Virginia Dowsing Toliver

Associate Dean (Administration)
Washington University Libraries
Campus Box 1061
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130

Voice: 314-935-5400
Fax: 314-935-4045
E-Mail: vtoliver@wustl.edu

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Virginia Dowsing Toliver, Associate Dean of Administration, has been employed with the Washington University Libraries since 1982. A member of the senior management team, Virginia's responsibilities include budgeting, accounting, support services, human resources, communications and special events, and all administrative/support functions. She also coordinated the multi-year renovation of Olin Library.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Jackson State University in 1969 and a Master's of Science in Library Science from the University of Illinois in 1973. She was an Academic Library Management Intern for the Council on Library Resources in 1981 and was a summer intern with the Technical Information Department, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, California in 1977.

Previous employment includes: Coordinator of Information Retrieval, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (1977-1981), and Acting Library Director, Alcorn State University, Lorman, MS (1974-77), Serials Librarian, Alcorn State University (1973-77).

She is a member of the American Library Association (ALA), the Library Administration and Management Division, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and is a past Executive Board member of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). Virginia is a member of the ACRL Budget and Finance Committee (2003-2007); is currently on the BCALA Literary Awards Committee; and served on the planning committee for the 2007 BCALA Annual Conference. At Washington University she serves as a member of the Human Resources Advisory Committee, the Incident Management Team, the Benefits Committee, the Chancellor's Roundtable on African American Student Recruitment and is a Campus Advocate for the Admissions Office.

Outside the library, Virginia is a member of the Board of Directors for Eden Theological Seminary. She also chairs the Presbyterian Church USA National Committee on Self-Development of People - a ministry that has helped fund hundreds of projects around the world to promote human dignity, self-reliance and community growth. She is a member of the United Way's Charmaine Chapman Society and a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.