SAA Names Four New Fellows at AUSTIN 2009

Congratulations Fellows! Sheryl Vogt (University of Georgia), David Carmicheal (Georgia State Archives), Edward Galvin (Syracuse University), and Nancy McGovern (University of Michigan) were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists in August. Photography by: Bob Levy

David Carmicheal, Edward Galvin, Nancy McGovern, and Sheryl Vogt were inducted as Fellows of the Society of American Archivists during an Awards Ceremony held August 14, 2009, at the Hilton Hotel in Austin, Texas. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor bestowed on individuals by SAA and is awarded for outstanding contributions to the archives profession. There are now 186 Fellows in the program, which was established in 1957.

David Carmicheal is the director of the Georgia State Archives, located in Morrow, just south of Atlanta. Carmicheal was appointed state archivist in 2000.

He served as president of the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) in 2005–2006. As such, he led a disaster assessment team that reported on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi coast. Carmicheal is the author of Rescuing Family Records: A Disaster Planning Guide, published by CoSA in 2007.

Carmicheal earned his master’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1984. Early in his career he worked as an archivist for the State University of New York in Stony Brook and in Westchester County. He has served on the Advisory Committee on Electronic Records for the National Archives and Records Administration. 

Philip Mooney, director of Heritage Communications at the Coca-Cola Company, said Carmicheal’s “visionary leadership has created a series of innovative programs that have allowed the [Georgia] Archives to reach new audiences and forge new relationships.” 

“David is a man with an endless willingness to use his considerable talents in the services of his professional colleagues and the users of archives,” said Kathleen Roe, director of operations for the New York State Archives. “He is a modest, unassuming colleague who delights in putting forward the accomplishments of others to ensure they receive the recognition and attention he shies away from.” 

Edward L. Galvin is the director of archives and records management for Syracuse University.     Galvin began his career as a genealogical researcher in 1975 as the co-founder and first archivist of the Winchester Archival Center in Winchester, Massachusetts. Other positions held during earlier in his career include archivist for the MITRE Corporation, archivist for the New York State Archives and Records Management Administration, and archivist and records manager for the Aerospace Corporation.

Galvin earned his master’s degree in historical agencies and administration from Northeastern University in 1980 and became a Certified Archivist in 1989. Galvin joined the staff at Syracuse in 1995. He has been honored with the university’s Keeping the Spirit Alive Award for his work in documenting the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. Thirty-five students studying abroad with Syracuse University were killed in this terrorist attack. Syracuse University is the site of the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives, which were established in 1990.

He has been a member of SAA for 34 years, and has been active in the New England Archivists, New York Archives Conference, Society of California Archivists, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.

Randall Jimerson, director of the archives program at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, said “Edward knows how to fly beneath the radar of public attention. Modest and unassuming, he has nonetheless contributed significantly for many years in building solid and professionally-run archives and records management programs, advancing these twin professions, and helping everyone he meets to understand better the importance of archives and records in today’s society.”

Dr. Nancy Y. McGovern is the digital preservation officer and research assistant professor for the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan.

Colleagues who nominated McGovern for the honor of Fellow refer to her as “a major force in moving the archives profession from managing traditional paper documents to the preservation of electronic records.” They noted her innovation in developing and implementing the Archival Electronic Records Inspection and Control (AERIC), and the design of the Archival Management Information System (AMIS) for NARA.

McGovern previously worked for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), working her way up to senior electronic records archivist in the Center for Electronic Records. She stayed with NARA for 11 years, then moved to Budapest, Hungary, in 1996 to become the electronic records manager for the Open Society Archives. She then went to England to study in the doctoral program at University College London and work for Audata, Ltd., as the electronic records manager.

McGovern returned to the United States in 2001 and joined the staff of Cornell University as the digital preservation officer and director of Research and Assessment Services. She assumed her current position at UM in 2006.

McGovern has written more than twenty articles, most recently “Digital Preservation,” in a forthcoming Digital Curation Manual for the National Research Foundation in Pretoria, South Africa. She joined SAA in 1988 and co-founded and chaired the Electronic Records Roundtable and the Electronic Records Section.

Sheryl Vogt is the director of the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. She began her career at the university in 1974 as a library specialist for the Russell Memorial Library, after earning her Ed.S. at UGA in 1973.

Among her other accomplishments, Vogt is being recognized for developing a survey that led to the Guide to Research Collections of Former Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and her participation on the Congressional Documentation Task Force. Vogt currently serves on the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and for the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress.

Colleagues who nominated Vogt as a 2009 Fellow also cited her contributions to SAA’s Congressional Records Roundtable. Said one, “She was instrumental in the growth of the Congressional Papers Roundtable from an informal group of colleagues with a common interest to a structured entity with ongoing projects.”

Vogt joined SAA in 1976 and has been a member of the Society of Georgia Archivists for 25 years, serving as its president in 1983. Many of her peers also noted her 20-year stint as editor of the Georgia Archive/Provenance journal. Vogt’s most recently published articles have appeared in The Documentation of Congress and the American Political Archives Reader.

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Criteria and Selection Committee

The Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows evaluates nominees on the following criteria: appropriate academic education and professional and technical training; a minimum of seven years professional experience in any of the fields encompassed in the archival profession; writing of superior quality and usefulness in advancing SAA objectives; and contributions to the archival profession through work in and for SAA.

As specified by the SAA constitution, election as Fellow is by 75 percent vote of the Committee for the Selection of SAA Fellows. The committee consisted of the five immediate past presidents of SAA—Elizabeth W. Adkins (chair), Elizabeth W. Adkins, CA, Timothy L. Ericson, Mark Greene, Randall Jimerson, Richard Pearce-Moses—and three Fellows selected by Council—Philip Bantin, Anne Diffendal, and Jane Kenamore.