Featured Speakers
Featured Speakers will open each day of the event with a talk and Q&A with the audience.
Loretta Parham
CEO & Library Director, Atlanta University Center -Robert W. Woodruff Library
Thursday, April 6, 2023, 50-minute session
8:00am PT / 9:00am MT / 10:00am CT / 11:00 am ET
Loretta Parham – CEO & Library Director of the incorporated Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library, an entity shared by four HBCU institutions—Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College. Under her leadership the AUC Woodruff Library was just elected as the 127th member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and in 2016 awarded the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. Parham’s experience includes: Director of the Hampton University Library, Deputy Director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pa., District Chief of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) and other professional positions with Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago.
Parham is currently on the EDUCOPIA Board, member of the University of Michigan Information School Alumni Advisory Board, the WABE–NPR Advisory Council, and a member of the Roundtable for Aligning Incentives for Open Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
An active leader, scholar and engaging speaker, Parham was named the ACRL 2017 Academic Research Librarian of the Year, the 2016 Distinguished Alumna of the University of Michigan School of Information Sciences, a “Mover & Shaker” by the industry publication Library Journal, has authored articles on HBCU libraries and archives, is co-editor of the book, Achieving Diversity: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, and served as faculty for the EDUCAUSE Management Institute. She has been a featured speaker for programs of the IMLS, Digital Library Federation, OCLC, Georgia Society of Archivists, and more.
Parham is co-founder and past chair of the Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance, past chair of the Georgia Humanities Council, former board member of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), former trustee of OCLC, Inc., past chair of the ALA Committee on Accreditation and an officer in many other organizations.
Parham is an alum of the University of Michigan Graduate College and Southern Illinois University; and an alum of the Frye Institute, the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, and the HBCU Library Alliance Leadership Institute.
Lopez Matthews Jr.
State Archivist and Public Records Administrator, Government of the District of Columbia
Friday, April 7, 2023, 50-minute session
8:00am PT / 9:00am MT / 10:00am CT / 11:00 am ET
Lopez D. Matthews Jr., Ph.D., is the State Archivist and Public Records Administrator for the District of Columbia. In this capacity he serves as Historian of the District of Columbia, Chair of the D.C. Historical Records Advisory Board, and Director of the DC Office of Public Records and Archives. A native of Baltimore Maryland, he earned a BS in History from Coppin State University in 2004. He then earned a master’s degree in Public History and Archival Administration from Howard University in 2006 and a PhD in United States History from Howard University in 2009.
Currently, he is a member of the Council of State Archivists, and an Executive Council Member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He has published several articles and is the author of Howard University in the World Wars: Men and Women Serving the Nation. He is host of In Retrospect and Prospect where he interviews practitioners about African American history projects for ASALH TV. In 2020, he became a Senior Advisor to the US Truth, Healing and Transformation Leadership Group.
Meet the Session Panelists, Moderators, and Contributors
View the full schedule and all bios on the registration page.
TaKeia N. Anthony, Ph.D.
Interim Dean, Whitney Young Honors and Graduate Studies, Kentucky State University
Panelist: Digital Publishing – Lessons from Brown University’s Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing Institute
Kimberley Bugg, Ph.D.
Associate Library Director Atlanta University Center - Woodruff Library
Panelist: Leadership and Upward Mobility at HBCUs
Dana Chandler, Ph.D.
University Archivist, Tuskegee University
Panelist: Leadership and Upward Mobility at HBCUs
Rico Chapman, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean/Director, Clark Atlanta University
Panelist: Grant Funders and Awardees: A Conversation
Martina Dodd
Program Director of Curation and Object Based Learning, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Moderator: Care, Curation, and Collaboration: Art, Archives, and Exhibitions at HBCUs and Beyond
Flavia Eldemire, Ph.D.
Associate V.P. for Counseling & Placement, Allen University
Panelist: Leadership and Upward Mobility at HBCUs
Vanesa Evers
Digital Publishing Librarian, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Moderator: Digital Publishing – Lessons from Brown University’s Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing Institute
Sharon Freeman, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President for Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Mississippi Valley State University
Panelist: Creating Access to HBCU Collections
Siobahn Day Grady, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Program Director of Information Science, North Carolina Central University
Panelist: Instruction, Digital Pedagogy, Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Library
Melanee C. Harvey
Associate Professor of Art History and James A. Porter Colloquium Chair, Chadwick A . Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University
Panelist: Care, Curation, and Collaboration: Art, Archives, and Exhibitions at HBCUs and Beyond
Andrea Jackson Gavin
Director of Engagement & Scholarship, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Moderator: Grant Funders and Awardees: A Conversation
Renee Johnson-Thornton, Ph.D.
Senior Program Associate, Higher Learning/Associate Director, MMUF
Panelist: Grant Funders and Awardees: A Conversation
Ida Jones
Associate Director of Special Collections and University Archivist, Morgan State University
Moderator: Leadership and Upward Mobility at HBCUs
Allison Levy
Director, Brown University Digital Publications, Brown University Library
Panelist: Grant Funders and Awardees: A Conversation
Raeshawn McGuffie
Assistant Director of Technical Services, Hampton University
Panelist: Creating Access to HBCU Collections
DeLisa Minor Harris
Director of Library Services, Fisk University John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library
Panelist: Instruction, Digital Pedagogy, Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Library
Ana Ndumu
Assistant Professor, University of Maryland College Park
Panelist: Instruction, Digital Pedagogy, Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Library
Tiwanna Nevels, Ph.D.
HBCU Library Alliance Board Chair & Director of Library Services, Saint Augustine's University
Moderator: Featured Speaker session: Loretta Parham; Featured Speaker session: Lopez D. Matthews Jr., PhD
Brandon Nightingale
Project Manager, Black Press Archives Digitization Project, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
Panelist: Creating Access to HBCU Collections
Bria Paige
Doctoral Candidate, Department of English at Rutgers University; Former Pathways Intern at the National Endowment of the Humanities
Panelist: Grant Funders and Awardees: A Conversation
Kenvi Phillips, Ph.D.
Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion- University Library, Brown University
Panelist: Leadership and Upward Mobility at HBCUs
Sandra Phoenix
Executive Director, HBCU Library Alliance
Moderator: Creating Access to HBCU Collections
Ashley Robertson Preston, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History, Howard University
Panelist: Digital Publishing – Lessons from Brown University’s Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing Institute
Marco Robinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History and Assistant Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice, Prairie View A&M University
Panelist: Digital Publishing – Lessons from Brown University’s Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing Institute
La Tanya L. Reese Rogers, PhD
Associate Professor of Literature & Drama; Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Honors Program, Fisk University
Panelist: Digital Publishing – Lessons from Brown University’s Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing Institute
Kayla Siddell
Associate Director of the University Library, Xavier University of Louisiana
Panelist: Instruction, Digital Pedagogy, Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Library
Francena F.L. Turner
Postdoctoral Associate for Data Curation Data Curation in African American History and Culture, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland, College Park
Moderator: Instruction, Digital Pedagogy, Bridging the Gap Between Classroom and Library
Sterling Warren
Hycreator Mediaworks
Contributor, Community Break: DJ
Delrisha White
Founder and Principal Consultant, Equity Erudition
Host
Erika Witt
Coordinator of Public Services, Leonard S. Washington Memorial Library at Southern University at New Orleans
Panelist: Care, Curation, and Collaboration: Art, Archives, and Exhibitions at HBCUs and Beyond
Savannah Wood
Executive Director, Afro Charities
Panelist: Care, Curation, and Collaboration: Art, Archives, and Exhibitions at HBCUs and Beyond
