2023 Nominating Committee CandidatesShiraz Bhathena
April Anderson-Zorn
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Candidate Statement: In 2024 MAC members will be electing candidates for Vice President, Treasurer, Council, and Nominating Committee. What should the Nominating Committee look for in potential MAC candidates for these offices, going forward? Serving as an organization’s nominating committee member is a crucial role. These members are tasked to seek candidates for leadership positions representing their membership’s values, visions, and goals. As a candidate for the MAC Nominating Committee, I understand the critical need for organizational representation for our members and the repositories we steward. The potential candidates sought after by the Nominating Committee should be willing to address current civic and political issues that affect MAC members and their repositories. The Nominating Committee should also work to identify those helping to increase transparency and representation in their organizations and the profession. In this effort, I believe it is part of the Nominating Committee’s duty to be active communicators. They must actively participate and continually make themselves aware of the MAC membership’s current issues, topics, and concerns. If elected as a MAC Nominating Committee member, I will:
In the spirit of collaboration and communication with my fellow MAC Nominating Committee members, I believe I can help make positive changes for the membership and ensure continued growth and prosperity for MAC. Megan Mummey
Megan Mummey is the Director for Manuscript Collections at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center. She administers the manuscripts and audio-visual unit, which includes collection development, acquisition, accessioning, processing, description, and preservation of rare and unique collections. She provides strategic leadership over all aspects of the life cycle of archival materials for manuscripts and audiovisual material. She has served as the Project Manager for multiple grants.. She has served on the board of the Kentucky Council on Archives in multiple capacities, including as Chair. Additionally, she is serving on the Midwest Archives Council Program Committee for 2023 and is the Web Liaison for the Society of American Archivists’ Collection Management Section. Prior to joining the SCRC in 2011, she worked at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. She holds a BA in history and an MSIS with a focus on Archival Enterprise from the University of Texas at Austin. Candidate Statement: In 2024 MAC members will be electing candidates for Vice President, Treasurer, Council, and Nominating Committee. What should the Nominating Committee look for in potential MAC candidates for these offices, going forward? The MAC Nominating Committee should first and foremost be looking to encourage participation in MAC leadership from as wide a scope as possible. Diversity of background, race, institution size and type, and age can only make the Midwest Archives Conference stronger and more able to represent and serve the needs of the archivists in the Midwest. For all offices, the Nominating Committee should be encouraging nominations from archivists with experience in professional organizations and MAC, but weighing previous experience too heavily creates barriers to participation. Encouraging newer professionals to serve, especially on the Nominating Committee, should be a priority and will improve the health and responsiveness of the organization. Leadership qualities we should seek in nominees include dedication to the mission of MAC (advancing the archives and the archival profession) as well as to social responsibility and justice. Additionally, we should choose Board candidates who have strong vision about the future of the organization, are conversant with current archival social and professional issues, are dedicated to DEI in the profession, and exhibit good interpersonal communication skills. Additionally, we should search for leaders that understand the importance of accountability, transparency, and good stewardship.. In order to identify candidates with these qualities, we should look at the trajectory of people’s careers and their accomplishments as well as rely on each of our individual professional networks to identify and encourage qualified candidates. Sarah Lebovitz
Sarah Lebovitz is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs. As one of many labor union archivists at the Reuther, she handles collection development, fieldwork, processing, reference, donor relations, and archival outreach on behalf of SEIU and its collections at the Reuther. She received her Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan and studied anthropology and religion in her undergraduate. Sarah is currently serving as the co-chair for the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Labor Archives Section, as a Member-at-Large for SAA’s Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Steering Committee, and as a Member-at-Large for the Michigan Archival Association (MAA). Candidate Statement: In 2024 MAC members will be electing candidates for Vice President, Treasurer, Council, and Nominating Committee. What should the Nominating Committee look for in potential MAC candidates for these offices, going forward? Going forward, the Nominating Committee for MAC should look for individuals who are passionate and interested in helping MAC continue to grow, adapt, and provide support for all its members. The committee should strive to find potential MAC candidates across ethnicities, abilities, and gender expressions to ensure that our leadership reflects and represents the diversity found in our membership across the Midwest. It is incredibly important to uplift and support leaders that care about the future of the archival field, that continue to strive for inclusivity and access, and that bring forward new and innovative ways of tackling inequity – it is the charge of the Nominating Committee to put forth concerted effort into finding individuals who do this work every day or who are willing to put in the time to learn. These individuals should additionally represent a wide variety of professional identities to ensure that our leadership understands and provides solutions for future membership needs or potential barriers. This should include (but is not limited to) representation from institutions of all sizes, members across all stages of their careers, and members across GLAM repositories. Shiraz Bhathena
Employment: Digital Archivist, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives (2019-present) Education: M.A., Moving Image Archive Studies, University of California-Los Angeles (2008-2010) Professional Activities: Digitization, digital archiving, finding aid authoring, intern supervision, social media outreach, community outreach, archives instruction, paper processing, electronic records processing. Candidate Statement: In 2024 MAC members will be electing candidates for Vice President, Treasurer, Council, and Nominating Committee. What should the Nominating Committee look for in potential MAC candidates for these offices, going forward? I feel it is important to ensure Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) is progressive in filling leadership positions. It is crucial that MAC reflect changes in the profession in recent years, such as technology and approaches to providing access to different users. While having experienced professionals who are staying on top of current readings, studies, and projects that other archives are doing is beneficial, it is just as vital professionals who are newer in the field are brought into these positions. Recently gaining a degree that reflects a different approach to the pedagogy of library sciences than their predecessors, their contribution to MAC as an organization will help shape it into one that reflects the current times for archives and libraries. Additionally, ensuring that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is being considered for these positions should be a goal for these roles. While much has been written about DEI and how it fits into libraries and archives, it is very important for MAC to set an example by creating opportunities people from marginalized populations in leadership roles. People from these groups have historically been denied opportunities for leadership elsewhere and giving them these roles will guarantee MAC is reflecting their points of view. One example would be nominating a Vice President who, as acting liaison for the program and local arrangements committee and publications, would make a point of overseeing a prioritization of reflecting the wonderful diversity of the current members of MAC in these committees. In the case of MAC’s governing body, ensuring the organization has a Council that represents diversity and is progressive will ensure policies, guidelines, initiatives and projects voted on will keep MAC illustrative of the present on an executive level. With a higher level prioritization of inclusion, MAC is guaranteed to reflect this elsewhere. |
