The Wyoming Library Association 2016 Conference tomorrow, Oct. 27, will feature live streamed morning and afternoon keynote speakers. Bob Beck, News Director at Wyoming Public Radio, will speak at 9:30 a.m., and Eugene M. Gagliano, author and Wyoming State Poet Laureate, will take the mic at 2:15 p.m. You can watch either at one of the host sites or log in remotely. Here’s a little more about both of them.
Bob Beck
News Director, Wyoming Public Radio
Bob Beck has been News Director of Wyoming Public Radio since 1988. Under his leadership, WPR has won 94 national, regional and state news awards. Bob has received the Wyoming Education AssociationSchool Bell Award for education reporting and was honored by the Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving for his reporting. He was also the voice of an Emmy award winning documentary on memory. He has covered the Wyoming Legislature longer than any broadcaster in the state and is a frequent political guest and host on Wyoming PBS.
Bob also taught broadcast news at the University of Wyoming for 20 years and his 1998 television reporting class won a regional Emmy for reporting excellence. He also was twice given a Top Prof award by the UW Mortar Board. Prior to coming to WPR, Bob worked as a News and Sportscaster at stations in Wyoming and Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio-Television from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and is a native of Wheaton, Illinois in suburban Chicago.
Eugene M. Gagliano
Author, Wyoming State Poet Laureate
Gene Gagliano is a retired elementary school teacher from Buffalo and is the eighth Poet Laureate in state history. He has written award-winning children’s books and adult poetry that celebrates life in Wyoming and the West. Gagliano is a recipient of the 2001 Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award and the International Reading Association’s 2004 Wyoming State Literacy Award. His published works include Dee and the Mammoth; C is for Cowboy, a Wyoming Alphabet; Four Wheels West, a Wyoming Number Book; My Teacher Dances on the Desk and Prairie Parcels.