Meet Tricia Pil: Salt Lake City Public Library Board Member
Tricia Pil is a new member of the Salt Lake City Public Library Board of Directors. In this quick chat we got to know Tricia and heard about her amazing Library origin story.
Hi Tricia! Please tell us a little about yourself
I moved to Salt Lake City in 2021 from Pittsburgh, PA, during the COVID-19 pandemic. What I thought would be a short-term stay has turned into 4+ years as I fell in love with the mountains, the city’s vibrant music and performing arts scene, the outdoor community, and of course the public library!
I am a pediatrician by background. I currently work as a field surveyor in healthcare accreditation for The Joint Commission. This means that I travel to community health centers, urgent care clinics, and ambulatory surgery centers nationwide to ensure that federal health care quality and safety standards are met. I love my job and am passionate about safe, quality health care being delivered to every patient, everywhere, every time.
You have a great Library story. Would you mind sharing?
I was born in Nashville, Tennessee and am the firstborn child of immigrant parents. My father is from Taiwan and my mother was from Thailand. Side story: when I was born, my parents were so excited at having a first-generation child born on American soil that I was named after the daughter of the sitting US president at the time — bonus points if
you can name the president!
My first language was Mandarin, and it was the only language spoken at home until I started kindergarten. That year, my mother went back to work full time for WPLN-FM Public Radio in downtown Nashville. Back then, WPLN was located down the hall from the Nashville Public Library. There was no such thing for our family then as afterschool care, so often after school I would walk to my mom’s office, down the hallway to the library, and wait there in the children’s section until 5pm when she got off work and we could go home.
I remember that the children’s librarian was a kind woman named Diane McNabb. Mrs. McNabb took me under her wing and taught me that the library was so much more than a free holding pen for unsupervised children! It was there in the library that I learned English. I learned to read. I learned the Dewey decimal system. I learned (and loved!) to help stamp due dates in books for patrons. Every month when a new shipment of children’s books arrived, Mrs. McNabb would save them for me so that when I arrived after school, I could be the first to look through and see which ones I wanted to check out. I also remember she gave me my very first book to keep, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Mrs. McNabb infected me with a love of reading and for a long time, I wanted to grow up to be a children’s librarian just like her.
Even though I didn’t end up becoming a librarian, I have never forgotten Mrs. McNabb’s kindness and compassion for that quiet, lonely Asian child in the children’s section. From her, I came to realize that the public library is a place where anybody can access the resources and information to educate themselves and get ahead in life — no matter their age, family background, country of origin, or socioeconomic status.
Is that why you wanted to join the Salt Lake Public Library Board?
My years spent literally growing up in the public library profoundly shaped my future and who I am today. Now many decades later, through serving on the Salt Lake City Public Library Board, I can give back in some small way for all the benefits that I received from the public library of my childhood. It’s an honor and a privilege to advocate for public libraries, and SLCPL in particular, to continue to be a beacon of hope and opportunity
for all.
Anything you’d like Salt Lakers to know?
I’m also a foster care parent, and would love to give a shout-out to my fellow foster parents and the many good people at Utah Foster Care and Utah Division of Child and Family Services who work tirelessly to make a positive difference in the lives of abused and neglected children.
Postscript: The same afternoon that Tricia visited the Main Library for her photoshoot, she was able to find her childhood librarian, Diane McNabb, on social media and reached out to her! Mrs. McNabb is now 98 and living in Nashville. She still remembers Tricia and the two plan to renew their friendship after all these years.
