School of Information Sciences alumna LaVentra E. Danquah has been named director of Wayne State’s Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library and the Eugene Applebaum Learning Resource Center.

Danquah has been acting as the interim director of Shiffman since 2019. She received a master’s of library and information science in 1998 and began her career at Shiffman as a graduate student. Danquah has served the library in a number of roles, most recently as outreach services coordinator. 

A lifelong Detroiter, Danquah spent countless hours at the Detroit Public Library as a child, marveling at the building’s magnificent murals and equally colorful collection of children’s encyclopedias. Although she loved her time at the library, she didn’t envision librarianship as a career for herself until working at the University of Michigan’s Shapiro Undergraduate Library while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology. It was that rewarding and engaging experience that led her to apply to library school.

“I participated in Wayne State’s Upward Bound program so the university has been a part of my life since childhood,” Danquah said. “It was the perfect fit for my goals – to study abroad and work in the community. Other schools just didn’t offer that community connection that I was looking for.”

It was the beginning of what Danquah calls a long and wonderful partnership with the university’s library system. Professors in the program, including Robert Holley, allowed her to transfer credits from her study abroad experience at the University of Ghana where she researched consumer health information access for patients and medical librarians. And former associate professor Lynda Baker, who led the health sciences path at the time, was instrumental as an advisor and mentor.  

Danquah participated in a practicum at the Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library as a SIS student and has been there ever since. “It wasn’t until I worked at Shiffman that I was able to hone in on my interests and decide that I wanted to pursue medical librarianship,” she said. “Wayne State became my foundation and my home.”

Working at Shiffman has also allowed Danquah to continue to pursue her goals of working with the community. Danquah worked closely with Martin, her predecessor and mentor, to build the Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library Outreach Advisory Council to become a designated outreach library for the National Library of Medicine. This partnership, as well as other collaborations with Detroit institutions including the Detroit Public Library, the Michigan State University Detroit campus and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, have provided consumer health information, education and resources to the community. Danquah hopes to see those partnerships continue and evolve as she transitions into her new role as director.

As an institution of higher learning, another of Danquah’s goals is to support her staff and nurture an environment of learning for the overall betterment of the organization.  “One of my favorite parts of the job is seeing the professional development of staff and seeing them realize that learning is the job and seeing them apply that,” she said. “We are supporting learners and we are learners ourselves, and we’re committed to that.”