Mary Lee Kennedy, a nationally respected leader in the library community, was named The New York Public Library’s Chief Library Officer in 2013. She is tasked with accelerating the Library’s digital initiatives and further strengthening both the research and circulating divisions of the Library.

Prior to her appointment at NYPL, Kennedy was Senior Associate Provost at Harvard University, where she was the central administrative leader of one of the world’s greatest research library networks. In the position, Kennedy led projects and initiatives connected to Harvard priorities, such as open access and scholarly communications, digital scholarship, online learning and collections development and management. Previously, she was Executive Director of Knowledge and Library Services at Harvard Business School, where she was also on the Presidential Task Force to establish a 21st century strategy and structure for Harvard’s 73 libraries. She has ten years of experience in the information technology field, including seven leading Microsoft’s knowledge network group.

She earned her B.A. at the University of Alberta and her M.L.S. at Louisiana State University.