75 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine EDUCATION At the age of 15, Dr. Sylverna V. Ford was hired by the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She worked at Pratt throughout her high school years and in various libraries during college. The librarian for whom she worked during the summer between her junior and senior years of college encouraged her to become a librarian. In 1974, she received an MLS from the University of Maryland in College Park. Her first job after completing Library School was as a Reference Librarian and, later, the Acting Readers’ Services Librarian at Washington Technical Institute (WTI). In 1977, WTI merged with other institutions to form the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). Dr. Ford remained with UDC until 1985 and served as Librarian for the Business Branch Library, Unit Supervisor of the Van Ness Campus Library, Head of Circulation, and Coordinator of Reference and Circulation. In 1985, she relocated to Pittsburgh, where she served as Head of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon University until 1988. She was Assistant to the Library Director from 1988 to 1990 and Executive Director of the Oakland Library Consortium from 1990 to 1994. After earning a PhD in Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh, she joined Minnesota State University, Mankato, serving as Dean of Library Services and as Chief Information Officer and Dean of Information Services. Thereafter, she relocated to Tennessee, where she served as Dean of University Libraries for 17 years before assuming the position of professor in the University Libraries, a role she continues to fill today. Dr. Ford is a member of the St. Andrew A.M.E. Church. She remains active with the Kiwanis Club of Germantown, where she served as president in 2015. She presents at conferences locally and nationally and was a committee chair for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She served on the executive committee of The Confucius Institute at the University of Memphis and is on the Board of Directors of the Circles of Success Learning Academy. Dr. Ford received the 2010 Educational Freedom Award from the University’s chapter of the NAACP and the 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award from the University of Memphis. DR. SYLVERNA V. FORD PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES University of Memphis Memphis, TN
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