About me
Rose Timmons Dawson currently holds the position of Director of the Alexandria Library in Alexandria, Virginia, after serving as the deputy director.
Prior to working for the Alexandria Library, Ms. Dawson held a number of progressively responsible positions for the District of Columbia Public Library. While Rose holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she has completed the Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) with the Urban Libraries Council and George Washington University’s Center for Excellence in Municipal Management (CEMM) from which she received a certification in public management. Rose is also a certified racial healing practitioner.
Ms. Dawson is a life member of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). She is an active member of the Virginia Public Library Directors Association (VPLDA), Public Library Association (PLA), and Coretta Scott King (CSK) Roundtable.
Rose is the 2019 recipient of the UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science Distinguished Alumni Award and 2010 recipient of the BCALA Distinguished Service to the Library Profession Award.
Under her leadership, the Alexandria Library received the 2020 American Library Association’s John Cotton Dana Award and the 2020 American Library Association’s Excellence in Library Programming Award for the work done on the 1939 Library Sit-in.
