Dear UMB Community: 

We are pleased to announce that Emily Hurst, MSLS, will be the next dean of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library and associate vice provost at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). She joins UMB from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she serves as deputy director and head of the Research and Education Department for VCU Libraries, Health Sciences Library. She will start at UMB on Feb. 1, 2024, and report to Provost Ward. 

Emily has over 15 years of experience working for health science libraries. At VCU, she oversees the operations of a diverse group of liaison librarians and ensures that the library meets the information needs of health sciences students, faculty, and staff. She is committed to improving library relationships with university groups and supporting community health information needs. Having previously worked as the technology coordinator for the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Region 3, she has a strong background in NLM resources and experience integrating them into educational settings as well as providing health information outreach to community members and state and local health professionals. At VCU, she has worked closely with outreach efforts in the Richmond community as well.

Emily serves as an elected member of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Board of Directors and is active in the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of MLA. She has been recognized for her achievement in health science librarianship and leadership by MLA as well as state and local library associations. This year, she won MLA’s prestigious Estelle Brodman Award as the Academic Health Sciences Librarian of the Year. She received her Master of Science in Library Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her bachelor’s in history from the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

We want to thank those who participated in our comprehensive national search, especially the search committee led by Andrew Coop, PhD, professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and associate dean for academic affairs, School of Pharmacy, and Kristina Alayan, JD, MLIS, associate dean for library and technology and associate law school professor, Francis King Carey School of Law. We also thank everyone else who met with the candidates and provided meaningful input and feedback about the candidates and the search process. 

We know that you will join us in congratulating Emily and welcoming her to UMB.

Sincerely,
 

Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS                                                           Roger J. Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA
President                                                                                    Provost and Executive Vice President