2014 Election: Slate of Candidates

The Archival History Roundtable is pleased to announce the slate of candidates running for election for Vice Chair and Steering Committee. Current Vice Chair Cory Nimer (Brigham Young University) will become AHRT Chair at the close of the AHRT annual meeting in August.

The 2014 online election will take place in early July. AHRT members will elect one individual to a one-year term as Vice chair; the Vice chair will subsequently serve as AHRT Chair for 2015-2016. Three Steering Committee members will be elected to a one-year term.

VICE CHAIR (vote for one)

Alison Clemens (Yale University)

Alison Clemens is an archivist at Yale University's Beinecke Library, where she processes literary and historical manuscripts and leads instruction sessions on accessing and interpreting the library's primary source materials. Prior to her current position, Alison was the Houston and Texas Archives Fellow at the University of Houston and an Archives Intern at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Alison is a graduate of the University of Texas (UT) iSchool, where her specialization in Archives & Special Collections sparked her interest in archival history. While at UT, Alison wrote a paper on the history of the university's Center for American History and its early archivist, Winnie Allen; she presented the paper at the University of Indiana. This research led to Alison's strong interest in how prior archival practice has shaped collections and access strategies.

As a current member of the AHRT Steering Committee, Alison believes that the roundtable serves the crucial purpose of ensuring that the profession remains cognizant of its history and the potential methods and benefits of studying it. If elected to the Vice Chair position, she would like to explore new ways for the AHRT to bring topics pertaining to archival history to the attention of the general SAA membership, and she believes that social media tools provide exciting opportunities for doing so. Alison is committed to the idea that archival history is an important part of archival education. She is interested in the professional development and education of archivists at all stages of their careers, and she is a member of SAA's Committee on Education and RBMS's Membership and Professional Development Committee and the Task Force on Core Competencies in Special Collections Librarianship.

STEERING COMMITTEE (vote for three)

Lorraine Madway (Wichita State University)

I am the Curator of Special Collections and University Archivist at Wichita State University Libraries, a position I have held since 2006.  There I oversee the acquisition, processing, and preservation of manuscripts, rare books, maps and other images, as well as university records.  In addition to 19^th and 20^th century regional and U.S. history, the collection is strong in early modern European history, particularly its rare books and maps.  My archives courses and internships in the MLS program at Simmons provided a strong foundation, both theoretically and practically, in archives and records management.  I am also fortunate to use the knowledge from my Ph.D. work in early modern European history at Yale to enhance the European component of the collection and showcase it in the library’s ongoing digital initiatives.  I have taught history at Colgate and the College of Charleston, and archives at Dominican University, Emporia State University, and in the public history program at Wichita State University.

My interest in serving on the AHRT Steering Committee stems from my longstanding interest in the cross-disciplinary relationship between history and archives in shaping collective memory.   The theoretical constructs and practical applications of collective memory are the focus of much of my scholarship, university teaching, and outreach through public programming.  In these diverse venues my underlying passion and purpose are to explore why records matter, to ask what and how we can learn from them, and to create entry points for scholarly and general researchers and the general public to interact with these materials.  For the archival profession to continue to be a vital cultural contributor, it is essential for us to engage in a similar process with our profession’s own past and provide opportunities to study and teach its history and traditions in library schools, public history programs, humanities courses, and in continuing education classes in public venues.  These strategies will help us to open up the conversation between practicing archivists and those in the academic and broader communities. This process of engagement will, in turn, strengthen our efforts to reach out to both constituencies whose understanding and support of the archival mission are essential to building the collaborative relationships that sustain and enrich civic life.

Dorissa Martinez (Nixon Presidential Library and Museum)

Hello all! My name is Dorissa Martinez and I would like to submit my name for the Archival History Roundtable Steering Committee. I joined SAA in 2010 as a student in hopes of learning more about my new profession! Even though I currently work as an Archives Technician, I still feel like I’m new to this profession. I began my journey into the archives world after leaving corporate America. I don’t have any formal training or education in this field; I have been taught everything I know by the amazing, wonderful, super duper, staff at NARA! Everyone that I work with has some type of formal education, so feel like I am constantly playing catch up. It is because of this that I have found myself wanting to get more involved with the SAA. I know there is so much for me to learn and I feel like I can benefit from being on a committee. I served as the Student Intern on the Diversity Scholarship Committee in 2011, so I understand the time commitment involved.

Krista Oldham (Haverford College)

I am the College Archivist/Records Manager at Haverford College, where I am responsible for acquiring, describing, preserving and providing access to the College’s records of enduring value and implementing a records management program. I previously worked at the University of Arkansas Mullins Library Special Collections in various capacities since 2003 and Senior Archives Manager since 2011. I am finishing up my MIS degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As student in the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences, I have been awarded the Information International Associates (IIA) Scholarship, the Gary R. Purcell Scholarship, and the H.W. Wilson Scholarship. 

I earned my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.  I am a member of the American Library Association (ALA), the Tennessee Library Association (TLA), the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA), the Delaware Valley Archivist Group (DVAG), the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC), and the Society of American Archivists (SAA).  In the past year, I have served as the Arkansas Liaison for the Publications Committee of the Society of Southwest Archivists. Additionally, I have been a Community Representative (2013-) for the Digital Public Library of America for both Arkansas and Pennsylvania. 

Eric Stoykovich (Fold3)

Dr. Eric Stoykovich works as a Digital Operations Manager for Fold3 (a subsidiary of Ancestry.com) at the National Archives in Washington, DC, where he supervises four camera operators in the digitization of records relating to the War of 1812 and Civil War.  During the last three years, he has helped to create over a million digital surrogates in one of NARA's most productive digitization labs. He finished a MLS with an Archives concentration from the University of Maryland in May 2013. He also completed a dissertation in American history at the University of Virginia, which examined the politics of 19th-century agricultural reform. He is also a Certified Archivist. He currently serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Archival History Roundtable.