Alexa Pearce
Alexa Pearce is the Gershwind and Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications at the Penn Libraries. Pearce leads collection strategy, academic and community engagement, and the administration of eleven departmental libraries and centers. She directs a team of 90 staff and has oversight for a $30 million collections budget, along with stewardship responsibilities for the Libraries’ world-renowned collections of 9.8 million print and electronic volumes and vast array of digital resources. Pearce’s division includes the Penn Libraries Community Engagement team, which engages actively with the broader Philadelphia community and maintains a strong partnership with libraries in the School District of Philadelphia.
Pearce brings an established commitment to shaping and stewarding the scholarly communications ecosystem to her role, as an advocate for open access and publishing solutions that will enable the broad dissemination of Penn’s scholarship.
The departmental libraries within Pearce’s portfolio include the 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 the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections.
Prior to joining Penn Libraries, Pearce served as Associate University Librarian for Research at the University of Michigan, where she led the library’s engagement with research and scholarship across disciplines. At Michigan, Pearce also held roles as Director, Social Sciences and Clark Library and Librarian for History and American Culture. Pearce served as Librarian for Journalism, Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University (NYU) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan School of Information, the Pratt Institute's School of Information, and Long Island University.
Pearce holds a Master of Arts in World History and a Bachelor of Arts in History, both from NYU, along with a Master of Science in Library and Information Science, from Long Island University. Pearce's professional service has included 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.