Alexa Pearce named Gershwind & Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexa Pearce as Gershwind & Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications. As a member of the Libraries' senior leadership team, she will direct collection strategy, scholarly communications, academic and community engagement, and the administration of eleven departmental libraries and centers that serve professional schools and specific subject areas across Penn.

"Alexa is a strong leader who will champion Penn's faculty, academic leaders, and students and ensure robust support for their research and educational goals," says Brigitte Weinsteiger, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries. "Our libraries are an integral part of Penn's academic fabric, and Alexa will lead our continued success in advancing library services to campus, enhancing academic and community engagement, and providing unparalleled access to resources, data tools, and expert guidance."

Pearce will lead a team of 90 staff, oversee a $30 million collections budget, and steward the Libraries' world-renowned collections of 9.8 million print and electronic volumes and vast array of digital resources. She will also administer departmental libraries and centers across Penn, including Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, Fisher Fine Arts Library, Albrecht Music Library, Penn Museum Library, Holman Biotech Commons, Levy Dental Medicine Library, two Veterinary Medicine Libraries, Chemistry Library, Math/Physics/Astronomy Library, and Center for Global Collections.

In addition, Pearce will play a key role in shaping the local and global scholarly communications ecosystem, advocating for open access, and implementing innovative publishing solutions that promote the broad dissemination of Penn’s scholarship. She will also direct staff in actively engaging with the broader Philadelphia community and maintaining a strong program with libraries in the School District of Philadelphia.

"I am thrilled to join the Penn Libraries and University of Pennsylvania community in this role that touches so many of the university’s strategic pursuits and elements of its core mission," says Pearce. "It is an exciting time to grow and enhance the libraries’ effective and inventive integration of resources and expertise into Penn’s academic and research activities, especially noting the opportunities to disseminate Penn’s distinctly impactful contributions of scholarship, evidence, and interventions. I look forward to building relationships and partnerships in service to Penn’s mission."

Currently Pearce is Associate University Librarian for Research at the University of Michigan Library. Her previous roles at Michigan have included Director of Social Sciences & Clark Library and Librarian for History & American Culture. She has also worked as Librarian for Journalism, Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU and held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan School of Information, the Pratt Institute's School of Information, and LIU's Palmer School.

Pearce's professional service includes participation in the OCLC Research Library Partnership Leadership Roundtable, HELIOS Open, CHORUS Academic Advisory Working Group, and Big Ten Academic Alliance Heads of Public Services.

She received an M.A. in world history from New York University and a M.S.L.I.S. from Long Island University's Palmer School of Library and Information Science.

Pearce will begin work at Penn on March 10.