Tessa Michaelson Schmidt

Position title: Director

Email: tessa.schmidt@wisc.edu

Phone: 608-263-3721

Tessa Michaelson Schmidt photo

Tessa Michaelson Schmidt is the Director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tessa previously served as the Assistant State Superintendent of the Division for Libraries and Technology at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and as the Youth and Inclusive Services Consultant at DPI.  She also worked as a public librarian at the  Ruby M. Sisson Memorial Library in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where she was Assistant Director; as a librarian at the CCBC; as a school librarian at Wingra School in Madison; and as a teacher at Wingra School. Tessa chaired the American Library Association/Association for Library Service to Children (ALA/ALSC) 2019 Batchelder Award Committee, served on the 2016 ALA/ALSC Caldecott Committee, and has chaired or served on several ALA/ALSC task forces and process committees. She has also been a member of several CCBC Charlotte Zolotow Award committees. During her previous tenure as a CCBC librarian, Tessa coauthored several editions of CCBC Choices, the library’s annual best-of-the-year list.  Tessa was the Wisconsin Library Association Librarian of the Year in 2014.  She has a B.S. in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.