Cynthia Hudson Vitale represents and advances the Association’s Scholars & Scholarship program with key partners, allies, and joint ventures to promote ARL’s broad mission of open, equitable scholarly communication, information stewardship, and publishing. She analyzes the global landscape of open science and open scholarship, and works with research, higher education, information technology, and government agencies on institutional and public policy issues that arise from new and emerging practices in research, teaching, and learning. Serving as a staff lead to the Scholars and Scholarship Committee, Cynthia advances research library engagement and representation in such critical areas as open science and digital scholarship policy and practice.

Prior to joining ARL in January 2021, Cynthia served as the head of Research Informatics and Publishing at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, where she led a team focused on enhancing the technology-driven research and publishing capacity of faculty and students. In this role, she built and enhanced library collaborations and services in the areas of data science, digital humanities, research data management and curation, open-access publishing, and maps & geographic information systems (GIS).
Before working with Penn State Libraries, Cynthia spent a number of years building and enhancing research data services and providing liaison services at Washington University in St. Louis in collaboration with colleagues across the institution.

Cynthia earned a BA in international studies and communication from Saint Louis University and an MA in information science and learning technologies from the University of Missouri.