Wagner brings experience as librarian, archivist, instructor

This year Minnehaha is welcoming many new faces, one of them being Dora Wagner, a new librarian. Wagner will work in the library with Robyn Westrem, a librarian and English department chair, and with students in various classes as their teachers develop special projects.

After getting her BA in English and studio art at Cornell College in Iowa, she moved to Madison, Wisc., to work at a high school in academic support. 

“I built a relationship with the librarian, and that’s kind of where the seed was planted to go into library work,” Wagner said. 

After deciding to go into library work, she earned a master’s of library and information science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Wagner said becoming a librarian interested her because “I love the question negotiation. I like really working with people and helping them figure out ways to answer their questions and utilize the tools that they have around them.”

Wagner was hired following the retirement of Clare Lubar, a longtime staff member who worked with Westrem to rebuild the Upper School library collection following the August 2017 explosion.

Before coming to Minnehaha, Wagner worked at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul as an archivist and reference librarian for about 10 years. She is excited about her move to a high school. 

“I do love to have the opportunity to partner a lot more with the teachers here, and so I feel like it’s a lot more collaborative,” Wagner said. 

An added advantage is that she can send her two daughters to school at Minnehaha’s South Campus.