Paula Roper

Born to a working class family in St. Louis, Missouri, some of my earliest memories are of evenings spent sitting on my mother’s lap while she read to me. This ignited one of my life’s great passions: Love of the written word. In fact, a number of years ago, a spiritual teacher upon meeting me said that my aura was studded with books. My love of reading seems to have guided my career path. I attended public schools until the third grade when I transferred to the parochial system. After high school, I went to a community college and eventually the University of Missouri—St. Louis, where I earned a B.S. in Education with a minor in history.
I worked for a number of years as a teacher and then for several federally funded projects before returning to school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, earning an M.A. in Library Science. I went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis with an emphasis in Higher Education. Educational History was my inside support area while Information Science was my outside support area.
I was awarded a fellowship while pursuing a master’s degree and served as a teaching assistant for the campus’ library skills course. I am a librarian at University of Missouri’s Ellis Library, serving as the subject specialist for Education and Black Studies. I feel lucky to work in a field that I love.