Committee Members

Ricky Punzalan, Co-Chair

Ricky Punzalan is an associate professor of archives and digital curation at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. He studies Indigenous community access to digitized archives through virtual reunification, improving archival practices, conducting community-based research, and re-establishing more ethical relationships between Indigenous peoples and heritage institutions. He has a Ph.D. in Information and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan. He is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and co-chair of the Archival Repatriation Committee of the Society of American Archivists.

Vina Begay

Vina (Diné Nation) is the Assistant Librarian for the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. Before professionally working as a Librarian and Archivist, Vina worked in the Theater profession for 16 years, including low budget student films. Vina graduated with a Master of Business Administration and Master of Library and Information Science with a specialization in Archival Studies and Digital Information Management. Vina has dedicated her career to safeguarding, preserving, and advocating the implementation of the Protocols of Native American Archival Materials within western institutions to ensure proper care and management of Indigenous Information of traditional knowledge. Additionally, Vina has served as Tribal Archivist consultant for Tribal communities in assistance with establishing Indigenous Archival Centers within their community, including developing archival practices tailored to the Tribe’s cultural beliefs, practices, and governance structure.

Kelley Klor

Kelley M. Klor (Cherokee Nation) is a recent graduate from the University of Missouri iSchool concentrating in Archival Studies, and a former graduate research assistant at the University of Missouri focusing on extensive provenance methods. Kelley works for the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums, served as a Student Evaluator for the Indigenizing Archival Training project, and serves on the steering committee of the SAA Native American Archives Section.

Diana Marsh

Diana E. Marsh is an Assistant Professor of Archives and Digital Curation at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies (iSchool) and Past Chair of the Native American Archives Section of the Society of American Archivists. Her current research focuses on improving discovery and access to colonially-held archives for Native American and Indigenous communities.  Her recent work has appeared in The American Archivist, Archival Science, Archivaria, and The Public Historian, and her book, From Extinct Monsters to Deep Time was released in paperback in 2022 with Berghahn Books.

Previously, she worked at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives (2017–2020) where she researched barriers to access among users of anthropological collections. From 2015–2017, she was an Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow at the American Philosophical Society where she conducted research and curated exhibitions drawing upon archival collections (Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales of Philadelphia, April–December 2017 and Gathering Voices: Thomas Jefferson and Native America, April–December 2016). She completed her PhD in Anthropology (Museum Anthropology) at the University of British Columbia, an MPhil in Social Anthropology with a Museums and Heritage focus at the University of Cambridge in 2010, and a BFA in Visual Arts and Photography at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University in 2009. 

Jacob Savory

Jacob Savory is a NAGPRA Curatorial Assistant at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. His work at the museum primarily centers around consultation with Tribal Nations, aboriginal land research, inventory research, and data verification. A 2023 MSLIS Archives Management candidate at Simmons University, he also serves as Dr. Kathy Wisser’s Graduate Student Assistant, where current research efforts focus on reparative description and the documentation produced by Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Repatriation and disposition efforts, reparative description, and ethical stewardship are at the forefront of his professional interests. He has worked in academic libraries, oral history, digital preservation, and archives, and is a former member of the DEI Committee at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Jacob is an Oklahoma State University graduate, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts in English and was selected as an Outstanding Senior of the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Kevin Schlottmann

Kevin Schlottmann is Head of Archives Processing at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where he leads a team of archivists in arranging and describing archival materials in all formats. Previously, Kevin was Digital Archives Manager at the New York Philharmonic and Archival Processing Manager at the Center for Jewish History.

Melissa Stoner

Melissa Stoner (Diné) is the Native American Studies Librarian at the Ethnic Studies Library at UC, Berkeley.  Previously, she worked in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Library Digital Collections Department as Project Manager for the National Endowment for the Humanities funded National Digital Newspaper Program for the state of Nevada.  Melissa also worked as Digital Projects Librarian for Nevada State College on a Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to digitize oral histories.  Melissa graduated from San Jose State University with a Masters of Library and Information Science, with a focus on emerging technologies which led to her main focus, the digitization practices of historical and ethnographic materials that contain culturally sensitive information and/or restricted tribal knowledge.