2025 Election: Candidate Statements

Thank you to everyone who shared and responded to the 2025 Accessibility and Disability Section election call for candidates! We appreciate all seven of the nominations that we received and are glad to see a full slate and another competitive election. The names and statements of the candidates are posted below. Please take a few minutes to review them.

Section members will be voting for:

• 3 Steering Committee members (two-year terms)
• 1 Vice Chair/Chair-Elect (one-year term)

Ballots will be sent by SAA through Survey Monkey and open from June 23 to July 15.

Steering Committee Member Candidates

Monica Thomas, June 2025 MLIS graduate, University of Washington

Bio:

Monica Thomas (she/her) graduated from the University of Washington with her MLIS and a graduate certificate in Disability Studies in June 2025. Monica has worked in disability services over the past 8 years informally and formally, serving in roles as the Director of ASUW's Student Disability Commission (UW student government), job coach for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, recreational therapist, camp counselor for youth with disabilities, and special education paraeducator. Although her career path is through disability services, she hopes to embed her passion for Disability Justice and serving the community into her future work in archives. For SAA's 2024 conference, Monica presented a poster titled "The Dark Histories of Disability at the University of Washington: Examining Erasure and Treatment of Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Washington" exploring how archived course catalogs contain Disability History within them that is not currently identified through cataloging practices and the greater call for identifying Disabled history within higher education institutional records. Monica will also be chairing and moderating a virtual session for this year's SAA conference, "Archiving for Justice: Access and Reparative Practices in Engaging Disabled Communities."

Statement of Interest:

If appointed to this committee position, I would contribute much expertise and knowledge. With 8 years of experience working in disability services, I have acquired knowledge on implementing accessible programming for people with a wide range of disabilities, performing public outreach and education surrounding Disability-related topics, and working within diverse/Disabled teams and spaces. From my educational background, I have been exploring the intersection between Disability and archives through not only my scholarly work within SAA conferences both this year and the last, but through my capstone projects for both the Disability Studies certificate and the MLIS capstone. My DS capstone examined current public memory projects from around the country, involving interviewing archivists and other professionals, working to preserve the public memory of people with disabilities and other marginalized backgrounds who were institutionalized. From this research, I consulted archivists on a local state project regarding archival practices of similar projects to theirs. Within my MLIS capstone, I explored issues of representation and access regarding disability (intellectual and developmental disability specifically) within Washington State Archives collections.

Elizabeth Pineo, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maryland College of Information

Bio:

Elizabeth Pineo (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research explores strategies to increase information access in online music archives for Disabled users. She is passionate about music, disability, and archives, and she has followed these passions to their intersection in the field of information studies. She aims to build a reality in which archives, the starting points of knowledge construction, are fully accessible to and accurately representative of all people. Her current work focuses on finding practical ways for archivists to make music archives—and music scores specifically—more accessible to Disabled users.

Outside of academics, Elizabeth works as the Director of Strategic and Creative Operations at Including Disability and as a cataloger at the Vocal Music Instrumentation Index, a digital archive of early vocal music. Elizabeth is a classically trained pianist, and, in her free time, she enjoys learning languages and caring for her ever-growing plant collection. She received her MLIS from the University of Maryland, College Park and her BA in Music from Dickinson College. For more information about her and her work, visit her website: www.elizabethpineo.com.

Statement of Interest:

Last year, I served as the ADS Student/Early Career member. This year, I am honored to have the opportunity to run for a full member seat. The past year's experiences have deepened my belief in the importance of the work ADS does and the positive impact we can have on the lives of Disabled archivists and users. I look forward to continuing our current projects, especially advertising for Preserving Disability and organizing a mentoring cohort around disability. Equally thrilling is the prospect of initiating new efforts that address emerging accessibility challenges and collaborating with other sections on projects, workshops, or events whenever possible.

The work ADS does has reinforced my commitment to bringing discussions around accessibility to the greater SAA community and archival field as a whole. As a Disabled and Autistic woman myself, I am driven by the transformative power of the human rights to information access and cultural heritage. Real accessibility means ensuring that archival records are available in accessible formats and described in truly inclusive ways, and that begins with building a broader culture of accessibility. I am committed to the work of this committee and enthusiastic about continuing to contribute to SAA’s efforts to promote accessibility in all its many forms. Thank you for considering my candidacy.

Marcella Lees, Digital Archivist, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Bio:

My name is Marcella Lees and I am the Digital Archivist for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. I received my MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in December of 2023 and have been serving since then as the Digital Archivist for SIUE. In July 2024 I also took over as Interim University Archivist and have overseen all archives reference, instruction, and outreach efforts and supervised our small archives team.

Statement of Interest:

I am excited to nominate myself to be a steering committee member for the SAA Accessibility and Disability Section. One of my primary research and advocacy interests is in how we can make the archival field more inclusive for disabled archivists. My focus in particular is on student and graduate student workers pursuing a career in archives whose temporary status and perceived “replaceability” gives institutions less incentive to accommodate them and amplifies the risks of disclosure. As a disabled, early career archivist myself, I have recently experienced how difficult it is for students to receive the accommodations they need and how unwelcoming the field can be. As a professional, I want to bring awareness to this issue and help find solutions for how this can be improved both at my institution and elsewhere.

While I have been using conferences as a platform to advocate for disabled student workers and provide realistic ways for supervisors to make their student positions more inclusive, having the opportunity to be a part of this steering committee would allow me to reach more people and to work with others who are equally passionate about this important issue. I have found the resources ADS has already created incredibly helpful to my work and would love to be a part of the important work it will continue to do.

Kathleen Leonard, Archival Assistant/Clerk, Dutchess County History Department (she/her)

Bio:

I’ve been in the archival profession for about 10 years and received a MA in History with a concentration in Public History from Rutgers University–Camden. I’ve worked in private and local government archives and I’m passionate about connecting the public with archival and historical material through reference, digitization, and processing. As a life-long Dutchess County resident, I appreciate all the practical skills I’ve learned by processing thousands of pages of eighteenth and nineteenth-century court records through the Dutchess County Ancient Documents Project. Outside of the profession, I volunteer with civic engagement groups and to get out the vote each year.

Statement of Interest:

As someone with generalized anxiety, this section has helped and inspired me. I want to give back and become more involved with the section. I’m passionate about accessibility and disability rights and want to channel this by volunteering as a steering committee member. I’ve struggled to take the next step as a member of professional organizations. Over the last few years, I’ve motivated myself to take more chances and become more active. Regardless of the outcome, I strive to assist the ADS section with its mission. Learning from other ADS members has improved my work, my understanding of the issues at hand, and demonstrated achievable ways forward. I’m committed to the values of this section and excited to help foster and support this work.

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidate

Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, PhD, CA, Associate Dean of Library Affairs, Special Collections Research Center, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (she, her, hers)

Bio:

Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, PhD, CA, is Associate Dean of Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library directing the Special Collections Research Center and overseeing Records Management and the Sharp Museum. After earning her doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Georgia in 2003, she earned her MLIS from the University of Alabama in 2008. Over the past two decades, she has developed digital and archival collections and exhibits for universities and public libraries in Georgia, Tennessee, Nevada, and Illinois. An active member of ALA, SAA, and MAC, she serves on the SAA ADS Steering Committee, the editorial board of MAC’s Archival Issues, and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB). Her research and initiatives support underserved communities.

Statement of Interest:

Throughout my career, I have worked for access and accommodation for patrons and staff with disabilities. I have measured offices and provided schematics to assist with ADA compliant redesign and provided technology and software that has enabled staff with hearing loss to continue work on audio projects. I have supported access to professional development for staff of diverse abilities and means. As opportunities for engagement are increasingly challenged by federal and state policies, it has never been more crucial to support information professionals at all career stages.

The ADS Steering Committee offers programs rich with perspectives from which everyone can benefit. I would be grateful to serve as Vice Chair of the ADS steering committee to support its initiatives, including helping with event planning to promote Preserving Disability during October’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month and collaborating with other SAA committees to pursue a mentoring cohort, workshops, and events. Our resilience and strength grow as we work and learn together.