Task Forces

History Task Force

Charge: The History Task Force actively gathers the history of AAC through archival research and member interviews. The task force will find avenues to publish and share the rich history of the roundtable.

Final report

Rebecca Hankins, chair (e-mail)
Texas A&M University 

Rebecca Hankins received her Master's in Library and Information Science in 2000 from Louisiana State University.  She is an Associate Professor and a certified archivist at Texas A&M University, College Station TX.  Her previous employment included 12 years as senior archivist at The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans and two years as Assistant Librarian at the University of Arizona’s Special Collections in Tucson, Arizona.  Her expertise includes building collections and scholarly resources for the study of the African Diaspora, Race & Ethnic Studies, Women & Gender Studies, and Arabic Language and Culture.  She has taught courses on the use of primary sources in research, presented at numerous venues, and published in science fiction, library, archival, and other peer-reviewed journals.  She is also a contributor to the Islamscifi.com website.

Barrye Brown
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Brown is a MSLS candidate who specializes in Archives and Records Management in the School of Information and Library Science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a 2013-2014 ALA Spectrum Scholar, as well as a recipient of the 2013 SAA Mosaic Scholarship Award. Currently, she serves as a Carolina Academic Library Associate (CALA) with a dual appointment in the Southern Historical Collection and the Stone Center Library at UNC–Chapel Hill. Previously, she has worked with the Museum of Mobile, the National African American Archives and Museum, and the African American Heritage Trail of Mobile, AL. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Dillard University and a Master of Arts degree in Atlantic World History with a focus on African-Atlantic Diaspora from Rice University.

E. Evan Echols
University of Delaware 

E. Evan Echols is a Senior Assistant Librarian in the University of Delaware Library Manuscripts and Archives Department.  He received his MS in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University and has worked in special collections and archives since 2006. Mr. Echols is responsible for processing manuscript collections, providing reference and instruction service, and curating exhibitions. He is also responsible for managing audiovisual materials in the Manuscripts and Archives Department and has facilitated the acquisition and digitization of audiovisual collections, including several oral history collections that document the history of minority communities in Delaware.

Jameatris Rimkus
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Jameatris Y. Rimkus is currently the Archivist for Reference & User Engagement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 2006-2012 she was the Africana Studies & Anthropology subject and instruction librarian at the University of Miami Libraries. She received her M.S. in Library and Information Science from the Graduate School of Library & Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006.

Denise Villegas
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA)

 Denise Villegas is an archivist at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She received her MLIS from the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in archival studies after studying computer information systems at California State University, Fresno. She focuses on utilizing information technology to make archival material accessible to the widest audience possible.

Nominating Task Force

Charge: The Nominating Task Force nominates AAC members and institutions for SAA awards. They will prepare and submit the nominations for awards that seem applicable.

Agnieszka Czeblakow, Chair: 

Agnieszka Czeblakow is currently the Collections Manager at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library.  In 2014, she completed her MLIS degree with archives concentration and prior to that, in 2011 earned a PhD from Emory University in Colonial Latin American History, where she focused on the history of colonial Ecuador's prisons and prisoners.

Ashleigh Coren: 

Ashleigh Coren is an Americorps Volunteer for Steps to Success, an academic enrichment program based in Brookline, MA. She is also a Part-time Reference Librarian at Emerson College. Ashleigh holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art and Visual Culture from Bates College and recently received a Masters of Science degree in Archival Management from the Library and Information Science Program at Simmons College.

 

Angel Diaz: 

Angel Diaz is the California’s Gold Archivist at Chapman University. She earned both a BA in United States history and a MA in Education from the University of San Francisco, and an MLIS from the University of California Los Angeles. Angel is responsible for the processing and preservation of audiovisual and manuscript collections. She also manages digital preservation and accessibility efforts for the California's Gold Collections, as well as outreach. 

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins:

 Lae’l Hughes- Watkins is the University Archivist at Kent State University. She is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a B.A. in journalism and political science and an MA in English. She earned her MLIS at Kent State University and was a Read Graduate Assistant appointee in Special Collections and Archives. She also sits on the Board of the Ohio Local History Alliance.

Outreach and Advocacy Task Force

Charge: The Outreach and Advocacy Task Force works towards promoting the profession, responds to issues that relate to archives, creates professional development opportunities for members and plans social activities during the SAA Annual Meeting.

LaToya Devezin, chair (e-mail)
New Orleans Public Library 

LaToya Devezin works as a Librarian in the African American Resource Center at the New Orleans Public Library. She has a B.A. in Music from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, and an M.A. in Museum Studies from Southern University at New Orleans. She just received her M.L.I.S. in Archives Management from Louisiana State University. She is a trainer for the Archival Training Collaborative and a 2011 American Library Association Spectrum Scholar.  She was recently awarded the Society of Southwest Archivists John Michael Caldwell Student Scholarship and named one of the "40 Under 40" shaping the future of New Orleans.

Aisha Johnson
Fisk University 

Aisha Johnson serves as the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist for Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Information Studies at Florida State University, where she examines library history within African-American history placing an emphasis on the struggle to access. She earned a B.S. in Political Science and M.L.I.S. from Florida State University, and has contributed to The American Public Library Handbook and Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era.

Berlin Loa
Casa Grande Valley Historical Society 

Lisa Cruces
University of Houston

Lisa Cruces is the Hispanic Collections Archivist in Special Collections at University of Houston Libraries.  A native Texan, Lisa earned dual B.A. degrees from Texas State University-San Marcos in 2009 and her M.S.I.S. from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2012. She holds specializations in archival enterprise and academic librarianship, and is committed to increasing access to Spanish-language material and digital curation.

Social Media Coordinator

Charge: The Social Media Coordinator(s) run the AAC Facebook and Twitter pages and explore other platforms that may be used.

Ardra Whitney

Job Opportunity Specialist

New York City Human Resources Administration

e-mail

Ardra Whitney is a Job Opportunity Specialist with the New York City Human Resources Administration. She earned her Master’s degree in Library Science and Certificate in Archives from Queens College in Queens, NY. Her archival work experiences include serving as Video Oral History Archivist at The HistoryMakers in Chicago, IL; Institute of Museum and Library Services Fellow with the Avery Research Center in Charleston, SC; Project Archivist at Weeksville Heritage Center Archives in Brooklyn, NY and Archives Assistant at the Ailey Archives in New York City. Ardra is delighted to continue utilizing social media to increase the Archivist and Archives of Color Roundtable’s online audience and engage them in relevant topics pertaining to people and archives of color.

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AACR History Task Force-August 3-2016 final report.docx50.58 KB