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Curtis Brundy has been named Dean of University Libraries, effective April 1. Brundy is currently associate university librarian for Scholarly Communications and Collections at Iowa State University.

The announcement was made in an email sent by Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Fouad Abd-El-Khalick on Jan. 16, which follows below.
 

Dear UMass Community,

It is with great pleasure that I announce Curtis Brundy has been selected as the next dean of University Libraries, effective April 1, 2025. He is an accomplished leader with a proven track record of supporting inclusive excellence, advancing innovation, and prioritizing student success through strategic initiatives.

Curtis comes to UMass Amherst from Iowa State University (ISU), where he has been serving for the last seven years on the leadership team as the Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communications and Collections. He oversees collections and open strategies, metadata services, access services, and research data services. Curtis recently led the Iowa State Library through several important initiatives including strategic planning, AI scenario planning, and the development of journal negotiation principles that were unanimously endorsed by the ISU Faculty Senate.

His research focuses on pricing discrimination in the library journal and database market, and he is an international leader in open access, speaking regularly about open strategy, pricing and publishing integrity. He serves on several boards including IOP Publishing, Open Library of Humanities, and the AAAS/Science Library Advisory Board. As the past chair for the Lever Initiative, an open access press led collectively by a group of academic libraries, he has championed making scholarship available to all. Curtis has also served as a member of the OA2020 US Working Group, an information-sharing community focused on establishing universal open access for scholarly literature. Before joining ISU, he served as the library director of both Wartburg College and Western Nebraska Community College.

Curtis received his bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has also earned a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Texas and a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

I would like to thank the faculty, staff, and students, as well as academic leaders from across campus who participated in the search process. I am likewise grateful to all members of the Dean of Libraries Search Advisory Committee for their commitment and dedication to this search. I applaud the hard work and thoughtful leadership of committee co-chairs, Jackie Urla, dean of the Graduate School and Tilman Wolf, deputy chancellor for operational and organizational strategies and senior vice provost for academic affairs.

I want to express my gratitude to Nandita Mani for her service as the dean of University Libraries, and her continued leadership of this crucial organization through March 31^st. Dean Mani established the Libraries as an essential partner on campus to support faculty research and teaching through the development of systematic reviews and bibliometrics as areas of librarian expertise. She established the Libraries’ Data, Digital Strategy, and Scholarly Communication division to better support campus needs around data management, utilization of AR/VR for curriculum, and expanding library open publishing. Her vision and guidance were instrumental to the formulation and support of new opportunities to enhance open access, including two transformative agreements in scholarly publishing that benefit our campus and the Commonwealth. She prioritized student success by advancing open educational initiatives, which reduce financial barriers for our students. As dean, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion were hallmarks of her leadership style and approach.

I am grateful for Nandita’s efforts as dean over the past two and a half years. I deeply appreciate her dedication to the university and wish her continued success in the role of deputy chancellor for institutional effectiveness.

Please join me in welcoming Curtis to the UMass Amherst community.

All my best,
Fouad Abd-El-Khalick
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs