Charlottesville, Va. (October 11, 2023) - After a nationwide search, the University of Virginia Press is proud to announce the appointment of Patricia Searl as its new Director of Digital Publishing. Originally joining UVA Press’s Rotunda Digital Imprint in 2013, Patricia has played multiple key roles, most recently as its Acting Manager, in implementing and expanding Rotunda’s eminent collection of peer-reviewed digital publications. Patricia took the lead in the redesign and continuing development of Rotunda’s SAH Archipedia, a popular open-access collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians documenting the notable works of the United States’ built world.

Before joining the Press, Patricia earned a BA at UVA and an MA with distinction from King’s College London’s prestigious program in Digital Humanities. Her career has included experience in web development, text encoding, graphic design and marketing in both publishing and cultural heritage organizations. In addition to her work on Rotunda, she also created, and continues to manage, the Press website, and she has worked to build an extensive network both within the UVA community and with other organizations and institutions focused on digital humanities.

“I am thrilled at the opportunity to steer the next generation of digital publishing at UVA Press. My commitment to Rotunda over the last ten years has given me a singular understanding of the challenges but also opportunities inherent in this first-of-its-kind digital imprint. It is my goal to build on the good work done before in establishing Rotunda’s reputation and depth of collection by leveraging valuable partnerships and available technologies to ensure our publications meet the needs of today’s students, scholars, and researchers.”

Eric Brandt, Director of UVA Press, said, “Patricia’s education and work experience are deep and varied and have contributed enormously to the success of Rotunda, particularly Archipedia. I could not be more delighted to have found the perfect person to lead our digital publishing programs forward from within our own university’s scholarly community.” Patricia takes over the leadership of Rotunda from David Sewell, who recently retired after twenty years of guiding the digital imprint to its position as a major resource of digitized primary-source material and an indispensable part of the collections of nearly two hundred college and university libraries.