Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award: Olivia Newsome

Olivia Newsome, visiting assistant professor at the Pratt School of Information, archivist at Barnard College Archives and Special Collections, and special collections coordinator at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, is the 2026 recipient of the Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award celebrates and encourages early-career archivists who have completed archival work of broad merit, demonstrated significant promise of leadership, and performed commendable service to the archives profession.

At Barnard College, Newsome engaged in extraordinary outreach to student activists in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests on campus in 2024. Throughout that spring, she had created respectful relationships with the students who later turned to her when seeking to archive protest materials. She worked with them to assess and appraise items and assisted in finding the best repository for protest materials. Concurrently, Newsome engaged with students and staff in reprocessing administrative records of past campus activism.

In addition, Newsome has been involved in numerous archival projects. She supported an oral history project and reprocessed collections related to Barnard’s disability history with Barnard College’s Center for Accessibility Resources and Disability Services. Through her work at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Newsome co-curated the 2024 exhibition, “Young Lesbians, On Selfhood,” at New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center. She also uplifted the histories of lesbians and queer people by serving on panels such as “Let’s Talk About Sex: Sexuality, Sex Work, and Ethics in the Archive” at SAA’s 2024 Annual Meeting. Newsome also co-authored the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York’s Advocacy Committee 2025 Survey, which provided critical data about labor challenges faced by archivists in the New York Metropolitan Area. 

Newsome has demonstrated dedication to both community and institutional archives, applying ethical and critical practices to support the memory work of students and marginalized communities. Her contributions to the profession through outreach, publications, and conference panels demonstrate exemplary service and leadership. One of her supporters, Dr. Kimberly Springer, noted that Newsome has a “dedication to improving the archives profession through data-driven advocacy and community-centered outreach.” Another supporter, Martha Tenney, commended Newsome’s “thoughtfulness, vision, and skill.”

Established in 2011 and renamed in 2017, this award honors SAA Fellow and Past President Mark A. Greene.