fellow (FMLA), as the association specifically recognizes the "teaching or development of a course over a sufficient period of time" as evidence of significant scholarship and professional subject expertise. His instruction has consistently anticipated the leading edge of the profession, adapting from early innovations in mobile technology and PDAs to current strategic training on library leadership and the ethical integration of AI. 

Both Gabe Rios and Amy Blevins provide leadership for the Library’s faculty and staff, whose work and expertise support the School of Medicine’s mission “to advance health in the state of Indiana and beyond by promoting innovation and excellence in education, research and patient care.”