CURRENT POSITION Associate Dean for Organizational Performance and Inclusion, Clemson University Libraries, SC DEGREE MLS, North Carolina Central University School of Library and Information Sciences, 2011 FOLLOW wcu.edu/stories/posts/shamella-cromartie.aspx Photo by Caitlin Penna

Leadership Uplifted

Dr. Shamella Cromartie is dedicated to uplifting others. When she was in college, Cromartie had a job at a public library where leadership and others were Black, which encouraged her to pursue a career in the field. “It’s important to see people that look like you in these positions so that you know that you can do it, too,” she says.

Now Chair of the Roundtable for African American Concerns of the South Carolina Library Association, Cromartie is expanding outreach, membership, and support for Black librarians in the state, since “often it’s an isolating experience.” Many people of color don’t get an MLS, she notes. “Why isn’t that group going on to become librarians?” To help answer that question, Cromartie is seeking a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to continue her work surveying minority support staff in academic libraries. She also advocates for others through Clemson University’s President’s Leadership Institute and its Commission on the Black Experience.

Her leadership was put to the test just a few months after stepping into her role at Clemson in 2022, when a pipe burst on Christmas Eve, causing flooding that ruined about 2,000 books and damaged five floors of the library. “Semester-long, we were taking steps to try to make sure everybody was safe, to move people around, to have people work from home” while still allowing students, faculty, and staff to access what they needed. “It was intense…but I think that we collectively did a great job.”

Cromartie believes in librarianship because “information access can change someone’s life, and I think that’s really good work. That’s a really good field to be in.”