Eliza Borné Joins CALS as Development Director

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) has hired Eliza Borné as its new Director of Development effective March 29, 2021. Borné, an experienced grant writer and fundraiser, comes to the library system from the award-winning Oxford American magazine, where she served as editor-in-chief.

“Eliza is an exceptional leader who brings vision and a breadth of experience to the library’s fundraising efforts,” said Nate Coulter, CALS executive director. “Her accomplishments during her tenure at Oxford American are noteworthy, but she has also been a frequent library user and a volunteer with our Six Bridges Book Festival for years. Eliza’s interests and background will give her insight into the unique opportunities and challenges of library fundraising.”

Borné was born and raised in Little Rock, where she attended public schools and participated in summer reading programs at the library. She graduated from Wellesley College, then worked as an editor at BookPage, a national book review publication. In 2013, she joined the staff of the Oxford American magazine, and was named the magazine’s third editor-in-chief in 2015. During her tenure, the OA has three times been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, winning in 2016, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Windgate Foundation, the Amazon Literary Partnership, and many other funders. In 2019, the OA won an Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award. Borné has served on the talent committee for the Six Bridges Book Festival since 2014 and is a board member for the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference at the University of Central Arkansas. She is a former commissioner on the City of Little Rock’s Arts & Culture Commission.

She credits her love of reading for setting her on a path that led to the editorship of the Oxford American, and that love was nurtured in the library.

“As a lifelong patron of CALS, I am honored and thrilled to join one of my city’s most vital institutions,” said Borné. “I am passionate about the library’s efforts to promote learning and literacy. And I have long admired the CALS staff as they share information and books with our community, but also meals and math tutoring and more.”

Borné will lead the efforts of the CALS Foundation in its mission to provide support for educational and cultural programming for the patrons, communities, and neighborhoods being served by the library system. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) formed in 2009 to support the work of the library. It has an endowment of $5.2 million and a separate board of nine members.