New Board Members and Officers Begin Terms
Dennis Lloyd, director at the University of Wisconsin Press, has stepped into the top leadership role of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses). The Association’s 75th President, he succeeds Anthony Cond, director at the Liverpool University Press; he is also the second University of Wisconsin Press director to lead the Association. (See a complete list of past Presidents.)
Lloyd’s university press publishing experience spans three decades and six presses. Prior to coming to Wisconsin in 2015, he worked in various, primarily marketing, roles at the University of Illinois Press, the University Press of Kentucky, the University of Pittsburgh Press, the University of Alabama Press, and the University Press of Florida. He has been active in developing digital initiatives—including an open educational resource (OER) textbook program at Florida, open-access (OA) conversion pilots for scholarly monographs and other titles at Wisconsin, and service on the Project MUSE Advisory Board.
His considerable service to AUPresses includes stints on the Board of Directors (2017-20) and on the Admissions and Standards, Investment, Intellectual Property and Copyright, Library Relations, Marketing, Nominating, and Program Committees.
In his inaugural statement, Lloyd emphasized university presses’ connections to one another as well as the shared foundation of their work. He drew particular inspiration from the Wisconsin Idea—the principle “that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom,” as the University of Wisconsin puts it. He pointed to a Progressive-era defense of intellectual freedom that helped shape that Idea: “In all lines of academic investigation . . . [we] should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”
“I have yet to discover a more apt description of the work we do as university presses,” Lloyd said. Read his full statement.
Other AUPresses leaders, elected at the Association’s virtual Annual Business Meeting on May 20, have also begun their terms:
- Stephanie Williams, director at Wayne State University Press, has been named President-Elect.
- Hilary Claggett, senior acquisitions editor at Georgetown University Press, will serve as Treasurer.
- Brent Oberlin, chief financial officer at MIT Press, joins the Board as Treasurer-elect.
- Angelica Lopez-Torres, international rights manager at the University of Texas Press, and Catherine Cocks, director at Syracuse University Press, begin three-year terms as board Directors at Large.
- And Alisa Plant, director at LSU Press, who stepped into a mid-term vacancy in July 2024, was elected to complete the remaining 2 years of a three-year term as Director at-Large.
In addition, the Association marks the conclusion of several Board members’ terms and thanks the following individuals for their dedicated service:
- Past President Jane Bunker, director at Cornell University Press;
- Alexandria Leonard, senior operations analyst at Princeton University Press, who served for 2 years as Treasurer; and
- Directors-at-Large Rachael Levay, senior editor at Princeton University Press, and Wendy Queen, chief transformational officer at Johns Hopkins University Press.
Learn more about the work of the Association of University Presses Board of Directors.