GIA’s Dona Dirlam Receives WJA “Special Services” Award for Excellence

For nearly 40 years, Dona Mary Dirlam has served the global gem community with unsurpassed passion and expertise as the founder and director of GIA’s Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center. On July 25, she was honored for her innovative work with the Women’s Jewelry Association’s (WJA) Award for Excellence in Special Services during their annual ceremony, held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

“Dona and her staff not only built GIA’s library from a few bookcases to the astounding and unique multimedia collection it is today, she was able to cultivate it into the world’s leading resource center for gems and jewelry. During her decades of service to the Institute, she has inspired countless women with her wisdom and passion for all things geology and gemology. We’re truly honored to have Dona on our team at GIA and I’m thrilled that the WJA has recognized her as a pioneer for women in the industry,” said Susan Jacques, GIA’s president and CEO.

Dirlam, who holds a Master of Science degree in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), began her career as an Earth sciences teacher before following her passion for minerals and gems to GIA’s Santa Monica campus in 1979. Upon completion of her Graduate Gemologist diploma, she joined the Institute as a staff gemologist and later became the GIA research librarian.

Appointed the library’s director in 1995, Dirlam has grown the collection to more than 57,000 books, 700 journals and magazine titles, 175,000 digital images, more than 1,800 videos and DVDs, and the Cartier Rare Book Collection – making it the world’s largest repository of information on gems and jewelry. Her commitment to provide the public and global gem industry greater access to GIA’s rare books was the driving force behind a significant project to digitize the collection’s rarest holdings and make them available at archive.org (https://archive.org/details/gialibrary).

Dirlam was nominated for the WJA’s Special Services award alongside industry luminaries Debbie Hiss, owner of Debbie Hiss Consulting; Kristie Nicolosi, president and CEO of the Kingswood Company; and Kate Peterson, president and CEO of Performance Concepts. The WJA Awards for Excellence are presented to female jewelry and watch professionals that have demonstrated significant achievements throughout their careers.