Faculty Affairs Welcomes New Associate Director for Faculty Initiatives, Ursula Gorham

Faculty Affairs Welcomes New Associate Director for Faculty Initiatives, Ursula Gorham

We are delighted to welcome Ursula Gorham as the new Associate Director for Faculty Initiatives, overseeing policy and procedural matters governing PTK and other non-tenure-track faculty. She comes to the Office of Faculty Affairs from the College of Information Studies (the iSchool), where she served as the director of the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program and taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses focused on information access and information literacy. She is a proud alumna of UMD, having earned a PhD and a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from the iSchool, a law degree from the School of Law, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a Master of Public Management from the School of Public Policy.

Prior to pursuing a PhD, Ursula followed a career path that alternated between the law (including two judicial clerkships and a stint as a corporate transactions associate in a Baltimore law firm) and librarianship. As a doctoral student and then PTK faculty member, Ursula conducted research on digital government and, more specifically, on the use of technology to assist self-represented litigants in the U.S. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on related topics, most recently collaborating on research examining the accessibility of court documents. She is a co-author of Foundations of Information Law, to be published in Summer 2023.

Ursula is a member of the American Library Association's Policy Corp, where she remains engaged in efforts to fight book banning in public and school libraries. She is also a devoted yogi and cat foster who tries her best to oversee a household that includes four humans (a husband and two teenagers), five cats, and the world's sweetest dog.