Penn Alumna and Instructor Folasade Olanipekun-Lewis Elected Board Chair of the Free Library of Philadelphia

The Free Library of Philadelphia Board of Trustees has elected Folasade (Sade) Olanipekun-Lewis to serve as its new chair starting in June. Olanipekun-Lewis serves on the Penn LPS Online Employer Advisory Board and teaches Critical Issues in Public Finance at Penn’s Fels Institute of Government. She has been treasurer for the library board since 2016, as well as the co-chair of the board’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She also serves on the board of LEADERSHIP Philadelphia and the Board of Governors for the Behavioral Wellness Center at Girard.

Olanipekun-Lewis, who graduated from Fels with a Master of Government Administration, notes that, “The 21st-century library is more than a place where you go to check out books. It’s become our neighborhood cultural center. It’s become our neighborhood job placement center. It’s become a place where we feed our children. It’s a nucleus and a safe haven.”

She hopes to strengthen the relationship between the City of Philadelphia and the Free Library. “It is incredibly vital and necessary for the library to represent the constituents it serves,” she says. “We would be doing an incredibly poor service if we don’t bring diversity of thought, diversity of people, and cultural differences to serve our citizens. I know there’s room where we need to become better at this.”