Krystal Appiah, Foundation Board of Directors

Krystal Appiah is the Head of Collection Development at UVA’s Small Special Collections Library, where she also serves as curator for Virginia and African American collections. Previous positions include the Curator of African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia and Research Archivist at the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland program at the Maryland State Archives.  

In 2019, she was co-investigator with Brenda Gunn of the Ithaka S+R study, Supporting Teaching with Primary Sources, which examined UVA faculty’s practices for teaching undergraduates with primary sources. Krystal is active in the Society of American Archivists, where she was elected to Council in 2022. 

Krystal holds an MLIS with a specialization in archival studies from UCLA and an AM in public humanities from Brown University, where she was the 2009-11 Fellow for the Study of the Public History of Slavery. Her intellectual interests include African American history, print culture, women’s studies, and the history of education.