The Henika District Library Board has announced Nicole Gray has been hired as the new library director.

Gray attended Ball State University in Indiana and obtained a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature. She then worked as a school librarian for two years before earning her master of library science at Indiana University. While studying library science, she worked as the Center Supervisor for a residential library on campus.

“I am very excited to join Henika District Library in serving all of the citizens of Wayland and Wayland Township,” said Gray.

The new director will begin work at the Library Monday, July 16.

Teresa Fulk, president of the Library Board, said, “The Library Board would like to invite the community to a welcome reception held at the library on July 21, during the Main Street Celebration and Friends of the Library Book Sale.”

Gray succeeds Molly Walker who left earlier this year to take another post in Alaska after serving three years.

Henika District Library had an unusual history in that its first four directors had a combined 98 years, including Fannie Hoyt, the first, who started in 1916, followed by Dorothy Peterson, Barbara Crofoot DeYoung in 1974 and Lynn Mandaville in 1985.

Since Mandaville left in 2014, Gray will be the third director in the last four years.