COPPUL Executive Director Announcement

On behalf of the COPPUL Board, I am excited to announce that Jean Blackburn (she/her) has been hired as our new Executive Director, starting on April 15. 

Jean joins COPPUL from Nanaimo, BC, where she is a grateful guest on the traditional and unceded lands of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. In her 25-year career as a faculty librarian at Vancouver Island University, Jean has worked in a range of leadership roles in collections management and e-resource licensing, interlibrary loans and data services. She has worked closely with colleagues to lead and coordinate digital preservation, scholarly communications and Indigenization and decolonization initiatives. Jean has contributed to many significant strategic and operational changes at VIU Library, promoted open access publishing, respectful representation of Indigenous peoples and knowledges, and equitable access to resources for library users. Jean has significant experience within consortia, having been an active participant in a range of COPPUL committees, CRKN committees, and BC ELN committees.  

I am so glad that Jean will be joining COPPUL and I am looking forward to working with her. Her passion for collaborative work across libraries, her experience and knowledge of COPPUL’s membership and areas of strategic focus and the relationships between them, and broader issues in academic librarianship will be tremendous assets for COPPUL as Jean takes on this role.

Sincerely,

Meagan Bowler
Chair, COPPUL Board of Directors