Olivia E. Alison is the Birmingham Public Library’s New Director of Development

Olivia E. Alison, a former museum educator and curator, has been hired to lead fundraising efforts at the Birmingham Public Library. As the library’s new director of development, she will plan and oversee all development and fundraising activities for the library, the Birmingham Public Library Foundation, and the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library. For the past seven years, she served as director of development at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

“I am delighted to be working with the Birmingham Public Library, which provides such invaluable services to our community and is a resource for education and enjoyment for all,’’ says Alison.

Alison is a native of Selma, Alabama. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. She’s also attended the Getty Institute of Museum Management in Berkeley, California; the Williamsburg Development Institute in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the Institute for Planned Giving in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Alison has worked at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. During her museum career, she sought and gained support for educational projects, exhibitions, and renovations. She became a development professional when the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation of Williamsburg, Virginia, asked her to raise funds for its museums and libraries. She has also managed development operations and campaigns at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

She is an architecture buff, an avid reader, a seasoned traveler, and a master gardener.