The J. Willard Marriott Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Genifer Snipes, M.S., MSLIS, as the head of the Teaching, Research and Outreach Department, effective January 2026. In this role, Ms. Snipes leads the Marriott Library’s engagement with the University of Utah’s academic and research communities, supporting student success and research excellence across campus.

Ms. Snipes brings 14 years of professional library experience to the position, including expertise in teaching, research support, program management and organizational communication. Most recently, she served as head of social science liaisons at the University of Oregon Libraries. Prior to that, she was the Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian at both the University of Oregon and West Virginia University.

Ms. Snipes earned a M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign after completing a Bachelor of Arts in History from Centre College. She also holds a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University. Her scholarly work focuses on subject librarianship, program management and professional career pathways.

Areas of research include service assessment, program prioritization, career progression and employee onboarding. She was co-editor of the book Teaching Business Information Literacy, published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the author of peer-reviewed publications including “Space to Think: Co-Designing a Library Environment for Student Ideation,” published in the New Review of Academic Librarianship.

Genifer is excited to support the growth of the Teaching, Research and Outreach team and to strengthen the library’s role in information literacy, research and student success across the University of Utah.