Meet the candidates for the 2021-2022 Section Leadership!

You will be voting for:

• One Vice Chair/Chair-elect, for a two-year term
• Two Steering Committee Members, each for a three-year term

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

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect (select one)

Name: Hilarie Pitman Pozesky

Professional title, institution, or affiliation: Cofounder and Archivist, Sepia Archival Management

Biographical Information: 

Hilarie Pitman Pozesky is a co-founder of Sepia Archival Management, a firm located outside of Chicago, Illinois, that works with individuals, cultural institutions and corporations to provide hands-on archiving services, as well as offering strategic assessments of archival collections. Hilarie is a formally trained archivist with an MA in journalism. After a 15-year marketing career, she pivoted to combine her love of history and archives with her consulting expertise. She has recently done archival work for the Chicago Public Art Group, the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the Oak Park River Forest Museum, as well as a stable of private clients. She is a member of the Caxton Club and on the board of directors of Oak Park Temple. 

Candidate Statement:  

I have spent much of my 25+ year career working with male-dominated executive teams in the marketing industry.  As a result, I am very conscious of the challenges that women face in the workplace. Two years ago, when I decided to receive a formal education in Archives and Cultural Heritage, I was regularly interacting with younger women, something I hadn’t done in a while. I recognized in them the very same characteristics and blind spots that I had as a young businesswoman. It took time for me to grow into a woman who understood and could navigate around some of the sexist pitfalls in the workplace. Last fall, I launched Sepia Archival Management with a partner. We are a woman-owned archival consulting business. Using much of the knowledge I gained in my first career contributed to the success we’ve already seen in our business. I have a strong desire to share that knowledge with other women in the industry and to learn from them, as well. I want to champion other women in the archives industry and to work on ways that we can collaborate in order to champion each other. 

Steering Committee (choose 2)

Name: Rebecca Fenning Marschall

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Professional title, institution, or affiliation: Manuscripts and Archives Librarian, UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Biographical Information: 

Rebecca Fenning Marschall has worked as the Clark Library’s inaugural Manuscripts & Archives Librarian since 2008, where she has responsibility for all non-print collections, including manuscripts, archives, original artwork, and other unique materials dating from 1590 to the present. She also manages the library’s heirloom seed library and works on public programming related to urban nature and gardens. Prior to working at the Clark, Rebecca worked in the institutional archives at the Getty Research Institute and in the Historical and Special Collections Department of the Harvard Law Library. She received her MS in Library Science & Archives Management from Simmons College (now Simmons University) in 2005, and holds a BA in English Literature and Film History from Bowdoin College. Rebecca’s professional service includes committee work and elected positions in the Society of California Archivists, the Librarians’ Association of the University of California (LAUC), and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL/ALA, in addition to other local Los Angeles organizations.

Candidate Statement: 

I’ve watched the work of the Women Archivists Section for a long time, and am excited to become more involved if elected as a member of the steering committee. As a working mother with two young children, I am passionate about the importance of advocating for women and female-identifying folks in the archives. There are so many issues that uniquely affect us – from leave and lactation policies, to the importance given to professional travel and speaking, to the age-old issue of performing emotional labor in the workplace – and simply having a place to discuss these issues with others who have experienced the same struggles is hugely important. Things like the pandemic-related changes in hybrid conference offerings are a step in the right direction for creating more equity, but there are always more ways that we can form more supportive environments for ourselves!

Name: Jennifer Johnson

Professional title, institution, or affiliation: Director, Corporate Archives, Cargill, Incorporated

Biographical Information: 

I am the corporate archives director at Cargill, Incorporated, where I have worked since 2007. A University of Maryland graduate, with a Master of Library Science, I previously worked at the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources, and the Minnesota State Archives. I am a past president of the Twin Cities Archives Round Table, and the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC). As a Society of American Archivists (SAA) member, I have participated in and held leadership positions on the following committees: Committee on Education (chair), Annual Meeting Task Force, 2014 Nominating Committee, Business Archives Section (education chair and section chair), 2019 Program Committee, and the A*Census II Working Group. Additionally, I have served as a panelist and moderator at annual meetings of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, MAC, SAA, and the SAA Research Forum. I have co-written articles on the effect of caregiving on the profession, and lessons learned about conducting quantitative research. Additionally, I wrote a chapter, “Cultivating Success: The Business of Archives,” for the book Leading and Managing Archives and Manuscripts Programs, published by SAA in 2019.

Candidate Statement: 

I look forward to serving as one of your steering committee members. As the profession has grown increasingly a profession of women, our needs are changing. We need salaries that make our lives affordable, less precarious positions, acknowledgement of the role caregiving plays in our lives, and pathways to development and leadership. We also need guidance on advocating within our organizations for salaries and hiring, caregiving resources, and development support. All of this in addition to promoting our archives and our collections. What can the section leadership provide our community that will help address these issues and make our lives just a little bit easier? These are topics that we can address in calls and our business meeting with the goal of giving our members the tools they need to address these challenges. The Women Archivists Section plays an important role advocating for these needs within SAA and the larger profession. I would love to serve on the steering committee to bring forward issues and ideas that are of importance to the membership.