will leave her post as CEO at DuraSpace to serve as the Associate University Librarian for Technology Services at Arizona State University Library, effective June 25, 2018. As DuraSpace CEO, Ms. Hanken Kurtz led the organization to its strongest fiscal year ever in 2017 and built a team of community and technology experts. She continued the work of her predecessor, Michele Kimpton, to build a robust membership program that currently enjoys a 94% retention rate. She has formalized and strengthened relationships with the Samvera Project and most recently, partnered with CASRAI. Under Ms. Hanken Kurtz’s leadership the DuraSpace hosted services business has matured providing much needed archiving and preservation services to the community as well as additional support for our open source projects through revenues from hosted services.
In partnership with the Digital Public Library of America and Stanford University Library, she helped to lead the successful completion of the IMLS-funded Hydra-In-A-Box grant and the continued exploration of the HykuDirect service offering. Her commitment to expanded engagement with international user communities and the broader scholarly ecosystem has cultivated new memberships and strategic partnerships. During her tenure, DuraSpace improved relationships with service providers and others in the global scholarly ecosystem. Her focus on increased and different kinds of engagement ensures that community needs are heard and met, broadening fiscal and in-kind support for shared open source software development which in turn has amplified DuraSpace’s organizational ability to serve wide and diverse stakeholder communities.
Transparency and accountability in fiscal management were significantly improved under Ms. Hanken Kurtz’s leadership including human resources functions, access to business experts and administrative processes, and business and financial management processes.
“DuraSpace is in the healthiest shape it’s ever been under Debra’s leadership,” said Tyler Walters, Board President of DuraSpace. “I know Board members are grateful for all her efforts and accomplishments. We wish her well in her new post at ASU.”
Ms. Hanken Kurtz returns to academic librarianship to work more closely with the creators and users of repository and research outputs and to help preserve content and make it more easily accessible for scholars of every stripe. “ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed.” As an undergraduate, Hanken Kurtz benefitted from that inclusive mission and now seeks to give something back by working with colleagues to advance and support the learning, teaching, and research activities of the next generation of students and faculty. At ASU, she will have the opportunity to deepen her commitment to local and global activities that foster inclusivity in the scholarly ecosystem.
“It has been a great privilege and pleasure to have served as CEO at DuraSpace as they have grown in staff, membership, and funding, broadened their scope, and extended the community’s collective reach. I am so proud of all we have accomplished and I look forward to continuing to support its mission as a community member.” Debra Hanken Kurtz
The DuraSpace Board of Directors is discussing recruitment planning and will announce an interim leadership plan by June 1.
