staff

Library Director	Donita Carlquist-Ward
Donita has been with the Wells Branch Community Library since 2002, serving first as the Children's Librarian and then as Director since 2004. She and her two children moved to Wells Branch in 2000. Donita graduated from Governors State University and is currently working on her MLIS at Texas Woman's University. She enjoys quiet evenings at home with her husband, live theater, and trying new restaurants- preferably those with extensive dessert menus.
Assistant Library Director	Daniel Berra
Daniel was born and raised in the sprawling metropolis of Houston. He then moved to Austin and graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Geography. After school, he returned to Houston to work at an engineering firm. Before too long and fed up with the corporate life, the fond memories of Austin lured him back. Daniel now happily serves as assistant director at the library. His interests outside the library include writing and painting. He is involved with environmental and peace groups in Austin. You can often find him perusing the fresh produce at the farmer’s market downtown on the weekends.
Children's Librarian	Traci Hudson
Traci is a crafty mama that likes to make hand-dyed dolls and fabric play food. When she's not reading to children, you can find her in her sewing room. Traci most recently hails from Ohio, where she attended grad school for fiction writing.
Reference Librarian	Tristan Boyd, MSIS
Tristan Boyd was born in Ames Iowa in 1981. From there he moved to Utah, moved back to live on the same street in Iowa, moved to Colorado Moved in Colorado, moved to Oregon, moved in Oregon and finally moved to Texas. He went to Trinity University in San Antonio where he studied a multitude of subjects but received his BA degree in History with a minor in Medieval-Renaissance Studies in 2004. He then studied Information Science at UT Austin, and received his MSIS in 2006.
Volunteer Coordinator	Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes was born in Pasadena, TX and has lived, gone to school, and worked in Austin since 1981. Interest in the library began as a volunteer in the summer of 2005. He was soon offered the job of Volunteer Coordinator and eagerly joined. Through the better part of 2005 & 2006 he additionally worked as the library's gardener. He enjoys beat poetry, short story anthologies, off beat fiction, graphic novels and searching the E bins for bedtime stories with daughter Tallulah and wife Sarah.
Library Associate	Cassidy Austin
Cassidy grew up in Southern California then moved to Austin to attend school as a Major in Fine Arts and Interior Design. Cassidy loves to craft, paint, and design things of all sorts. She loves being outdoors hiking with her dogs through the Texas Hill Country and traveling back and forth from Texas to California. You will also find her playing dress up at all of the Renaissance Festivals and Anime/Comic/Gaming Conventions around Texas on the weekends.
Circulation Supervisor	Natalee Corbett
Natalee grew up in the wilds of West Texas. After 22 years in the desert, she had had quite enough of pump jacks and tumbleweeds, so she packed up and headed east for the deep, deep south. She ended up in Athens, GA where she completed her bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Georgia. Although she loved the tall pines and antebellum mansions, she loved Texas more and moved back to live in Austin. She loves reading, baking, her cat and dog, live music, coffee and her library.
Administrative Assistant	Mary Alverson
Mary after 40+ years of government employment, has started to slow down. She is currently here at the Wells Branch Community Library working part time as an Administrative Assistant. Her other time is spent enjoying the Red Hats Society, Bowling, Traveling, and having time to spend with family and friends.
Library Assistant	Eddie Carlin
Eddie was born right here in Austin, Texas and has not lived in any other interesting places, although he has travelled extensively through most of the United States. He began working at the library as a volunteer in the summer of 2005, and started as a staff member in December of 2006. In August of the following year, he left for the school year, but he returned in July 2008 and is happy to be back. He doesn't have any fancy educational titles yet, but he is planning on attending Texas A&M in Fall 2009, where he hopes to study International Relations or Creative Writing or possibly even Cinematography. Really everything except math. His three passions are playing and writing music for piano (he has played for 9 years, and is just starting to learn violin), writing creative fiction, and travel, especially learning foreign languages and cultures (so far he understands Spanish and French and is thinking Italian is probably next).