Kim Fender has served as Executive Director of the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County since 1999. She was formerly Assistant to the Director and Head, Information Systems. Ms. Fender received her MLS from the University of Kentucky in 1983. She was awarded a graduate internship at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, and accepted a position as a reference librarian at the Boone County Public Library upon completing her MLS degree.
Ms. Fender also served as Head of Public Services at Campbell County Public Library, and as Manager of Information Services at ATE Management and Services Company, before beginning employment with the Library in 1988 as a Librarian in the Institutions/Books-by-Mail Department. In 1993 she was appointed to the position of Librarian, Deputy Librarian’s Office—Main Library Services. Ms. Fender was promoted to Assistant to the Director in 1995 and was named Head, Information Systems in 1998. She currently serves on the Success by 6 Steering Council, the Cincinnati State Workforce Development Center Advisory Board, the Ohio Library Council’s Nominating Committee, the Girl Scouts of Kentucky’s Wilderness Road Council Board, and chairs the Ohio Library Council’s Government Relations Committee. She is a past-president of the Greater Cincinnati Library Consortium Board and the Ohio Public Library Information Network Board.
Ms. Fender is a member of Leadership Cincinnati Class 34. She has been named a 2011 Woman of Distinction by the Girls Scouts of Western Ohio and was profiled in the Cincinnati Edition of the Women’s Book. In 2009 she was named Librarian of the Year by the Ohio Library Council and in 2008 the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency honored Ms. Fender with a Bridge Builder Award. In 2001 she received the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association Outstanding Alumna Award and in 1999 was honored with a Professional Achievement Award from Northern Kentucky University.