IMLS Fellows 2012-2013

2012-2013 Fellows Bios

Amanda Carter

Amanda J. Carter obtained her B.A. degree in English Literature with a minor in Women’s Studies from Tennessee State University in 2010. She finished her M.S.I.S. degree at the University of Tennessee in 2012, where she gained two years of archival processing and reference experience through an assistantship at the Modern Political Archive of the Howard H. Baker, Jr., Center for Public Policy. During graduate school, Carter was active in national, state, and local organizations. She served as the 2011-2012 President of the student chapter of Society of American Archivists, contributed the student column to the Tennessee Archivist newsletter, participated in the Society of Tennessee Archivists’ 2011 conference student panel, and presented on social media use in archives during the 2012 Tennessee Library Association conference. She is looking forward to serving as the Franklin Library fellow in Increasing African American Diversity in Archives: The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training, and Placement Institute, where she hopes to further enhance access to valuable African American collections.

Alex Champion

Alex Champion was born and raised in southern Minnesota but for the last nine years has resided in Madison, Wisconsin, where in 2007 he earned a B.A. degree in History and in 2012 an M.L.S. degree with a specialization in Archives and Records Administration from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He has worked circulation at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, processed collections of various forms at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, the Swiss Center of North America, and CUNA Mutual Group, was president of the Society of American Archivists Student Chapter, and sat in the search and screen committee for the Vice Provost of University Libraries (University Librarian). He is a member of the Society of American Archivists and has presented work at the Midwest Archives Conference. He is thrilled to study and present on the legacy of slavery for the Maryland State Archives and looks forward to making history together with his fellow colleagues in Increasing African American Diversity: The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training, and Placement Institute.

Skyla Hearn

Skyla S. Hearn, a Bronzeville native concerned with the continuation of the advancement of African Americans and the African Diaspora, has tirelessly supported efforts through the creation and preservation of visual media and literature through her art and scholarship to depict these ethnic groups in positive representations. Skyla completed her B.A. in Mass Communications and Media Arts with a concentration in Photography and Black American studies at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2008, and in May 2012, she received her M.L.I.S. degree with a specialization in Special Collections from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Skyla has teamed with a myriad of organizations with African American collections and assets, including the South Side Community Art Center, to implement archival practices to ensure longevity and to provide access to these materials. She is the 2012-2013 Carter G. Woodson Chicago Public Regional Library, Vivian Harsh Collection Fellow in Increasing African American Diversity in Archives: The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training, and Placement Institute.

Cynthia Lovett

Cynthia Lovett received her M.L.I.S. degree with a concentration in Digital Libraries from Rutgers University in 2012. She also holds a M.F. A. degree from Temple University and a M.P.S from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch School of the Arts. While at Rutgers, Cynthia programmed and designed an information visualization project that examines the Tolnay & Beck (2004) dataset of lynching victims from ten southern states from 1882-1930. Cynthia also worked as the archives and collections intern at Electronic Arts Intermix, a video art archive in New York City. In 2010, she received the American Library Association Peter Lyman/Sage Scholarship and the Donna Hoke Scholarship from the New York Black Librarians Caucus in 2011. Cynthia’s interests include the preservation and access of audiovisual collections, information visualization, and designing experimental interfaces for digital archives.

Chaitra Powell

Chaitra Powell, archivist, earned her B.A. degree in Sociology from The University of Arizona in 2007, and her M.L.I.S. degree from The University of Arizona in 2010. Powell has worked with archival collections in public libraries, medical libraries, government repositories, academic libraries and corporations. She has conducted oral histories for the Scottsdale Speaks project at the Scottsdale Public Library. She has processed materials and created EAD finding aids for the historical materials at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital, the administrative papers of the Arizona Press Women, and the personal papers of Arizona novelist, Marguerite Noble. Since moving to Chicago in July of 2011, Chaitra has written volunteer protocols for the DuSable Museum and assisted with a photograph processing project for Johnson Publishing Company. Chaitra will be placed at the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum as a fellow in the 2012-2013 Increasing African American Diversity in Archives: The HistoryMakers’ Fellowship Mentoring, Training, and Placement Institute.

Ardra Whitney

Ardra Whitney is from Queens, New York. She earned her B.A. degree in English Literature from Pine Manor College in 2006 and her M.L.S. degree from Queens College in 2009. Her work and internship experiences include: processing select materials from Weeksville Heritage Center Archives; transcribing oral history interviews at the Ailey Archives; and using XML and EAD to encode finding aids for collections in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives. In addition, Ardra is a member of NY Librarians Meetup and has written several posts for the group’s blog. Ardra was selected as a fellow with the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston, South Carolina by the 2012-2013 Increasing African American Diversity in Archives: The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training, and Placement Institute. Ardra looks forward to using her archival training at the Avery Research Center Archives to preserve and provide access to collections that document the African American experience in “South Carolina and beyond”. She also looks forward to helping launch programs that will enable the public to appreciate the breadth and depth of Avery’s collections—as well as continue to reinforce Avery’s role in serving as a “source of community outreach on African American issues.”