Biography

Dr. Nhora Lucía Serrano is an academic and research technology leader, digital scholarship expert, and humanities scholar with nearly two decades of experience advancing academic technology, library services, digital scholarship, teaching and learning, research support, and technology-enabled innovation in higher education. She currently serves as Director of Academic Technology, Teaching, and Research Services at Hamilton College, where she provides strategic leadership within Library & Information Technology Services (LITS) for academic technology, digital learning, research and scholarly services, faculty engagement, digital library initiatives, and innovation.

At Hamilton, Dr. Serrano leads initiatives that connect libraries, technology, pedagogy, research, and creative practice. Her work includes the development of the TECH Lab, a collaborative space supporting student innovation and technology-enabled learning; the redesign of the library’s first floor to create a makerspace, technology-rich teaching classrooms, and production and privacy spaces; and strategic oversight of initiatives including the Digital Arts Studio Lab, LITS Student Tutor Program, Nye Center for Technology & Innovation, and associated studios and makerspaces. She works closely with faculty, students, librarians, technologists, campus partners, and institutional leadership to develop sustainable approaches to academic technology, digital library services and collections, research support, scholarly communication, and the responsible adoption of emerging technologies, including AI.

Dr. Serrano brings a distinctive perspective to technology and library leadership through her background as a former tenure-track faculty member and published humanities scholar. Her expertise spans digital humanities, digital scholarship, scholarly communication, cultural heritage, libraries and archives, museums, visual culture, and public scholarship. She has extensive experience bridging faculty and scholarly communities with library, technology, and institutional leadership, with a particular focus on creating environments where new technologies can meaningfully advance teaching, research, and creative inquiry.

Her national leadership in digital scholarship includes serving as a co-author of the Modern Language Association’s Guidelines for Evaluating Digital Scholarship. She is actively engaged in professional organizations and national conversations surrounding academic technology, research libraries, digital scholarship, leadership, and inclusive excellence. Dr. Serrano was elected to the NERCOMP Board in 2025 and serves on EDUCAUSE’s Nominations and Leadership Development Committee and its Technology, Leadership and Culture (TLC) Advisory Committee. She was also a member of the inaugural cohort of the EDUCAUSE Next Leaders Fellowship.

A first-generation Latina from Colombia, Dr. Serrano is deeply committed to inclusive excellence and cultivating cultures of belonging and equitable access in higher education. She is a co-founder of Hamilton College’s ALANA Caucus and brings an equity-centered approach to organizational leadership, student learning, faculty engagement, and technology strategy.

Dr. Serrano’s scholarly background is in Comparative Literature, Digital Humanities, and Visual Culture, with research focused on Early Modern and Colonial Latin America, the history of the book and print culture, graphic narratives and comics, and Latin American/Latinx studies. She is the editor of Immigrants and Comics (Routledge, 2021) and co-author of the forthcoming Women in Comics (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026). Her scholarship and public-facing work explore the intersections of literature, visual culture, technology, and cultural studies.

Her work has been supported and recognized by organizations including the National Humanities Center, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship at MIT Press.

Across her career, Dr. Serrano has focused on building connections among libraries, people, technologies, and scholarly communities. Her leadership encompasses academic technology strategy, digital scholarship and research services, digital libraries and collections, scholarly communication and publishing, organizational development, faculty and student engagement, team leadership and talent development, cross-campus partnerships, and the thoughtful and responsible integration of emerging technologies into higher education.