Biographies of Recent MAC/MLA Retirees
Sally Ann Brown West Virginia University Sally Brown, an Information Services Librarian at the West Virginia University Health Sciences Library in Morgantown, retired November 30, 2009 after 34 years of service. She began working at the library in 1975 as an acquisitions assistant. She became a reference assistant after earning an MLIS in 1995 from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. In addition to providing reference service, she also worked with the library’s government documents collection and its History of Medicine Collection. In 2000, she was granted faculty librarian status and was named head of reference, the position from which she retired. Sally was a faithful attendee at MAC/MLA meetings, and she was an enthusiastic member of the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2008 Annual Meeting held in Morgantown. When asked for information for this bio, she said, “I’ve worked with many wonderful people, and to them all I wish to say ‘thank you.’” A sad postscript to this retirement announcement is that Sally passed away on July 6, 2011. Suzanne Grefsheim National Institutes of Health Suzanne Grefsheim was Director of the NIH Library at the National Institutes of Health from 1992 until her retirement on May 31, 2011. Before joining NIH, she was Director of the Taubman Medical Library and Coordinator of Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Michigan, and she had two tours at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. The first was in the late 1970s as director of the media center/instructor at the Dental School, and the second was as Executive Director of the Southeastern Atlantic Regional Medical Library Program from 1986-88. Between those two positions, she worked at Himmelfarb Library, George Washington University Medical Center, where she ultimately was named Associate Director. Suzanne received her Master of Science in Library Science from Catholic University and a Masters degree in Education from the University of Cincinnati. She was elected to the Board of Directors of the Medical Library Association, serving from 1998-2001, and chaired several MLA Committees and Sections over her more than 30 years as an MLA member. Most recently she chaired the MLA Research Policy Task Force that updated and revised the MLA Research Policy. Suzanne was active in the Mid-Atlantic Chapter in the 1970s and 80s, serving as Chapter Chair, as well as chair of the first Chapter Strategic Planning initiative. As a federal librarian, Suzanne continued her professional involvement, representing the Department of Health and Human Services on the Federal Libraries and Information Centers Committee (FLICC) and serving two terms on the FLICC Executive Board from 1996-2001 and 2007-2011. Working in a research setting such as NIH, Suzanne came to believe that librarians need to develop a foundation of evidence based on qualitative and quantitative research to inform their information practice. To that end, she conducted a number of needs assessments and evaluative studies with others, many of which were published in JMLA. The informationist concept generally and the specific implementation of it at the NIH Library were a focus of her recent publications. Suzanne retired on May 31, 2011 after 35 years as a medical librarian. She is thankful to all the people in MAC and MLA with whom she has worked throughout her long career and from whom she learned so much about what it means to be a member of this very special profession. Anne Powers Duke University Medical Center At the end of April, Anne Powers retired from Duke University Medical Center Library, where she worked for sixteen years as an Information and Education Services Librarian and Liaison to the School of Nursing. In 1991, Anne received a Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her first year of graduate school, from 1989 to 1990, Anne interned at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Library in Research Triangle Park, NC. The following year, she was a graduate assistant in the Information Services Department at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Health Sciences Library. Prior to joining Duke University Medical Center Library in 1995, Anne was an Information Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. Before pursuing a career in librarianship, Anne worked as a registered nurse for more than a decade. During her library career, Anne was an active member of MAC and MLA, serving on various committees for both associations. Anne retired as a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals. Kathryn Willis Northern Virginia Community College Three years after graduating from the University of Maryland CLIS program with her MLS, Kathryn Willis was hired to be the Lead Librarian and open the newly-created Northern Virginia Community College Medical Education Campus Library in December, 2003. Barbara Wright, of Virginia Commonwealth University, was her AHIP mentor as she obtained that certification. She supervised and was involved in most aspects of running an academic library, including instruction, collection development, liaison to the several NOVA Nursing and Allied Health programs, staffing, program re-accreditation for Nursing and EMS, and college reaffirmation. She chaired and served on numerous campus and college committees and governance bodies. She was a member of both MLA and MAC/MLA, serving on the MAC Honors and Awards Committee from 2005-2008. When asked for information for this bio, Kathryn said, “I have loved being a Medical Librarian at a community college. Frequently, our students are the first in their families to attempt higher education, and they are delightful people and serious students, often completing their degrees in a second, third, or fourth language. Though I am certainly looking forward to being retired and able to undertake new adventures, I will certainly miss seeing my colleagues and friends on a regular basis.”