Johns Hopkins University Press executive director Barbara Kline Pope will retire February 1. She joined the press in 2017 and since her arrival has, the press said, "steered Hopkins Press, the nation's first university press, through a complex era for academic publishing characterized by industrywide consolidation, shrinking higher education budgets, and the challenges and opportunities associated with the growth of artificial intelligence."
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| Barbara Kline Pope | |
Hopkins publishes 120 journals and manages membership for 27 scholarly and professional associations and societies; publishes 120 new books a year and has a backlist of 3,500 titles; distributes books for 18 university presses; and is home to Project MUSE, the massive online scholarship collection that is the leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content.
Pope said, "It's been a privilege to have led such a historic press at a university that has one eye toward that history but another one toward deep and creative innovation. There's an energy and culture here that allows each of us to reach higher. Cultivating that culture at the Press and creating an inclusive environment for all our staff that focuses on learning and on honoring others' dignity has been one of the greatest joys of my career."
Johns Hopkins University president Ron Daniels and interim provost Lainie Rutkow wrote, "Barbara has led the Press with vision, passion, and profound dedication to the cause of scholarly publishing. Throughout the last nine years, Barbara's tenure at the helm of JHUP has truly embodied the Hopkins ethos of bringing the benefits of discovery to the world."
Earlier Pope worked for 34 years at the National Academies Press, the publishing program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, serving as its executive director from 1997 to 2017 and steering its traditional print model through an era of digital innovation. She also has served as president of the Association of University Presses and on the management board at MIT Press.