Collaborator. Problem Solver. Librarian. Scholar.

My career in librarianship has taken place in large, research-intensive universities and I feel most at home in the higher education ecosystem. I believe that the academic library’s collections, services, and spaces have a unique role to play in helping the university meet its strategic goals.

I developed my problem solving skills during my many years working in metadata creation and remediation. I consider cataloging a public service and believe in the power of well-formed metadata to support search and discovery within the library catalog and archival finding aid ecosystems. As a serials cataloger and, later, a special collections cataloger, I developed and documented local procedures that aligned with national-level standards. In all of my roles with metadata creation and remediation, I prioritized working with colleagues in public services roles to solve problems and make collections more discoverable for users.

Over the past five years, my career has pivoted into roles that have focused on organizational strategy, change management, and gathering quantitative and qualitative data that informs institutional priorities. I worked with colleagues to revise the library’s strategic plan and managed the process of developing an Inclusive Excellence plan. I managed projects to document and improve outward-facing policies and internal workflows. I designed and facilitated an internal, year-long change management process to identify new and emerging university priorities and identify how the library could change and grow to meet these needs. I worked with library administrators and university leaders on questions related to the scholarly and societal impact of research outputs produced by the university’s researchers. I developed and deployed a campus-wide user satisfaction survey to understand user perceptions of the library’s collections, services, and spaces. I collaborated with colleagues to develop an in-house professional development unconference for the library’s faculty and staff.

I have had the good fortune to hone a unique set of skills in various roles that I have held during the course of my career. I have facilitated countless meetings, including agenda setting and following action items to completion. I have worked to bring groups of people to consensus who come to conversations with varying priorities and experiences. I have developed and facilitated change management activities during meetings and retreats which spark conversations about an organization or group’s strengths and opportunities for growth.

My career has been shaped my my “why,” which is to leave every workplace or committee I’m involved with in better shape than I found it. I strive to be a leader who amplifies the voices of the people with whom I am working. I am happiest when I am working with others to build good solutions to difficult problems. I am driven by my deep love of learning new things and acquiring new skills, my ability to cultivate partnerships, and my belief that we are more successful when we work together.