Ruby L. Nugent is the Biomedical Research Librarian at National Jewish Health Tucker Medical Library in Denver, Colorado. In her roles as a hospital librarian, she assists researchers, clinical teams, and patients and spends much of her time creating expert searches and customized citation reports for faculty and clinical staff, providing Endnote instruction and training, guiding researchers in finding tools and resources for data management and collection, and helping patients locate reliable and unbiased health information through the use of consumer health resources and customized health research services.

Ms. Nugent worked in both public and health sciences libraries for over twenty years before being accepted into Knowledge River program at the University of Arizona, earning her Master of Arts Library and Information Science in 2019. As a Knowledge River Scholar, Ruby earned a scholarship in the form of tuition remission through a graduate assistant position she held at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library. She began her library career immediately out of graduate school at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Health Sciences Library as the Dental Medicine Liaison Librarian where she provided instruction on evidence-based practice, research methods, and cultural competency/cultural humility within the School of Dental Medicine core curriculum.

Ruby is a member Medical Library Association (MLA), serving as the Latinx Caucus Chair 2022-2023 as well as caucus representative to the MLA History Committee. She is MeSH team Co-Chair of the Latinx Caucus’ Hispanic/Latinx Inclusive Terminologies Project which earned both the Carla J. Funk Governmental Award and the MLA Caucus Project of the Year Award in 2023. In addition to MLA, Ruby is active in several other state, regional, and national professional library associations including the Colorado Council of Medical Libraries, the Mountains and Plains Library Association, REFORMA Colorado, and REFORMA National, where she is a member of the newly created Research Committee. In addition to her role as the MCMLA Chair, Ruby also is a current member of the chapter’s DEI Committee.