Donald Peterson Student Travel Award: Elizabeth Vallen

Elizabeth Vallen, a 2016 graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign with a master’s degree in library and information science, is the 2017 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Established in 2005, the award supports attendance at the conference by a student and/or recent graduate from a graduate archival program within North America. The goal of the scholarship is to stimulate greater participation in the activities of SAA, such as presenting research or actively participating in an SAA-sponsored committee, section, or roundtable.

Now a project archivist at the University of California, Merced Library, Vallen is developing a plan for archiving, preserving, and providing access to the University of California’s Cooperative Extension’s record. She will share the strategic plan with the Science, Technology, and Health Care Section in the hope that it will serve as a model for cooperative extension archives in other states. As the only full-time archivist at UC Merced, she will also participate in SAA’s Lone Arrangers Section meeting.