About

Collaborator. Problem Solver. Librarian. Scholar.

I love building the infrastructure that helps organizations grow into the best versions of themselves. I am at my best when the problem is hard, the structure doesn’t exist yet, and the path toward building a solution requires collaborating with people.

I’ve worked in academic libraries for 20 years, first as a Cataloger and then in a variety of roles whose job titles included the words “Administrative Projects,” “Effectiveness,” “Strategy,” and “Impact.” These roles made use of soft skills that I’ve acquired through professional service such as facilitation, project design and management, process and procedure documentation, and data collection and reporting. Basically, I’m good at working with groups of every size, designing and carrying out projects, and operationalizing strategic vision. You can learn more about my work experience on the Work Experience tab.

While working full-time, I earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. I completed coursework in the economics, finance, organization and governance, policy, and history of higher education. I combined my training as a librarian and my interests in politics and higher education policy, organization and governance, and the history of higher education to write a primary source based dissertation on the development of three land-grant colleges (Alcorn University, the University of Georgia, and Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College) in the period between 1862 and 1910. In addition to my work on the history of southern land grant colleges, I have also presented and published about academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure.

One of my great joys has been engaging in volunteer service to the professions of librarianship and of higher education scholarship. I was a volunteer leader in the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) within ALA, rising within its Continuing Resources Section to serve as Chair. I also served as Chair of the Graduate Student Committee and as co-editor of the SIG newsletter for the Qualitative Research Special Interest Group (QRSIG) of the American Educational Research Association. I currently serve as a volunteer leader in Core, the ALA division devote to leadership and management, technical services, and technology. These opportunities have taught me invaluable lessons about meeting facilitation, working with distributed teams, building consensus, and collaborating to improve internal infrastructure and to build new things.

I’m more than the honorific I earned and the service in which I’ve taken part. I enjoy hobby jogging, indie rock, travel, reading, making things with my hands, and women’s basketball (college, WNBA, and Unrivaled). I love wearing bright colors and bold patterns. I like feeling joy and being grateful. And I love to laugh.