2026 SIBA Board Election Results
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is pleased to announce the results of the 2026 SIBA Board election. Bunnie Hilliard of Brave + Kind Bookshop in Decatur, Georgia, will return for a second term. Elese Stutts of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Cat Bock of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee; and Courtney Ulrich Smith of Underbrush Books in Rogers, Arkansas will each join the board for their first term. They replace Melissa Taylor from E. Shaver, Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia, Krystle Dandridge from the Book BAR RVA in Richmond, Virginia, and Julia Davis, The Book Worm in Powder Springs, Georgia.
91 bookstores representing 26% of SIBA's voting membership participated in the election, comfortably beyond the 25% required for SIBA to reach a quorum, and the largest number of stores to vote in the last ten years. Courtney Ulrich Smith and Cat Bock are also the first booksellers for Arkansas and Tennessee to serve on the SIBA Board.
Among the challenges the incoming board members identified for bookstores are changes in technology, rising operating costs, making a bookselling career sustainable, and political challenges.
The priorities they identified for the SIBA organization include providing more networking and education opportunities for member stores, helping them develop new revenue streams, and supporting bookstores in times of crisis—be it natural disasters or issues of safety and security.
The incoming board will also face the challenge of revising SIBA's Governance policies, which are currently being updated to better align with the SIBA organization under its revised bylaws.
SIBA booksellers can meet with current board members at the SIBA Annual Meeting, held on Zoom on October 29 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
Cat Bock
Cat Bock is the Store Manager at Parnassus Books. She has worked there since 2014, with a brief stint at Ingram Content Group, and has held a variety of roles, including Buyer, Inventory Manager, and Special Sales Manager. She is passionate about providing exceptional customer service and supporting the greater bookselling community in general, but Southern indies in particular.
Bunnie Hilliard
Bunnie Hilliard, Owner of Brave + Kind Bookshop, in Decatur (Atlanta), Georgia. Black-owned and woman-run, established in 2018. Brave + Kind Bookshop's mission is aimed at prioritizing an intentional collection of diverse and inclusive stories for children. And a few grown-up books to help us all do better as human beings.
Elese Stutts
Elese Stutts is the Director of Buying & Operations at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC. She oversees floor operations and is responsible for adult frontlist and sidelines buying, reorders/inventory management, event ordering, and institutional and school orders. She has worked at Flyleaf for ten years, in positions ranging from frontline bookseller to children's buyer to manager.
Courtney Ulrich Smith
Courtney Ulrich Smith is an Arkansas-based small-business owner and non-profit founder. Her bookstore, Underbrush Books, is a genre-focused, queer-centric bookstore in the heart of historic downtown Rogers, AR. She's passionate about building communities and building relationships with readers and writers.