Patricia Hswe

Patricia Hswe is the program director for Public Knowledge at the Foundation. In this role she leads the program’s work on a range of grants and initiatives supporting libraries, archives, museums, universities, presses, and other institutions that further the world’s collective knowledge of the humanities.

Previously, Patricia was digital content strategist at Penn State University Libraries, where she co-founded and co-directed the first cross-functional department to focus on digital humanities, library-based publishing, research data curation, and institutional repository services. She began working in academic libraries as a Council on Library and Information Resources postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). After receiving her library degree, she worked at UIUC as the program manager for several digital preservation projects funded by the Library of Congress. Earlier in her career, Patricia served as an in-house editor for Bruccoli Clark Layman (now Layman Poupard), publisher of reference works in literary and social history, and taught in the Russian department at Amherst College.

She holds an AB in Russian language and literature from Mount Holyoke College, an MS in library and information science from UIUC, and a PhD in Slavic languages and literatures from Yale University. Patricia has led a variety of committees in the Modern Language Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries. Currently, she serves on the Board of Trustees for METRO (Metropolitan New York Library Council).