Mario Ascencio is the Visual Arts Liaison Librarian at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and President of REFORMA. REFORMA is the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking and an affiliate of the American Library Association.
Mario is a member of the American Library Association (ALA); Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL); and the District of Columbia Library Association. He recently served as Chair of the ALA Spectrum Scholarship Jury, member of the ALA Council Committee on Legislation and ACRL’s Government Relations Committee. He is part for the first ALA Emerging Leaders cohort.
Mario has been active with various community projects and services. At George Mason University, he works closely with the Office of Diversity Programs and Services and the Hispanic Student Association (HSA); having served as the HSA Co-Faculty Advisor in 2003-2004. He currently serves on the University’s Diversity Council and the University's Art Council.
Mario is also active outside the University community. Since 2002, he has participated in national lobbying efforts for American libraries and led the REFORMA Legislative Committee from 2004-2006. In 2002, he was appointed by Washington, DC Mayor Anthony Williams to serve on the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, an advisory group to the mayor regarding federal Title V funding for youth services and programming. In 2001, he served as a consultant on Libraries for the Future MetLife Foundation Reading America program, a national book and film discussion series for teens and families. Most recently, he was named by Library Journal as one of their "2008 Movers and Shakers."
As an adult, Mario has never wanted to do anything but to be a librarian. He has worked in academic, public, and special libraries. His involvement in the library profession began as a library page with the County of Los Angeles Public Library. Since then, he has held library positions at the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and the District of Columbia Public Library. He was most recently the Head, Acquisitions & Gifts at George Mason University Libraries.
Mario holds a B.A. in Art History from California State University, Northridge and a minor in Italian which he completed through the California State University International Programs in Florence, Italy. After returning from Italy, he attended the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and received his MLIS in 1999. During his study at UCLA, he interned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was also the recipient of a research grant from the Tinker Foution to conduct research on library services in El Salvador.
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