BU Library Director Appointed Chair of the Program and Education Committee for the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries

Kate Flewelling, director of the Alumni Medical Library at Boston University Medical Campus, has been appointed Chair of the Program and Education Committee (PEC) for the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL).

The AAHSL comprises the libraries serving the accredited U.S. and Canadian medical schools belonging to or affiliated with Association of American Medical Colleges. AAHSL supports academic health sciences libraries and directors in advancing the patient care, research, education, and community service missions of academic health centers through visionary executive leadership and expertise in health information, scholarly communication and knowledge management.

In 2021, Flewelling was appointed by the president of AAHSL to join the PEC. The PEC is responsible for planning the Annual Meeting of the association, including the education program and AAHSL/Group on Information Resources Matheson Lecture.

Flewelling received her BA degree, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College and her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before coming to BU, she was Executive Director at the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM), Middle Atlantic Region, based at the University of Pittsburgh. 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 for students, faculty, residents and staff in the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Health Professions and Graduate Studies and the University Health System.

Flewelling 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.

Flewelling 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.