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Mary Davis Fournier ’91 Named Public Library Association Executive Director

The American Library Association (ALA) announced today the appointment of Mary Davis Fournier as executive director, Public Library Association (PLA), a division of ALA.

Fournier is a 20-year veteran of ALA, having served in various roles including, most recently deputy director of the Public Programs Office. At ALA, she spearheaded dozens of groundbreaking projects that have paved the way for innovation in the library field, including Libraries Transforming Communities and the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Building Common Ground: Discussions of Community, Civility and Compassion, and the first “One Book” resource, Planning Your Community-Wide Read. She is the co-editor of Act, Listen, Empower: Grounding Your Library Work in Community Engagement (ALA Editions, 2020), which documents the field’s transformational shift toward library-led community engagement.

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