2026 UX Section Steering Committee Election

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2026 User Experience Section Election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.

Candidates

Laura Bell

Job Title and Institution: Associate Archivist for Collections Management, Access, and Discovery, American University Archives & Special Collections

Bio and Candidate Statement:

Laura is the Associate Archivist for Collections Management, Access, and Discovery at American University Archives & Special Collections where she manages collections processing, an on-going finding aids migration project, and reference services, among other responsibilities. She holds an MLS with a Specialization in Archives and Records Management, a Graduate Certificate in User Experience (UX) Design, and a BA in English. Laura is a Certified Archivist with the ACA and a Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) with SAA. She has been a member of SAA since 2016 and most recently served as a Member-at-Large in the SAA User Experience Section (2024-2026).

Much of my work and interests in archives have focused on access to collections through processing and collections description and metadata, digitization, and digital preservation initiatives. I'm broadly interested in utilizing UX research and design practices to better understand the needs of archives users and other stakeholders and improve their experiences as they interact with our many resources and systems, whether they are online or in-person. I've been privileged to serve as a member-at-Large within the UX Section Steering Committee since 2024 and have found that the Section has been a great place to learn from and collaborate with others with shared and related interests. I've enjoyed serving on the Steering Committee and contributing to initiatives such as our UX Principles in Archives Working Group. If elected as Vice chair/Chair elect, I would be excited to continue supporting the section's ongoing work to create a community of practice through programming, such as the newly-established UX Practitioner Conversation series and other coffee-chat-style events, and through shared resources that support UX research and design in archives.

Beth Mawhinney

Job Title and Institution: Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Denver | Adjunct Faculty, Santa Ana College

Bio and Candidate Statement:

Beth Mawhinney is the Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Denver, specializing in digital collections, metadata strategy, and collaborative software development. She focuses on improving access, usability, and long-term management of digital resources while aligning people, systems, and workflows across teams. Beth is also Adjunct Faculty at Santa Ana College, teaching in the Archives and Digital Collections track of the Library Technology Program. Her current work centers on designing equitable digital experiences and developing open-source, replicable tools that support research and access.

I am interested in serving as a Member-at-Large because user experience is central to how people discover, understand, and engage with resources. My work has consistently been positioned around user needs and user experience, holding various roles where I have served as the UX expert or product owner, developing needs assessments, conducting user research, developing prototypes, or defining product requirements. I value opportunities like this to collaborate with others who are thinking critically about how UX practices are tied to archival access and research. I am particularly excited about the section’s focus on building shared resources for UX research, and welcome the opportunity to support work that will enable others to utilize UX methods in their own environments.

Faith CharIton

Job Title and Institution: Lead Processing Archivist, Special Collections Firestone, Princeton University Library

Bio and Candidate Statement:

Faith Charlton is the Lead Processing Archivist for Special Collections Firestone at Princeton University Library where she serves as the functional supervisor for the team of processing archivists located at Firestone Library. She seeks to provide user-centered discovery of and access to archival records, especially those documenting marginalized communities. She has been an active member of several local and national professional organizations for over ten years.

In addition to her primary role at Princeton, Faith has dedicated significant time to initiatives around online user experience. As co-product owner of Princeton's finding aids website, Faith played a lead role in the site's development and since its publication has continued to help oversee its management, including spearheading usability testing and a focus group study on the use of online content warnings. At a professional level, Faith's interest in the intersection of inclusive description and user experience led her to co-author the whitepaper “A Call to Action: User Experience and Inclusive Description” in Stanford's Lighting the Way Handbook with a team of colleagues who went on to found SAA’s UX Section. Faith is excited about how the UX Section has grown since its inception and would truly appreciate the opportunity to continue to help facilitate the Section's goal of building a community of practice around user experience work in archives as a Member-at-Large.