St. Cloud, MN, May 2015: The Great River Regional Library board of trustees has appointed Karen Pundsack as the new Executive Director of the 32-library system.
Pundsack has been serving as interim director since July 2014. She joined Great River Regional Library (GRRL) in 1999 as manager of the Sauk Centre branch. She transferred to the Albany branch in 2002, and began working at GRRL headquarters in St. Cloud in 2009 when she was put in charge of patron services region-wide. As interim director, she has steered the library through its annual budget process, overseen significant personnel hiring decisions, and been responsible for maintaining communication between staff, administration and board of trustees.
Pundsack was one of three candidates interviewed in person following a nationwide candidate search and a series of Skype interviews.
A graduate of Albany High School, Pundsack has a degree in Mass Communications with a news editorial emphasis from St. Cloud State University, as well as a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is active in various professional library associations and has been a panel presenter at Minnesota Library Association conferences.
Prior to beginning her career in libraries, Pundsack worked in retail management, in newspaper production, and on radio. She was actively involved in her family's dairy farm for 14 years.
Great River Regional Library (GRRL) provides library services at 32 public libraries in Benton, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright Counties. It provides Central Minnesota residents with nearly 1 million books, CDs and DVDs, 250 public computers, programming and information services.