Christie Peterson, Candidate for Nominating Committee

Professional Experience: Records Management & Digital Archivist, The Johns Hopkins University, 2012–present. University Archives Project Archivist, Princeton University, 2010–2012. Processing Archivist, Bates College, 2007-2010. Project Archivist, Bates College, 2006–2007. Graduate Student Processor and Graduate Reference Assistant, Bentley Historical Library, 2004–2006.

Education: Leadership Development Program, The Johns Hopkins University, 2015 cohort. MIS, University of Michigan, 2006. BA, Anthropology & Creative Writing, University of Arizona, 1998.

Select Professional Activities: Society of American Archivists: Appointments Committee, 2014; Records Management for Archivists webinar (Co-developer), 2014; Records Management Roundtable Steering Committee, 2013–present; Annual Meeting Task Force Meeting Model Subcommittee, 2011–2012; Program Committee, 2011. Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference: Joint MARAC/NEA Program Committee, spring 2015 meeting; Local Arrangements Committee, spring 2012 and fall 2014 meetings. New England Archivists: Nominations Committee, 2009–2010.

Select Presentations: “From 0 to 1: On Becoming a Digital Forensics Practitioner,” Society of American Archivists (SAA) Annual Meeting, 2014. Virtual hangout on web archiving and records management, Records Management Roundtable, 2014. Taken for Granted: How Term Positions Affect New Professionals and the Repositories that Employ Them (Session Organizer/Proposer), SAA Annual Meeting, 2014. Panelist on term positions, SNAP Roundtable annual meeting, 2013. Processing Large Collections—And Getting them Done! (Chair), MARAC Spring 2012 meeting. Audio Transfer and Evaluation (Chair and Speaker), MARAC Fall 2011 meeting. The Real Reference Revolution (Co-organizer and Chair), SAA Annual Meeting, 2010. “Perpetual Beta Processing,” poster session, New England Archivists, spring 2010 meeting.

Awards: Louisa Bowen Memorial Scholarship, Midwest Archives Conference, 2005. Roberta Keniston Scholarship, University of Michigan, 2004.

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Question posed by Nominating Committee: What will be your criteria for choosing a slate of nominees, and how will those help SAA in its mission? 

Selecting a slate of nominees is an opportunity for SAA to recruit members into leadership positions who will carry out its mission with passion and creativity. To identify those nominees, I will look for candidates who represent or support diversity in the profession, who have a level of experience appropriate to the position in question, who demonstrate active professional engagement, and who are able to work collaboratively and constructively.

An ideal slate of nominees should represent diversity across racial, ethnic, and gender dimensions, as well as dimensions more specific to SAA such as geographic region, academic background, organizational affiliation, and career phase. Promoting diversity among SAA’s elected officials strengthens its ability to achieve its mission today while also nurturing and inspiring a broader, more engaged membership.

Nominees should also have a level of experience appropriate to the position for which they are running. The work that elected officials do is critical to accomplishing SAA’s mission and candidates must have sufficient experience to perform their duties well. However, it is equally important to the present and future of SAA that it develops leadership talent among its members by recruiting those with less experience to serve in positions where that lack of experience won’t necessarily impede their success.

An active and passionate engagement with the archival profession is also necessary for nominees, but there are many ways in which that could be demonstrated. These could include traditional modes of engagement such as service in professional organizations, publications and presentations, but they could also include active blogging or tweeting on archival topics, local leadership or advocacy on archival issues, or engagement with affiliated professions and related organizations, to name a few.

Finally, in order for SAA’s elected leaders to accomplish the organization’s mission, nominees must be able to work collaboratively. Although one of my criteria for nominees is passionate professional engagement, it is equally important that they demonstrate the ability to channel that passion toward collaboratively building a better and stronger SAA from within.

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