Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada is the 2022-23 President of the American Library Association and Adult Services Assistant Manager at the Palos Verdes Library District in Southern California. She was the 2019-2022 Executive Director and 2016-2017 President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). She is also a long-time board member for the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature. In 2022 she received the American Library Association Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award and was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in the advocacy category. Much of her work focuses on advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries and librarianship. She lives in San Pedro, California with her poet husband, Chrisitan Hanz Lozada and their menagerie of pets.