The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has elected its 2020–21 Executive Board. Newly named officers, who will serve one-year terms, include Richard Reyes-Gavilan (Executive Director, DC Public Library) as Chair; Mary J. Wardell-Ghirarduzzi (President, San Francisco Public Library Commission; Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer, University of San Francisco) as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect; Brandon Neal (Trustee, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library; Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Legal Officer for Novant Health) as Secretary/Treasurer; and Vickery Bowles (City Librarian, Toronto Public Library) as Immediate Past Chair. The ULC Executive Board also welcomed three new members who will be serving two-year terms: Sarah Campbell (Executive Director, Portland Public Library); Michelle VonderHaar (Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, HP Inc.); and Roosevelt Weeks (Director, Austin Public Library).

Former University of Missouri­–Kansas City Dean and Professor John Herron stepped into his new role as director of the Kansas City Public Library on July 6. He replaces former Director Crosby Kemper, currently Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Stephanie Davis-Kahl has been named the Illinois Wesleyan University Librarian and Copyright Officer, succeeding Scott Walter, who was recently named Dean of Library and Information Access at San Diego State University. Davis-Kahl previously served as Collections and Scholarly Communications Librarian and Professor at Illinois Wesleyan’s Ames Library.

The Newark Public Library, NJ, has appointed Joslyn Bowling Dixon as its new Director, effective August 3. Bowling Dixon most recently served as the Deputy Director of the Prince William Public Library System in Virginia and the Chair of the Virginia Library Association’s (VLA) Librarians of Color Forum and VLA’s Vice President.

Simon & Schuster has named Dana Canedy as Senior Vice President and Publisher. Canedy has been the Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes since 2017 and spent 20 years as a reporter and Senior Editor at the New York Times.

Dawn Durante will become the next Editor in Chief of the University of Texas Press on August 10.

Britten Follett, Executive Vice President of Follett School Solutions, has been named to the Educational Book & Media Association’s board of directors.

Joan R. Johnson, Deputy Director of Milwaukee Public Library since 2009, will become the system’s new Director to replace to Paula Kiely, who is retiring after 25 years with the system and 14 as its Director.

Nicole Jordan, previously Principal Librarian of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has been appointed as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Principal Librarian, to begin her tenure in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2020–21 season.

Lee Keesler, who has served as CEO of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC, for eight years, will be retiring March 31, 2021.

The Library of Congress has appointed Lanisa Kitchiner as Chief of the African and Middle Eastern Division. Kitchiner most recently served as Director of Education and Scholarly Initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art from 2014–20.

Lisa Lucas, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation (NBF), will join Pantheon and Schocken Books as Senior Vice President, Publisher. Lucas will begin the new role after completing her work with the NBF at the end of 2020.

Barbara Macikas, Executive Director of the Public Library Association since 2009, has announced her retirement effective August 31.

Lis Pankl has stepped into the role of Dean of Library and Information Services at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, replacing Interim Dean Lydia Jackson. Pankl was previously Associate Professor and Faculty and Graduate Services Librarian at Kansas State University.

Niko Pfund, President of Oxford University Press USA, has assumed the Presidency of the Association of University Presses.

Ian Singer, previously an executive at ProQuest/Bowker and Credo Reference and former Group Publisher of Library Journal, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book, has been named Chief Executive Officer of LibraryPass, Inc.

Elizabeth Williams, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts–Lowell, has received a Library of Congress Kluge Fellowship to spend nearly a year finishing her first book and start research on her second.