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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Library and Information Services (LIS) Dean Lis Pankl, PhD, has selected Juliet Gray to be associate dean for research, teaching and engagement. Gray steps into the permanent role after serving as the interim assistant dean since 2017.

Gray will work collaboratively with the dean and the LIS administrative team to collectively provide strategic leadership and management. She will provide administrative oversight for the Biomedical Library at the School of Dental Medicine and provide high level research support for the health sciences at SIUE. Working closely with a team that includes Online Learning Librarian Mitchell Haas, Biomedical Library staff member Susie Oettle and a cohort of graduate students, Gray will elevate the health sciences profile within LIS.

“Juliet brings a wealth of experience in higher education administration, as well as health sciences librarianship to this key position,” Pankl said. “The focus of this administrative position is to build a stronger infrastructure for research, teaching, and engagement within Library and Information Services, and to create impactful partnerships campus-wide.”

Gray sees LIS faculty and staff as possessing a unique set of knowledge and skills. “My goal is to work with the dean and my library colleagues both to anticipate partnerships, and to participate in campus-wide initiatives that enhance research, teaching, and student success,” she said. “We can achieve this goal by developing research and teaching collaborations with faculty colleagues across campus. Increased partnerships will enable LIS to better leverage library spaces and collections in a way that both celebrates and inspires a diverse and inclusive campus.”

Gray brings 15 years of experience in various roles as a faculty member in academic libraries, serving as a subject librarian within the humanities, the sciences, and most notably, the health sciences. She also served in leadership roles as the head of reference and instruction at Indiana State University’s Library from 2005-07.

Gray joined the SIUE faculty in 2007 as the sciences and health sciences librarian, but departed in 2012 to accompany her husband on his military assignment, then returned to SIUE in 2016.

Along with her LIS interim assistant dean responsibilities, Gray also served as interim director of research commons from 2017-2020, during which she continued to provide discipline-specific outreach for research and teaching to the Schools of Dental Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. In addition to her experience teaching library instruction at SIUE, she has also taught within the Honors Program.

Gray sees LIS as a centering and inclusive space that provides teaching, resources, and services for the entire campus community and beyond. “Being a part of a unit that is dedicated to the success of all SIUE students, faculty, and staff makes working at Lovejoy Library extremely rewarding,” she said. “I am continually energized by the work of my colleagues and the numerous opportunities available to enhance student success and support faculty scholarship.”

An eastern Pennsylvania native, Gray is a member of a military family that eventually settled in Belleville when her father was stationed at Scott AFB.

Gray earned a bachelor’s in English from Eastern Illinois University and followed with a master’s in English from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She attained a master’s in library science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her publication and research interests include: innovation in library space and administration, library instruction within the health sciences, and library outreach.

Photo: Juliet Gray, SIUE Library and Information Services associate dean for research, teaching and engagement.