Leesa Aiken

Leesa Aiken is the Director of the South Carolina State Library, where she has worked for eighteen years in various capacities before becoming the Agency Director in 2016. She enjoys creating programs that provide equal access to information for all South Carolinians and believes that access to information creates opportunities for success. 

Ms. Aiken received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Child and Family Studies with an emphasis on Early Care and Education from Columbia College, a Master of Arts in Organizational Change and Leadership from Columbia College, and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina. She is a Certified Public Manager, a Master Project Manager, and holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources designation.

Ms. Aiken enjoys creating programs that provide equal access to information for all South Carolinians and that connect people to our shared history in meaningful ways.  Ms. Aiken has a specific interest in collecting and documenting South Carolina history of those who have been traditionally underserved and whose history may be difficult to locate. She has led the efforts to procure resources and materials that focus on the history of African American and Native American South Carolinians. Those resources include access to African American newspapers, efforts to digitize cemetery records from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) files, Speaker at the Center engagements, and by providing grant opportunities to local libraries to record and digitize their local history, specifically in small and rural communities. 

In her private time, Ms. Aiken enjoys doing genealogical research on her family origin, cemetery preservation, woodworking, and helping others locate information that is meaningful to their history.