Debbie Siragusa, the Kansas City Public Library’s assistant director and chief operating officer, has been named interim director of the Library as its search for a new permanent director gets underway.

Per a succession plan adopted in 2019 by the Library’s board of trustees, the board appointed Siragusa during its monthly meeting Tuesday, January 16, 2024. She similarly stepped in as interim director in 2020, guiding the Library for more than six months before the arrival of John Herron as director and chief executive officer in July. Herron departed at the end of 2023.

The Library board has launched the search for his successor, setting up an executive search committee headed by six-year board member Laura Dominik. The firm of Bradbury Miller Associates, which specializes in library searches, is assisting.

Board President Pete Browne said Tuesday that the process would begin right away. While there is no timetable, it is expected to take at least four to six months.

Siragusa has served as a member of the Kansas City Public Library’s executive team since 2006, when she was appointed deputy director of administration and chief financial officer. She assumed her current role as assistant director and chief operating officer in 2019. As interim director in 2020, she guided the Library through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has been the Library’s representative on the board of commissioners of the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City and the Kansas City Public School Retirement System. Before joining the Library, Siragusa spent five years as associate vice chancellor for budget and finance for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, which oversees the state’s system of 25 colleges and universities.

“Debbie was a natural choice as interim director,” Browne said. “She has been integral to the Library’s leadership for more than 17 years, including the steady hand she and her fellow executive team members provided through the challenges of the pandemic in 2020. The Library is in good hands through this transition.”