2016 Nominees for the RMRT Steering Committee

Nominations for Chair

Beth Cron

Beth Cron is a Senior Records Management Policy Analyst at the National Archives and Records Administration. She is a member of the Records Management Policy and Outreach Section within the Office of the Chief Records Officer. Her team has produced guidance on social media records, cloud computing, and email archiving applications. Beth is a 2008 graduate of the School of Information at the University of Michigan and she specialized in Archives and Records Management. While in graduate school, she worked at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and served on the board for the SAA Student Chapter. She previously worked at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). She currently serves as chair of the Records Management Roundtable.

Nomination for Vice Chair:

Eira Tansey

Eira Tansey is the Digital Archivist/Records Manager for the University of Cincinnati. Tansey is responsible for the university's records management program, and for the planning and development of workflows related to born-digital archives and digital preservation of electronic records. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University, and is a Certified Archivist. She has previously worked at the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University. Tansey recently served on the 2015 SAA Nominating Committee, served on the SAA Communications Task Force from 2012-2013, and was the 2010-2011 Chair of the SJSU SLIS SAA student chapter.

Nominations for Steering Committee:

Carissa Bourdon

Carissa Bourdon is the Records Coordinator for the Port of Olympia where she is responsible for answering public records requests and organizing the Port's public records. She is also assisting in providing public records training, implementing an electronic content management software and the in-house retention schedule expert. She has a Bachelor's of Science in Aviation Management from Central Washington University. While at Central she worked for the Washington State Archives Eastern Region branch then at a surgical office as a billing and medical records specialist. She is currently the Project Coordinator for implementing the ECM software at the Port and is actively working to clean up and re-organize all of the Port's records.

Statement of Interest: I think the work that RMRT has been doing creates an incredible community where the experts can share their knowledge and the newcomers can provide new insight. I hope to see more collaboration with the group members to really connect on many levels of records management and implementation. Even though I am fairly new to the Records Management community I see the need for a strong committee bond, there are always new ideas out there! It's a complicated world out there and it's so beneficial to be part of a group that understands the work you are doing. With anything new or difficult I've found it's best to dive right in and learn how to swim, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

Jessika Drmacich-Flach

Jessika Drmacich-Flach is the Records Manager/ Digital Resources Archivist at Williams College in Williamstown, MA (2011-present). Previously, she held the position of Archivist at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA (2009-2011) and before that was the Assistant Archivist at Rolling Stone Magazine & Wenner Media (2005-2009). She is a 2006 graduate of the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences MA program in Archives and History. She additionally holds an advanced graduate certificate in Archives from the same program. At Williams, Drmacich-Flach authored records policies and established an official records management program for the College. Responsible for the identification, transfer, and management of records at Williams, she creates workflows, procedures, trainings for e-records, metadata projects, personal archiving, records storage, and preservation.

Statement of Interest: It is an exciting time to be a records manager! Facilitating and supporting best practices and strategies for records and metadata that empower information professionals (and non-information professionals) is something I attempt to do on a daily basis at Williams College. With my experience navigating through records policy/record holders at a small liberal arts college, I am excited about the possibility of adding to discussions and new ideas with the wonderful professional community of RMRT. If I am lucky enough to be elected to the RMRT Steering Committee, I plan to bring experience, the ability to listen, and an enthusiasm for the field itself. Thank you!

Brad Houston

Brad Houston is the university records archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), where he coordinates records management activity and helps set records policy for over 200 campus units. Brad has given numerous presentations on born-digital records, digitization, and research data management both for end-users at UWM and for information professionals, including SAA's 2-day Records Management for Archivists workshop. From 2011-2014, he served as chair of Records Management Roundtable (immediate past chair 2014-2016) and currently serves on SAA's education committee.  He received a BA in History from Grinnell College in 2004 and a MA in European History/MLS in Archives and Records Management from the University of Maryland-College Park in 2007.

Statement of Interest: During my years as a member of the RMRT steering committee, and later as vice chair and chair, I have been extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish. Between our advocacy for records management sessions at the annual meeting, our roundtable-sponsored webinar on records management for archivists, the educational Google hangouts, working on SAA's own records retention policy, and the RMRT blog, the roundtable and its members have gone a long way towards giving new RMs a leg up and normalizing records manager/archivist hybrids as part of the overall archives conversation. I'm running for steering committee again because there's still work to be done-- more educational resources on special topics like electronic records and legal issues, more discussions to be had on current records issues, more work to be done on projects such as the RMRT bibliography. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the RMRT steering committee, and would be honored by the chance to continue that work.

Katie Causier Howell

Katie Howell is the University Archivist for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she is responsible for managing all aspects of the university archives, which includes providing guidance on issues of records management and coordinating records center activities. Katie attended the University of Texas at Austin and received her MSIS with a specialization in Archives and Records Enterprise. She previously worked as the college archivist for Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, where she established the college’s first archives, and as the reference archivist at the Austin History Center in Austin, Texas. Katie has served on the executive board of the Society of North Carolina Archivists since 2013.

Statement of Interest: I am interested in serving on the Records Management Round Table steering committee, because I am eager to get involved in the many admirable projects that the board as completed in recent years. I would like to work to involve professionals who perform records management tasks without traditional training or titles, and I think that the round table could serve as an advocate for those individuals who do not currently see themselves reflected in SAA leadership. In addition, I would like to learn more about the challenges facing archivists as records managers and share ideas and knowledge with others interested who are passionate about these issues.

Melanie Maxwell

Melanie Maxwell is the Records Analyst for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta.  Before her current position she was an Archives and Digital Asset Management Specialist at UPS, Archivist Technician at the Portman Archives and a Library Technical Assistant at Georgia State University Library.  She is new to records management, and just joined the board of Atlanta ARMA.  Melanie will soon finish her Master of Archival Studies from Clayton State University.

Statement of interest: Although I have been a member of SAA for several years, I hope to take on a more active role in supporting the organization.  I would like to join the Records Management Steering Committee to help share the challenges and successes of our varied RM work environments with the SAA community.  I am interested in promoting the marriage between archives and records management, and business and academic archives.  I want to support any endeavors that bring these groups together.