Yolanda Cooper has been promoted to dean and university librarian for Emory University, effective July 1. Cooper has served as Emory’s university librarian since 2014.

“Yolanda’s leadership and vision have been essential to advancing Emory’s academic eminence,” says Dwight A. McBride, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “She has worked with library staff to strategically nurture scholarship and research, pathbreaking discovery and curricular innovation; cultivate intersections between research, technology and pedagogical experimentation; and increase connections between communities at Emory and beyond.”

As dean and university librarian, Cooper will continue to lead the Emory Libraries in facilitating the research and learning of faculty, students and staff. Since 2017 she has served as a member of the Council of Deans, through which she will continue to provide insight and partnership to the provost and academic leaders of Emory’s nine schools and colleges. 

For the past year she has served as board president of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries and served as co-chair of the search advisory committee for the vice provost of diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, which has brought Carol E. Henderson to Emory.

Prior to joining Emory, Cooper served as acting dean and university librarian at the University of Miami Libraries. Her background also includes work with research library systems at Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Virginia, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Illinois, Urbana. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master of library science degree, both from Indiana University.