ARL Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs visits UK Libraries

Left to right: Judy Sackett, Sarah Pham,
Mark Puente, LaTrisha Blunt, and Dean Bob Fox

UK Libraries hosted Mark Puente, director of diversity and leadership programs for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), for a visit on July 15, 2015. Puente, who received the EMIERT Distinguished Librarian Award earlier in 2015, is widely recognized for his work in improving, spreading, and promoting multicultural leadership. He visited UK Libraries to meet with this year’s ARL Career Enhancement Program Fellows and their mentors and to speak with UK Libraries faculty and staff about fostering a climate of inclusion. Puente stressed the importance of inclusion and diversity in creating a vibrant, successful library organization.

Puente first met with Dean of Libraries Terry Birdwhistell and oral history librarian Judy Sackett, who serves as the ARL CEP coordinator for UK Libraries. He then met ARL CEP fellows LaTrisha Blunt and Sarah Pham, as well as their supervisors in the Special Collections Research Center: Cindy Cline, Megan Mummey, and Sarah Dorpinghaus. Dean Bob Fox of the University of Louisville Libraries also met with Puente and Dean Birdwhistell.

I am very pleased that Mark Puente was able to visit us and share his knowledge and experiences.  I am also very appreciative of all that Judy Sackett and our faculty and staff do to make the ARL Career Enhancement Program Fellows experiences here at UK beneficial.