LOS ANGELES — Athena Jackson, Penn State University Libraries’ Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library, has been named to an international cohort of 17 top managers of academic libraries as Library Senior Fellows at UCLA in 2018. The cohort will participate in a three-week residential program featuring lectures, guest speakers, case studies and field trips.

“I’m delighted to welcome this distinguished group of accomplished library managers to the Senior Fellows program,” said Brian E. C. Schottlaender, director of the Library Senior Fellows program at UCLA, himself a member of the 1995 cohort. “Through the competitive selection process, these individuals have demonstrated that they are part of the next generation of library leaders in the academic world.”

Library Senior Fellows at UCLA combines management perspectives, strategic thinking, and practical and theoretical approaches to the issues confronting academic institutions and their libraries. Of some 250 alumni, nearly half have gone on to positions as library directors. The program is a collaborative effort of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, the UCLA Library, and Ithaka S+R.

Schottlaender announced the cohort’s members earlier this spring:

• Consuella Askew, director, John Cotton Dana Library, Rutgers University;
• Nathalie Cooke, associate dean, McGill University Library;
• Karen Diaz, interim dean of libraries, West Virginia University;
• Melinda Reagor Flannery, assistant university librarian for technical services, Rice University;
• Tracy Gabridge, deputy director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries;
• Alan Grosenheider, acting university librarian, UC Santa Barbara;
• Athena Jackson, Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Penn State University Libraries;
• Lee Keene; head of instructional and research services; Whitman College Library;
• Melissa Levine, lead copyright officer, University of Michigan Library;
• Monica McCormick, associate university librarian for scholarly publishing and research, University of Delaware;
• Rosalyn Metz, director, library technology and digital strategies, Emory University;
• Trisha Mileham; director of library research services, Valparaiso University;
• Rebecca Richardson, assistant dean for collections and access, Purdue University Libraries;
• Timothy Shearer; associate university librarian for digital strategies and intellectual property, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
• Jonathan Smith, director, library technology, Sonoma State University;
• Catherine Soehner, associate dean for research and user services, University of Utah Library; and 
• Ruth Wallach, associate dean for public services, University of Southern California Libraries.

More information on the Senior Fellows program is available at seniorfellows.library.ucla.edu; members of the media may contact Dawn Setzer, 310-825-0746 or dsetzer@library.ucla.edu.