When Jason Driver comes on the job as CEO of St. Louis Public Library in January, he isn’t just replacing a well-respected leader, Waller McGuire, who ran the system for 22 years. He’s also taking over what was recently named the 2026 Missouri Library of the Year. The library system earned the accolade for how it bounced back after the tornado that hit St. Louis in 2025 and temporarily closed two of its branches, reestablishing itself as a community hub (it even opened a lending library for power tools to help neighbors who needed them).
And that may be one reason Driver isn’t coming in with a list of changes he wants to make or goals for overhauling the place. He calls the St. Louis Public Library a “well-oiled machine,” adding, “I’m a firm believer in one needing to follow before they can lead.” That means getting to know staff and the board and learning from them, he says: “We’ll figure out along the way what sort of things leadership and the staff want to see change, and we’ll tackle it.”
Driver grew up in Chicago (relax, he’s a White Sox fan) and began his career working with youth in the foster care system through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. He later landed a part-time job with the Chicago Public Library, working eight-hour days at his primary job followed by a four-hour library shift every night. That all felt like too much, and so he left the library job—but years later, when he got a chance to return in a full-time role, he leaped at it. He ended up getting his master’s degree in library science, and worked his way up into leadership, all the way to district chief. When he got recruited to run the regional library system in Kitsap County, Washington, he took it, and moved there in 2022…