Beginning Monday, August 1, 2022, Rachel Kersey will be the new Managing Editor at the Missouri State University Libraries. This is a new high-level staff position. Her office will be in Meyer Library 006A on the Lower Level. 

Rachel has a wealth of writing, editing, and publishing experience, having worked for the University Press of Kentucky, HarperCollins, a literary agency in NYC, a DC-based lifestyle magazine, and several newspapers, including a military newspaper. She earned a BA in Journalism from Howard University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky. 

As Managing Editor and Writer for the MSU Libraries, Rachel will use invention, imagination, originality, and talent to develop, edit, and write materials for print and electronic publications for the MSU Libraries and the Ozarks Studies Institute, which may include, but are not limited to:

1. books, including both monographs and compilations;
2. bi-annual publication of OzarksWatch magazine;
3. bi-annual publication of the E-Journal of Public Affairs;
4. short pieces for LibNotes, the weekly e-newsletter of the MSU Libraries;
5. other types of written pieces for various purposes of the MSU Libraries, such as the Libraries’ annual report.

Members of the search committee included Rachel Besara, Laura French, Nathan Neuschwander, Chuck Busby, and Tom Peters (Chair). 

Welcome, Rachel, to Missouri State, Springfield, and the Ozarks.