Debra Hanken Kurtz Appointed DuraSpace CEO

From Michele Kimpton, Chief Executive Officer, DuraSpace, and Paul N. Courant, Chair, DuraSpace Board of Directors, University of Michigan, on behalf of the DuraSpace Board of Directors

Winchester, MA  It brings us great pleasure to announce that the DuraSpace Board of Directors has chosen Debra Hanken Kurtz to serve as the new CEO for the Organization.  Kurtz is currently the Executive Director of the Texas Digital Library.  She will begin in her new role on February 16, 2015 and establish an office in Austin, Texas to manage DuraSpace business operations.

Kurtz brings key relevant experience and skills to DuraSpace. As Executive Director of the Texas Digital Library, she managed and grew membership, operations, and services. She participates in working and planning groups for DPN and SHARE. At both Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill Libraries, Kurtz provided leadership and direction for digital collections, public websites, and early planning efforts for both libraries’ institutional repositories. She was an active partner within the Triangle Research Libraries Network and has been a voice for Kuali OLE, an open-source integrated library system built by and for academic and research libraries. Kurtz’s complete background can be found on linkedin.

The DuraSpace team and Board of Directors is enthusiastic about working with Kurtz and establishing the strategic direction for DuraSpace over the coming years in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital research and scholarship. Leveraging open source technology development to advance our communities’ goals and objectives will continue to be a focus for the DuraSpace organization.

All member organizations will have an opportunity to meet and talk with Kurtz at the upcoming DuraSpace Membership Summit in Washington DC on March 11-12. Meeting invitations and details will be sent out later this week to all member organizations.

The search was conducted by a committee of the Board, augmented by MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian at UC Davis, and Julia Trimmer, Manager Faculty Data Systems, Duke University.

We are grateful to everyone for their continued support throughout this process. As a result of your ongoing interest, engagement and participation DuraSpace is well-positioned to continue to serve our communities by providing leadership and innovation in the development and deployment of open source technologies and managed services that promote durable, persistent access to digital data.

The DuraSpace Board of Directors:

Dan Cohen, Executive Director, Digital Public Library of America

Mike Conlon, Co-Director, University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Director of Biomedical Informatics, UF College of Medicine

Paul N. Courant, Harold T. Shapiro Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Information, the University of Michigan

Tom Cramer, Chief Technology Strategist and Associate Director of Digital Library Systems & Services, Stanford University

Charles J. Henry, President, Council on Library and Information Resources

Anne Jarvis, University Librarian, University of Cambridge

Heather Joseph, Executive Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition

Tyler Walters, Dean of University Libraries, Virginia Tech University

Laura C. Wood, Director of Tisch Library, Tufts University

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