Susan Hildreth

Susan Hildreth is currently the Inaugural Gates-funded Professor of Practice at the University of Washington Information School. She also serves as an Aspen Fellow in the Communications and Society Program advancing the work of the Dialogue on the Future of Public Libraries. Formerly, she was the Executive Director of Peninsula Library System, Pacific Library Partnership, and the Califa Group in California. She served as the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position, from January 2011 through January 2015. Hildreth is the former city librarian of Seattle, Washington, where she managed the Seattle Public Library. Prior to Seattle, Hildreth was the state librarian of California, appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She also served as the city librarian of the San Francisco Public Library and in other leadership positions in California public libraries. She began her career as a branch librarian in the Edison Township (New Jersey) Public Library system. Hildreth graduated cum laude from Syracuse University and holds a master’s degree in library science from the State University of New York at Albany as well as a master’s degree in business from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.