Sonya Lockett is an Associate Librarian who serves as the Coordinator of Public Services at the John Brown Watson Memorial Library located on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). She is responsible for the Circulation Area, and Interlibrary Loans. She is also the Library Liaison for the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Science.

Sonya was born and raised in Prattsville, AR and is a proud 1983 graduate of Prattsville High School. After graduating from high school Sonya attended Capital City Jr. College where she received an Associate Degree in Business Administration. In 1995 Sonya enrolled at Arkansas Baptist College, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. While working at Arkansas Baptist College, Sonya got to live out one of her dreams--to coach a college women’s basketball team.

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During her tenure at Arkansas Baptist College, she was introduced to the field of librarianship. With encouragement from her mother and her son, in 2002, she embarked on the road to Denton, Texas.  She had been accepted into the Masters in Library Science Program at Texas Woman’s University.

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 The road to obtaining her Master’s degree was not an easy one. Three days after she arrived, she received a call that her mother had passed away. Once she arrived home she was unsure of whether to return to Texas or to remain at home. It was her son, Sha’mon who encouraged her to return to Texas. So with his blessing, she returned to Denton to work on her degree. Sonya was awarded a Master of Library Science Degree on December 13th, 2003.

Once she received her Master’s Degree, she returned to her alma mater Arkansas Baptist College as the Director of Library/Media Services, serving there for 5 years. She began her tenure at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff on January 2, 2008.

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Sonya has always enjoyed working with young people, whether it was the young children at the Arkansas Baptist Kiddie College, the youth at church or college students. She believes that it is important that young people have positive role models in their lives to help shape and mold them into productive citizens.

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Sonya is married to Alderman Bruce Lockett and they have one son Sha’mon and one granddaughter Skylar.