PORTLAND, Ore. — Sept 22, 2022. Multnomah County Director of Libraries Vailey Oehlke selected Annie Lewis to serve as the library’s next deputy director after a nationwide recruitment. She will begin this role on October 1.
Lewis currently serves as the library’s Director of Community Services, a work unit that incorporates adult and youth learning; youth development; the library’s contact center; mobile library functions; new units that focus on community information, programming and events, culturally-specific community engagement and community learning (which also includes creative learning spaces and the library’s popular Summer Reading Program). The library is currently conducting a nationwide recruitment to fill that role.
As Deputy Director, Lewis will oversee all the library’s public services; the Office of Project Management and Evaluation (OPME); policy staff; and serve as the primary liaison to The Library Foundation. She succeeds Terrilyn Chun, who contributed more than 32 years of service to the library in a wide variety of roles.
“I am thrilled for the opportunity to serve as the next Deputy Director of Multnomah County Library,” Annie said. “The coming years will bring significant opportunities for innovation and development as we expand our library buildings and continue to evolve our services in response to community needs. I am committed to bringing a compassionate, thoughtful, equity-focused approach to this role and am excited to work with such a dedicated, talented workforce to help us provide outstanding library services to the residents of Multnomah County.”
“I am delighted to welcome Annie Lewis as Multnomah County Library’s next Deputy Director at a critical time of growth and evolution for our library,” said Oehlke. “Annie understands and embodies the library’s values, priorities and future direction at a fundamental level. Her commitments to centering race and leading with equity are at the core of her commitment to the mission of public libraries.”
Lewis came to MCL in 2014 as the bilingual Spanish Youth Librarian at Fairview-Columbia Library and later served as Gresham Library Supervisor. She later served as Early Childhood Services Manager where she supervised a team of outreach staff and provided leadership for early childhood services systemwide. Prior to her role as Director of Community Services, she served as an interim Neighborhood Libraries Director, providing leadership and support to eight library locations, and serving as the executive sponsor for the We Speak Your Language teams that provide service in Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. She holds an MLIS from the University of Washington.