Kate Flewelling Named Alumni Medical Library Director

Kate Flewelling headshotKate Flewelling will become the Director of the Alumni Medical Library, effective July 1, 2021. She will take over with Mary Blanchard’s retirement after 25 years of service, including as Director of the Library for the past 12 years.

Kate received her BA degree, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College and her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She comes to BUMC from the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), Middle Atlantic Region, where she has held the positions of Outreach Coordinator, Health Professions Coordinator and, since 2017, Executive Director.

Prior to NNLM, she was a Reference Librarian and Coordinator of Instruction at Upstate Medical University, State University of New York in Syracuse where she coordinated library instruction to students, faculty, residents and staff in the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Health Professions and Graduate Studies, and the University Health System.

Kate also was a National Library of Medicine Associate Fellow and worked at Inova Fairfax Hospital Health Sciences Library, Falls Church, VA, where she provided reference, instruction and training to health care professionals, medical students, patients and the public at this regional medical center. In addition, she was an Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD, where she received training in operations and resources, investigated and developed recommendations for gathering and reporting library statistics, provided onsite reference services, and conducted an information needs assessment of refugee health professionals.

Kate is a Distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals and, in 2017, was named a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies. She has held numerous professional appointments and currently is Co-Chair of the 2023 National Programming Committee of the Medical Library Association. She has an extensive record of presentations, publications and professional activities.