UNC–Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill has named María R. Estorino vice provost for University Libraries and university librarian, effective January 30, 2023. She has held the role in an interim capacity since May 2022.
Estorino joined the UNC University Libraries in 2017 as associate university librarian for Special Collections and director of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. In that role, she was a member of the University Libraries’ leadership team, with a focus on expanding and advancing the work of Carolina’s special collections. Estorino developed a fellowships program to support undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty and community researchers in their scholarly and creative uses of special collections. She has attracted significant grant and gift support for the work of the University Libraries, most recently as part of a $2 million endowment and challenge match from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust. She has cultivated partnerships and collaborations across the UNC community as well as with other communities in North Carolina.
Before going to Carolina, Estorino was vice president of museum collections at HistoryMiami Museum in Florida. Prior to that, she spent 14 years in positions of increasing responsibility at the University of Miami Libraries, concluding as the Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair of the Cuban Heritage Collection.
Estorino served as a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Kaleidoscope Program Task Force in 2018–2022.
At Carolina, Estorino succeeds Elaine L. Westbrooks, who became the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell University, effective July 1, 2022.
For more information about Estorino and her appointment, see the Carolina news release “María Estorino Named University Librarian.”
