UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — David Aycock, deputy director of Baylor University Press, has been named executive director of the Penn State University Press, effective Aug. 1.
“I am excited to welcome David to the helm of Penn State University Press. He brings excellent experience from his work at Baylor University Press, and I look forward to working with him in this new role to keep advancing the mission of the press and the University,” said Faye A. Chadwell, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications.
The executive director reports to the dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications and works closely with an associate director, an assistant director and editor-in-chief, and four other departmental heads: in IT; sales and marketing; journals; and business, finance and warehouse. They oversee a dedicated staff of approximately 30 people working remotely or on site.
Aycock has held various positions at Baylor University Press including his most recent position as deputy director, which he has held since 2022. He served as interim director from May 2019 through December 2021 and previously was associate director for marketing, sales and publicity. Over his career, he also secured more than $250,000 of external funding, including authoring a successful $90,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
“Penn State University Press is among the best branded, most brilliantly curated and highly regarded university presses in the country. It is extraordinarily appealing to me as a mission-centered publishing house focused on giving a human voice to many issues and fields that I care about personally: race, religion, history, literature, the arts and the environment, to name a few,” Aycock said. “I’m acutely aware of the many challenges facing academic publishing as we head into the second half of the 2020s: artificial intelligence, open access, the sales decline of the scholarly monograph and shrinking library budgets, among others. I believe that a high-performing publishing house demands leadership who knows how to make a university press shine, deal in the currencies of academia, navigate the complex modern marketplace and exploit new opportunities and resources to build reputational prestige. I look forward to providing this leadership at Penn State University Press.”
The executive director works with the press leadership team and staff to establish an overall vision for the press, including a long-term commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. The position oversees the financial management of the press and, among other duties, is responsible for fostering key strategic relationships within the University and in the broader academic publishing world.
As a vital component of the University community, Penn State University Press reflects many of the University’s academic strengths in the liberal arts. Overall, the press publishes about 90 books and 80 journal titles — approximately 175 issues — annually. Under the Penn State University Press imprint, titles include academic publications by researchers around the world in a number of fields and disciplines for a global readership. Under the Eisenbrauns imprint, these include academic books about the languages, archaeology and history of the ancient Near East. The Graphic Mundi imprint includes graphic novels for popular audiences that speak to social, environmental and contemporary cultural issues.
The press also recognizes its special responsibility to develop publications about Pennsylvania, both scholarly and popular, that enhance interest in the region and spread awareness of the commonwealth’s history, culture and environment.