The Associates of the Boston Public Library is thrilled to welcome Laura Russo to the team!

Laura is our new Director of Development and External Affairs. She will advance and promote the important work of the Associates of the Boston Public Library in underwriting the preservation, cataloging, and digitization of the Boston Public Library’s Special Collections. It is an exciting time to be joining the Associates as we approach our 50th year as an organization.

Laura has dedicated her career to fundraising for libraries and archives, higher education, scholarship, the arts, and local community programs. She has extensive experience cultivating and managing donor and stakeholder relationships, and producing special events and outreach programming. For over twenty years Laura worked in donor relations and public service at the Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. This involved working closely with donors, scholars, faculty, and students to facilitate access, highlight and promote the Center’s rare book and manuscript holdings, and steward a diverse group of donors. These are skills which we hope will directly translate to her new role with the Associates.  

In addition to her work at BU, Laura has also worked with many small local nonprofits to further their missions to support the arts, scholarships to expand educational access, and gender equity. As a nonprofit consultant she helped to improve their fundraising efforts and/or served in leaderships roles on their boards.

Laura has a B.S. in Mass Communications, M.S. in Arts Administration, and graduate certificates in Fundraising Management and Project Management, all from Boston University. Laura would love to hear from you. She can be reached at LRusso@AssociatesBPL.org or (617) 536-3886.