New University Librarian Named by University of Illinois - Chicago

Information Community News

Rhea Ballard-Thrower will become the new University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Illinois Chicago, effective February 1, 2021, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Rhea Ballard-Thrower is currently the Executive Director of the Howard University Library System, which includes Founders Library, the Undergraduate Library and Moorland-Spingarn Archives. Ballard-Thrower is a tenured professor at the Law School at Howard University where she teaches Advanced Legal Research and instructs incarcerated college students as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Institute. She began her career in 1989 as a reference librarian at the University of Texas School of Law Tarlton Law Library and subsequently held the position of Associate Director at the Georgia State University College of Law Library prior to her appointment at Howard University. Ballard-Thrower has a Master of Information and Library Studies from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law.

As the Executive Director for the Howard University Library System, Ballard-Thrower has worked to develop programming and synergy between the University Libraries, Health Sciences Library and the Law Library. 

The full text of the UIC announcement may be found here.