Georgetown has appointed Alexia Hudson-Ward, a leader in university library systems, as the new university librarian and dean of the library.
Hudson-Ward will begin her role on Aug. 30, 2025, following the departure of Library Dean Harriette Hemmasi, who is retiring after seven years at Georgetown.
Hudson-Ward is the associate director of research, learning and strategic partnerships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries.
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Hudson-Ward is also the incoming president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries and was elected to the American Antiquarian Society in recognition of her achievements in preserving and amplifying African American history from the Early Republic and the pre-Civil War eras.
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Hudson-Ward earned her master of library and information science from the University of Pittsburgh, where she pursued both academic and corporate librarianship tracks, and her doctorate in library and information science from Simmons University.
In the years since, she served as a tenured associate librarian at Pennsylvania State University and the director of libraries for Oberlin College — the first person of color to lead in the library’s 192-year history. In this role, she oversaw four libraries, a $7.2 million budget, and the renaming of the Main Library after Oberlin alumna Mary Church Terrell, who was one of the first Black women to earn a college degree and the co-founder of the NAACP.
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She joined MIT in 2020, where she leads research and learning services for MIT’s library; partnerships with more than 40 MIT departments, labs, centers and institutes; and the library’s AI strategy — work she’s eager to continue at Georgetown. Her latest book project, Social Intelligence in the Age of AI, will be published by ALA Editions later this year.
“Georgetown is admirably unwavering in its values,” she said. “To my knowledge, no other institution is so intentionally centering its values and transdisciplinary approaches to address the complex, multidimensional challenges of AI. Georgetown is seizing this pivotal moment through a distinctly humanistic lens — and in doing so, I believe its mission truly meets the moment.”
Hudson-Ward said Georgetown’s Jesuit values influenced her decision to join the university.
“This is such a great opportunity to lead one of the world’s storied library systems at a time where we’re all undergoing deep interrogation on what the future of higher education and the future of academic libraries could and would mean,” she said.
She said she’s looking forward to meeting the library’s staff, developing a strategy and goals, and contributing to the university’s Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation work.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
