2019 Elections

Chair (vote for one)

Joanna Black 

Biographical Information:
My name is Joanna Black, and I have worked in archives for over ten years, beginning with an archives internship at the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives in San Francisco. I hold a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and an MLIS with a specialization in Archival Studies from UCLA. Currently, I serve as Digital Archivist for the William E. Colby Memorial Library at the Sierra Club headquarters in Oakland, CA. I also serve as the immediate past chair of the Society of California Archivists Publications Committee, as well as current chair of the Archives Working Group at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society. Prior to working at the Sierra Club, I served as Director of Archives and Special Collections, Managing Archivist, and Project Archivist at the GLBT Historical Society, as well as Manuscripts Processing Assistant at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Outside of the archives, I enjoy traveling, gardening, and contemplating the origins of the universe with my two cats, Luna and Pyra.

Statement of Interest:
As Chair of the Issues and Advocacy Section of the Society of American Archivists, I hope to use this leadership position to continue the important work of the section Steering Committee, providing platforms that support dialog around some of the archival field’s most critical issues. I would work diligently and cooperatively with SAA members, leadership, and fellow archivists to address the needs of our professional community, seeking out diverse perspectives and creative solutions that promote our profession and the value of our work in society. I believe strong leadership is achieved through attentive listening, bold vision, and responsible action, qualities that I intend to exemplify as I&A Section Chair.

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (vote for one)

Holly Croft 

Biographical Information:
Holly Croft has been the digital archivist at Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia, since 2016. She received her M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her A.B. in English from the University of Georgia. At Georgia College, Holly is part of a small team where it’s an “all-hands-on-deck” approach, meaning she works with analog items as much as she does with digital ones. One of her favorite parts of being on a small team is that she gets to be involved in the entire process with collections, from acquisition to arrangement and description to preservation and access. In the past year, she’s curated exhibits for Special Collections’ new gallery spaces and developed and taught a for-credit undergraduate course on the History of Georgia College. Since joining SAA, Holly has chaired the Mark A. Green Emerging Leader Award Subcommittee and served on the board of the Students and New Archives Professionals Roundtable as student blog editor and then blog coordinator. She still tries to participate in SNAP chats when she can. This past year, she served as an SAA Mentor for the first time.

Statement of Interest:
The Issues & Advocacy Section has a long history of ensuring its members are informed about emerging issues that will affect the profession. I feel as though I constantly learn from everyone involved. Of late, the blog posts have focused on ways in which we might retain and encourage new archivists. I came to archives late – in my 30s (and I jokingly call this career change my “pre-midlife crisis”) – so I am just now shifting out of being a new professional myself. I love my work, and I want people outside of the profession to understand its importance and relevance. But most importantly, I want to make this a field that is as welcoming to everyone else as it has been to me, which is why I hope to be selected to serve as Vice-Chair.

Steering Committee Member (vote for two)  

Stephanie Bennett 

Biographical Information:

I am currently Collections Archivist at Wake Forest University's Special Collections and Archives. I've worked previously in archives at Iowa State University and Boston College. I was a member of I&A's Steering Committee 2016-2018, involved in the Collections Management Tools Section, and have been active in the Society of North Carolina Archivists. 

Statement of Interest:

I appreciate I&A's work advocating for archivists and our work, covering a wide variety of issues based on member interests and advocacy. A broad array of issues overlap with archivists and archives, and I love that I&A's folks provide round-ups and more information about pertinent topics. While in DC for the annual meeting last year, I participated in the Archives on the Hill event and was able to experience first-hand conversing with legislative staffs. It was a great eye-opening experience and I'll be interested in investigating what can be done to empower more archivists to understand how to galvanize on behalf of ourselves and our work. 

Alexandra Bisio

Biographical Information:

Alexandra Bisio received her MSLIS in Archives Management and MA in History from Simmons College in 2012. In 2011, she completed a research fellowship at the Harvard University Archives surveying born-digital faculty records. Between 2012 and 2015, she worked as a project archivist at both Boston College and the University of California, Irvine. She briefly served as Associate Archivist for the Jesuit Archives and Research Center in St. Louis, Missouri, before finally returning to Oregon in 2017. She is currently the Lead Processing Archivist for Special Collections and Archives at the University of Oregon in Eugene. 

She is a member of the Society of American Archivists’ Mentorship Subcommittee, Secretary (interim) of the Northwest Archivists, and an Assistant Editor for the Midwest Archivist Conference Newsletter’s News from the Midwest column. 

Statement of Interest:
I am interested in serving as a member of the Issues and Advocacy steering committee. I have been of the archival profession and SAA since 2011, and I have become increasingly interested in the public awareness and interpretation of record keeping practices and archives. I have been pleased to participate in a few of conversations on these issues as a guest contributor on both Archives Aware and the Issues and Advocacy blogs. I am very excited to have the opportunity to become more involved in directing the conversations surrounding some of the issues I am most passionate about, which deeply effect members of our profession, including labor issues – particularly those involving archives students and new professionals, as well as those that effect the public’s cognizance and perception of our role in protecting the historical record. 

Genna Duplisea

Biographical Information:
I work as the Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Salve Regina University. My academic interests center on the connections between power and knowledge production, and how people create knowledge about the natural and cultural environment. My non-academic interests center on houseplants, unusual animals, and analog writing technology like dip pens and typewriters.

Statement of Interest:
Archivists have important roles to serve in cultural justice and stewarding collections, particularly amid environmental instability; but our profession is unstable as well. Shrinking departments, broadening position scopes, increasing threats to collections and resources, and a wave of contingent and temporary positions prevent our profession from growing and performing our important work. I'm interested in serving on the Issues & Advocacy Steering Committee to build support for a better labor outlook in this profession. I hope to pursue sustainability through this section -- both in terms of ensuring environmental sustainability for archives and in terms of building a profession that can endure.

Sheridan Sayles 

Biographical Information:
Sheridan Sayles is the Technical Services Archivist at Seton Hall University Library’s Archives and Special Collections. She is an active member of MARAC, SAA, DVAG, and ART, and has given presentations at the Small Museum Association, Maryland Library Association, and MARAC Conferences. She graduated from the University of Maryland’s Master of Library Science Program and has previously served as the Assistant Archivist for the Lautenberg collection and has held a number of internships. She earned an M.A. in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark in Fall 2019 and a B.A. from the University of Mary Washington. Beyond SAA, where she serves on the Electronic Records Committee of the Congressional Papers Section, Sheridan also holds leadership positions in MARAC where she is the MARAC Mentoring Coordinator, and a member of the Scholarship and Membership Committees.

Statement of Interest:
After working as a project archivist and seeing friends’ difficulties on the job market, I have been working to advocate for sustainable project archivist positions. I have collaborated with colleagues at NYU, University of Delaware, and other organizations to collect our stories of failures and successes in this realm and present these lessons learned to the wider community. Beyond my research and presentations, I’m using my leadership roles within professional organizations (as well as fortunate extroverted-ness) to connect archivists and archives students at all levels through the conference. I spearheaded the Conference Meet and Greet Liaison position through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) to make one of the opening receptions to the conference more inclusive to attendees of all backgrounds and will be serving as Mentoring Program Coordinator at MARAC in the next fiscal year. I feel like these experiences can help inform my work towards advocacy and continue to the good fight that my colleagues have already started.