2026#02. 2026 Election Candidates Statements

Please take some time to review the candidate statements for the 2026-2028 Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section leadership positions before submitting your vote once the ballots open.

You will be voting for:

• 1 Junior Co-chair / Elect Co-chair
• 1 Programming Coordinator, and
• 2 Steering Committee Members-at-large

Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!

Junior Co-chair / Elect Co-chair candidate

Ron Martin-Dent 

Ron Martin-Dent (he/him) currently serves as the Archives and Special Collections Librarian at Fort Hays State University. He previously served as a consulting archivist for the Shoulders to Stand On LGBTQ+ community archive at Rochester Public Library. Prior to library school, he served as the Director of Publicity & Production at BOA Editions. He has served as an intern for Densho, the George Eastman Museum, Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, and the Library of Congress. He is a member of a project team led by Dr. Bridget Whearty (Binghamton College) to create the open-education resource Always Here: a Queer+Trans Global Medieval Sourcebook. He is passionate about community archives, LGBTQ+ histories, book arts, and gardening as praxis for resilience.

Statement of Interest: I am interested in serving as a Junior Co-chair for the SAA Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section because I dream of creating a collaborative space for archivists who identify as LGBTQ+ or who work with LGBTQ+ materials to come together in mutual support to serve the needs of our diverse users.

It is a difficult time for LGBTQ+ archivists and for archives that collect materials documenting the experiences of LGBTQ+ people. Changes to state laws and federal regulations have increased risks to necessary funding, impacted recruitment and retention, and led to direct harm to both archival workers and the communities that they serve.

While many of us are hurting, these impacts have disproportionately impacted our community, with transgender, nonbinary, intersex, BIPOC, and archivists living in states with conservative-majority legislators bearing the brunt of these harms. As an archivist trained in an LGBTQ+ affirming state now living in a state that is actively passing anti-DEI and anti-trans legislation, I have an opportunity to bridge these conversations and provide perspective from multiple angles.

I am new to my archival career, but I bring a lot of unique experiences to the table. As a remote intern for Densho and as a production editor at BOA Editions, I have a proven track record of collaborating across time zones to spotlight, amplify, and preserve diverse voices. I remain deeply committed to cultural humility, holding space for intersectionality, and working across differences toward the liberation of all. I recognize my relative privileges as a cis queer dude and make every effort to listen, to educate myself, to pay attention, and to constantly ask who may be missing from the conversation and why.

I want to help create spaces for archivists to network, to learn from each other, to make connections, to ask questions, and to develop affirming, supportive, and collaborative relationships in a safe, nonjudgmental, inclusive environment. If elected, I will work with the steering committee to explore ways to create opportunities for section members who cannot travel to SAA conferences or participate in synchronous online events due to financial, personal, or professional obligations to get involved with DSGS and to feel a sense of belonging within the community.

Together, we are the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section of the Society of American Archivists. Please allow me to serve you to make this section reflect all of our needs, priorities, and dreams.

Programming Coordinator candidate

Gideon McDaniel

H. Gideon McDaniel (he/him) is an archivist & oral historian currently serving as Special Collections Director at Dayton Metro Library in Dayton, OH. Gideon has been working in archives since 2019 with previous roles at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Northern Kentucky University. He has served as the primary Oral Historian for Jews of Color: Histories and Futures, a Luce Foundation grand-funded initiative, since 2023. Gideon’s areas of research interest include mass media & cultural history, theology & religious studies, the American South & West, the Soviet Union, and East Asia.

Statement of interest: I’m interested in serving as Programming Coordinator for the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section because I appreciate the Section’s intention this year to continue building community with other SAA groups, and programming is necessarily a means to creating connection. I have experience coordinating programming with community in mind: in 2024-2025, I led Northern Kentucky University’s MySteely Campaign, an initiative to increase student belonging in Steely Library, and enjoyed the opportunity to create spaces that would engage diverse audiences and promote genuine conversation. I feel personally called to express interest because I’m an early-career archivist who hasn’t yet invested time towards being entrenched in SAA spaces, but given the difficulty of our current political context, I want to be more involved and empower other queer & trans people to do the same.

Steering Committee Member-at-large candidate

Elizabeth Nichols

Elizabeth Nichols is an archivist currently serving as Archives Assistant at the Society of the Divine Word, Chicago, Province. She has worked in museum and religious archives for eight years. She earned her MLIS from Dominican University in 2017, and is a certified archivist with the Academy of Certified Archivists. While her current role focuses on religious archives, she has worked with diverse records and artifacts, including the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA) collection. As an archivist, she is called to service as a steward of records and information in a social climate hostile to intellectualism. Elizabeth is a staunch advocate for freedom of information and the unionization of cultural heritage workers. Her personal passions include cats, Chicago and LGBTQIA+ history, crossword puzzles, and crochet.

Statement of interest: I'm interested in serving as a member of the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section Steering committee to branch into professional archival service in an area that I'm personally passionate about. Serving on the DSGS steering committee would bring together my professionalism as an archivist with my interest in LGBTQIA+ history and records. Moreover, I feel that it is imperative that LGBTQIA+ information professionals seek out advocacy and service in a time of increasing exclusion from the historical narrative and social marginalization. So, I'm putting myself out there as one such information professional, and would be pleased to advocate for and increase awareness of LGBTQIA+ records should I be elected.