Office of the Dean

Alicia Bates, Ed.D., joined the Hesburgh Libraries as the Advisor to the Edward H. Arnold Dean, Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press in September 2022. As de facto chief of staff, Dr. Bates advises and supports the Dean in all aspects of the administrative and executive operations of the Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press. Her responsibilities include advising the Dean about and managing relationships and activities within the Hesburgh Libraries and for myriad stakeholders; serving as a conduit between the Office of the Dean and external University stakeholders; managing special organizational- and University-level projects on the Dean’s behalf; and collaborating to lead, manage, and assess the Hesburgh Libraries’ strategic framework process.

Bates has more than a decade’s worth of experience in higher education through expanding roles that have developed her expertise in several areas including strategic planning, assessment, leadership training, University partnerships, and stakeholder engagement. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Campus Activities where she helps to lead association strategy, establish educational priorities, and promote student learning and staff development.

Michelle Budak, MBA candidate, joined the Hesburgh Libraries as the Senior Administrative Assistant to the Edward H. Arnold Dean after serving in an interim capacity for nearly three months. Ms. Budak’s primary responsibilities include managing the dean’s appointment calendar and travel arrangements, working with the Advisor to the Dean to help manage executive projects and priorities, and working with the communications director to help develop and distribute executive communications.

With her appointment in February 2022, Budak became a member of the Hesburgh Libraries Executive Team, the first time that the Senior Administrative Assistant has been a member of the Libraries’ senior management team. Prior to joining the Hesburgh Libraries she worked in Notre Dame’s Office of Institutional Equity.

Mark Dehmlow has spent more than 25 years working in higher education technology across several functions; he became the associate university librarian for the Digital Strategies and Technology division at the Hesburgh Libraries in August 2023.

As chief of the Digital Strategies and Technology division, Dehmlow serves as the Hesburgh Libraries' chief technology officer, managing a division that specializes in library applications, web and software engineering, support and solutions analysis, enterprise systems, and digital scholarship. He leads diverse and talented teams to develop and sustain effective technological and pedagogical solutions that advance teaching, learning, and research.

In his role, Dehmlow partners with both library and campus stakeholders to make key service and resource decisions and solve multi-faceted, enterprise-wide problems. Strategic threads throughout Dehmlow’s experience have been his commitment to a cohesive, intuitive user experience, robust cross-organizational collaboration, and technology advancement in alignment with library and institutional goals.

Since joining Notre Dame and the Hesburgh Libraries in 2001, Dehmlow has held several management and leadership roles in the web, software, information technology, and digital services arenas of the research library.

Prior to joining the Hesburgh Libraries, Dehmlow worked at the University of Maine in the University IT services and in the Fogler Library.

Dehmlow’s 25 years of publishing and professional service have earned him a national and international network of research library and technology colleagues. He formerly sat on the International Group of Ex Libris Users steering committee, is a member of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Information Discovery and Interchange Leadership Committee, and serves as the president of the Academic Libraries of Indiana.

His University service work includes University Council for Academic Technologies Subcommittee on Academic Software, Smart Storage Program, Campus Wireless Planning Committee, Campus IT Governance, and Academic IT Directors. Most recently, Dehmlow was a member of the Hesburgh Libraries Strategic Planning Liaison Team which developed the libraries’ new strategic framework.

Dehmlow earned bachelor of the arts degrees in mathematics and English with concentrations in comparative literature and creative writing from the University of Maine, as well as a master of science degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois. His current research interests are trends in information technology, technology standards, technology management, mentorship, and digital scholarship.

Amber Herkey is a seasoned project manager with a proven track record of aiding vulnerable populations through service delivery, advocacy, and program management. She excels in strategic communication, storytelling, systems analysis, and research—a dedicated operations specialist devoted to promoting inclusion and cultural sensitivity.

Joining Notre Dame in 2021 as a leader in the Center for Social Concerns Justice Education program, Amber served as both an instructor and program administrator on topics ranging from educational equity and community health to sustainability and climate action. Before her time at Notre Dame, she worked with L'Arche International as a creative producer in Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Japan, India, Australia, Kenya, Argentina, Honduras, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, and Northern Ireland.

Amber earned a degree in anthropology from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Arts degree in Global Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Erika Hosselkus has spent more than a decade working in the academic core of higher education; she became the associate university librarian for the Scholarly Resources and Services division in August 2023.

As chief of the Scholarly Resources and Services division, Hosselkus leads Hesburgh Libraries’ largest division of faculty and staff. Her portfolio includes research collections, special collections and archives, public and user services, metadata, and preservation. She oversees partnerships and services that support Notre Dame’s commitment to providing an elite undergraduate education, its growing emphasis on rigorous graduate education, and research on and beyond campus.

Prior to her associate university librarian appointment, Hosselkus served as strategic planning implementation project manager and special collections curator for Latin American, Iberian, and Latino/a collections. She is also a fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.

Hosselkus joined Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries in 2016 as a Rare Books and Special Collections curator, developing a world-class Latin American collection for this fast-growing area of study. Since then, she has taken on expanded roles in the Libraries and created partnerships in teaching and learning across campus.

She has collaborated with Notre Dame faculty to connect students with rare books and manuscripts and teaches courses on Spanish paleography and the history of collecting. She has also curated several major physical and digital exhibitions of Latin American and early modern European materials, making Hesburgh Libraries’ distinctive collections accessible to campus and a global research community. She served on the University Committee on Women Faculty and Students and, most recently, was a member of the Hesburgh Libraries Strategic Planning Liaison Team, which developed the Libraries’ new strategic framework.

Before joining Notre Dame, Hosselkus served as an associate professor of history with tenure and coordinator of Graduate Studies and Latin American Studies at Southeast Missouri State University.

Hosselkus holds a Ph.D. in history and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University. Her current research interests include strategic planning in academic research libraries, the development of print culture in colonial Latin America, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century histories of collecting and exhibiting. Her most recent publication explores the origins and movements of components of the Hesburgh Libraries’ impressive José Durand Peruvian History Collection.

Margaret Meserve was appointed Interim Edward H. Arnold Dean of Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press on August 1, 2024. A professor of history, she also serves as vice president and associate provost for academic space and support. Meserve previously served as senior director of academic space in the office of the provost. From 2015–21, she was associate dean for the humanities and faculty affairs in the College of Arts and Letters.

A historian of the Italian Renaissance, Meserve studies the history of book printing, humanist culture, and the papacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. She is the author of the award-winning Papal Bull: Print, Propaganda, and Politics in Renaissance Rome (Johns Hopkins, 2021), which surveys how the popes used the printing press to publish news, propaganda, and disinformation in the early decades after Gutenberg. Her previous book, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought (Harvard, 2008), surveyed how Renaissance historians accounted for the rise and fall of Islamic empires, especially that of the Ottoman Turks. She is currently working on a multivolume translation of the Commentaries of Pope Pius II, the only pope ever to write his autobiography while sitting on the papal throne, based on manuscripts in the Vatican Library and Biblioteca Corsiniana in Rome. At Notre Dame, she teaches courses on the Italian Renaissance, the history of Rome, and the history of the book.

Meserve earned her B.A. in Classics at Harvard and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Renaissance history from the Warburg Institute of the University of London. She served for two years as a curator in the Incunabula Section of the British Library in London. She has won fellowships from the NEH, ACLS, and the Newberry Library in Chicago and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

F. Elizabeth Nicholson became the Interim Senior Director of Operations in July 2024. Nicholson has more than a decade’s worth of experience in academic libraries through expanding roles that have developed her expertise in several areas, including campus partnerships, library finances and facilities, strategic planning, talent management, and teaching in libraries.

As chief of the Operations division, Nicholson’s portfolio for the Hesburgh Libraries includes analytics, data, and insights; facilities and spaces; finance and budget; project management; strategic planning; and talent. She oversees dynamic and effective teams to provide a strong foundation for organizational effectiveness.

In her role, Nicholson collaborates with library and campus partners to enact key service, space, and resource decisions to benefit Hesburgh Libraries users and employees. Hallmarks throughout her experience have been a commitment to clear organizational communication, consensus-building around library and institutional goals, and creating affirming environments in which colleagues may see the value they bring to the organization.

Since joining Notre Dame and the Hesburgh Libraries in September 2021, Nicholson has served as the unit head for User Education & Engagement. In this leadership role, she collaborated with library faculty and campus faculty to develop creative and innovative ways to foster research and information literacy skills for undergraduate students to accelerate academic success. She also served as strategic planning implementation project manager, leading the advancement and communication of organization-wide goals, objectives, key results, and sustainers.

Prior to joining Notre Dame, Nicholson served as an instructional services librarian at North Central College (Naperville, IL).

Nicholson holds a Master's of Library and Information Science from the University of Missouri, an M.A. in French & Francophone Studies from The University of Iowa, and a B.A. in French and International Studies from Illinois Wesleyan University. Her current research interests include strategic planning in academic libraries, person-centered management, and organizational culture in academic libraries.

As a member of the executive leadership team, Tara helps to shape and implement the overall vision, strategic plan, and related strategic initiatives for the Hesburgh Libraries.

She also develops and executes integrated marketing communications strategies to highlight the vital contributions the Libraries make to teaching and research and connect stakeholders to library expertise, services, resources, and special programs that accelerate learning and advance scholarship.

To this end, Tara works across several areas, including strategic planning, brand development, digital marketing, event marketing, social media, public relations, content development, web design and graphic design. Within the Libraries, she leads and consults with multidisciplinary teams in support of core programs and priority initiatives. She also works in collaboration with campus partners, including the schools and colleges, centers and institutes, University Development, Alumni Association and University Communications to advance the mission of the libraries and shared institutional goals.

Tara is a graduate of University of Notre Dame and holds a bachelor of fine arts degree with majors in graphic design/advertising, art history, and Arts and Letters Program for Administrators (ALPA). She also earned a master of science degree from Northwestern University studying integrated marketing communications.