Lauren Ciborski has joined ABA as the new Chief Financial Officer! 
To help our members get to know her, Ciborski sat down with Bookselling This Week for a brief interview.
Bookselling This Week: Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background. What sort of work did you do before you joined ABA?
Lauren Ciborski: I’ve had a really nonlinear career trajectory and I’ve worn a lot of different hats — sometimes simultaneously — in different higher education, arts and culture, and nonprofit positions. I started out working in libraries, and I went to library school. After that I moved into fundraising. I learned to be a grant writer and I did prospect research, identifying potentially wealthy donors who might make large gifts in a university office.
About 12 years ago, I got a job at a nonprofit theater, initially doing development work — grant writing, writing annual appeals — and some communications. And I did a lot of other things: operations, helping with productions, bookkeeping. It was a great opportunity for me to learn new things, and I discovered that I really like working with numbers. The theater needed someone to write budgets, and create reports for our board, and handle banking, and manage the audit…so I became that person. That’s how I got into finance, and I went back to school again and got another master's degree in accounting.
The thing I love about working with numbers is that they tell a story about how an organization is doing and what it prioritizes, and about who the organization really is. Because where we put our money is evidence of what we value, right?
In the middle of my accounting program I got a job working as a controller — which is very similar to what I'm doing at ABA. I learned so much in that role. I managed the finances of a very complex nonprofit, migrated an accounting system and integrated business operations into a single office. I got to do a lot that was both fun and hard, and it was all very meaningful to me, because I could see how that work was important to the whole.
BTW: I can definitely see how all of those little details would come together and make you perfect for this role. What made you want to join us at ABA?
LC: At my last job, I solved all the problems I was hired to solve, and I was ready to make a change and join an organization that better aligned with who I am.
When this job popped up, it really brought together all of the things that I care about. I didn’t really know about ABA until I saw the job posting, but there was this feeling of coming home when I got a response to my application. This job is a perfect fit for where I am in my career and where I want to be.
There's so much that this organization does that I think is amazing. ABA is supporting its members in ways that are innovative and different from the other membership organizations that I'm familiar with. And the workplace culture is very proactive and goals-oriented — it’s very different from most of the nonprofits I’ve worked with, and I really appreciate it.
BTW: And we are very happy to have you. Have you read anything good lately? Anything you’d like to recommend to us?
LC: I recently started Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I picked up while in Portland for Ci2025. But I think my favorite book that I’ve read this year was Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I loved reading it, I couldn’t put it down. It follows the lives of twin brothers, both of whom become doctors. My dad was a surgeon and I felt connected to him through reading. It’s so well written and researched — it spans many decades and multiple continents. I highly recommend it.