BHL Managing Director
BHL Secretariat
Colleen Funkhouser joined the Biodiversity Heritage Library as Program Manager in 2020, working to build strategic partnerships and to maintain and grow the infrastructure and services of BHL. With the transition of BHL from the Smithsonian Institution in 2026, Colleen assumed the role of BHL Managing Director at the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), BHL’s new fiscal sponsor. Colleen is responsible for the programmatic, administrative, and financial operations, under the direction of the BHL Executive Committee.
A digital librarian with a background in biology, Colleen previously supported academic and federal libraries with a focus on scientific research. She was first introduced to BHL as a Cataloging Intern for the Smithsonian Field Book Project in 2015.
Colleen holds an MSLIS from The Catholic University of America and a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University.