Pratt Library Begins Search for New CEO

Chairs of Executive Search Committee Selected

February 6, 2024

BALTIMORE – The Boards of the Enoch Pratt Free Library have named the Chairs of the Committee to select a new Library Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Beulah Sabundayo and Jamar R. Brown, Esq. will lead the national search for a new leader of the historic institution. As announced in December, after a successful 7-year tenure, Heidi Daniel will leave the Pratt Library to become CEO of the King County Public Library in Washington state.

Dr. Sabundayo is Senior Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of International Health’s Center for Immunization Research. She has served on the Pratt Library Boards since 2016. Prior to joining the Boards, she held leadership positions with the Pratt Contemporaries, the library’s young professionals affinity group. She currently chairs the Pratt Board’s Governance Committee. Sabundayo has also been actively involved at Friends School of Baltimore where she has held various leadership positions.

Mr. Brown is a partner in the litigation group at Rosenberg Martin Greenberg LLP. Brown leads the law firm’s diversity and recruitment committees. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Pratt Contemporaries and joined the Pratt Library Boards in 2020. He is the current Vice Chair of the Pratt’s Board of Directors. Brown sits on a number of nonprofit boards in Baltimore and is also active with the Federal Bar Association and Maryland State Bar Association.

“The Pratt Library is fortunate that experienced professionals and long-time dedicated Pratt supporters Beulah and Jamar have agreed to lead the search committee for a dynamic and innovative new CEO,” says Pratt Library Boards Chair Christine Espenshade. “The Enoch Pratt Free Library is a beloved institution throughout the state of Maryland and we are looking for someone who can carry on that tradition of excellence for our customers.”

Heidi Daniel’s last day at the Pratt Library is February 29. Darcell Graham, the Pratt’s Vice President of Public Services, will serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer as the national search gets underway.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is one of the nation’s first free library systems, opening its doors in 1886 thanks to the generosity of businessman Enoch Pratt. Today’s Pratt Library—Baltimore’s public library and the Maryland State Library Resource Center—consists of the Central Library, 21 neighborhood locations, and three mobile units. The Library’s mission is to empower, enrich, and enhance the quality of life for all through equitable access to information, services, and opportunity.