Suellen Denton is originally from Ruston, Louisiana, but she moved to Houston in 1997, graduating from Northbrook Senior High School in the Spring Branch area in 1998. In 1999, she went back to Ruston and graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 2003, with a Bachelor of Arts in History and French.
During her college years, she worked part time as a Library Page for the Lincoln Parish Library from 2000 to 2002. After graduation, she went to Officer Candidate School, Navy in Pensacola, FL where she was commissioned an Ensign. Denton left active duty and went into the Navy Reserves in 2005, and moved back to Houston where she went to work full time at Fondren Library as a Circulation Assistant at Rice University.
Denton began to realize how much she enjoyed libraries and decided that she wanted to become a librarian so she enrolled in the University of North Texas online program. Denton received her Masters in Library Science in summer of 2009. That fall, she received orders to mobilize to the Middle East. She returned in the fall of 2010, resigned her position at Rice, and became a volunteer at the Harris County Archives and at the San Jacinto Museum because of her interest in Special Collections. She assisted them doing preservation and cataloging materials.
In January 2012, Denton was hired by the Harris County Public Library to be the Senior Circulation Assistant at LSCTomball Community Library. At Tomball, she developed a passion for serving the community and decided that she belonged in public libraries instead of special collections. She was promoted to Reference Assistant in 2014 at Tomball and headed up the ESL and Literacy program, overseeing 14 ESL tutors, 2 Literacy tutors and a total of 19 classes. She conducted an ESL Discussion class and created and taught a summer ESL Intermediate class which focuses on helping to improve conversation, speaking, and grammar. She just heard last week from the interim ESL Coordinator at Tomball that her summer class will be a year round class because of its popularity.
As Branch Librarian of Jacinto City Branch Library, Denton will be focusing on programming for children and story time activities with more of an educational element to improve literacy. She would also like to increase ESL and Literacy programming along with other adult other programs starting in the fall. The community will also be seeing them out and about at local schools and community events as well.
Denton says she is excited to be working with the Community of Jacinto City!