Governance Team

Jessi Bennett

Jessi Bennett is the Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Virginia. She helps maintain and create digital archival collections entrusted to the Library of Virginia by the state government and private donors as well as promote these collections to the public.  She is responsible for several digital archival projects including the Virginia Yearbook Digitization Project and Transcribe, LVA’s crowd-sourced transcription platform. She received her BA in English and History from Rutgers University, and her MLIS and MA in History from Simmons University and has worked in both government and academic archives in Boston and Richmond. Her research interests include the Virginia Merci Train gifts, new trends in digital humanities, and adding photographs to FindAGrave.com.

Chrystal Carpenter

Chrystal Carpenter (she/her) is the Head of Special Collections and Archives at Virginia Commonwealth University.  In this role, Carpenter provides vision and strategic leadership for VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives to advance the educational, research, and outreach mission of the department. Chrystal is an active member of the Society of American Archivists, serving on the Crisis, Disaster, and Tragedy Response Working Group. Prior to joining VCU, Chrystal was Coordinator of University Archives and Special Collections at Elon University. While in North Carolina, Chrystal served as the 2020-2021 President of the Society of North Carolina Archivists. Chrystal received her Master’s in Library Science from the University of Arizona, a certified Archivist since 2008, and was a 2013 member of the Archives Leadership Institute cohort.

Lynn Eaton, Chair

Lynn Eaton is the Director of the Special Collections Research Center at the George Mason University Libraries. In this capacity, she works with an amazing staff to provide special collections and records management support to the university and beyond. She is an active member of SAA and MARAC. In 2019, the SCRC received a CLIR grant for digitizing audio-visual materials. In 2020, they were awarded an NEH grant to process the papers of the economist James M. Buchanan. She holds a BA in English from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a Master’s in College Student Personnel Services from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and her MLS from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her research interests include leadership, digital collections, outreach, and community engagement.

Afua Ferdnance

Afua is the Head of Archival Processing at William & Mary. As the Head of Archival Processing, she is responsible for overseeing the processing of special collection and archive materials at Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), which entails establishing standards for arranging, describing, preserving, and making accessible special collection and archive materials. Prior to joining the SCRC staff, she was the Archivist at Broward County Historical Archives, the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book and the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. She also worked as the Visiting Archivist for African American Collections at the Beinecke Library. Afua holds a B.A. in American History from Connecticut College and an MLS from North Carolina Central University. 

Jay Gaidmore

Jay Gaidmore is the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of Special Collections at the William & Mary Libraries. His primary responsibilities are outreach, fundraising and stewardship, collection development, and management of the department that acquires, preserves, and makes accessible the rare books, manuscripts, and university archives held in the Earl Gregg Swem Library. He has served on the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board and been active in both MARAC and SAA. During his almost twenty years as an archivist, he has worked at the Library of Virginia, Brown University, and UNC-Chapel Hill. He received his MA in History from Old Dominion University and his MLIS from the University of South Carolina.

Elizabeth James

Elizabeth D. James is a Digital Archivist with the West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University. She works to preserve and make accessible born digital and digitized materials documenting the Appalachian experience. Elizabeth received her BA in History and History of Art from Yale University and her MS in Library and Information Science with an emphasis in Archives Management from Simmons University. Her areas of interest include using cultural heritage metadata as data for teaching, discovery, and research; non-traditional forms of engagement with digital archival materials; and exploring how technology can help leverage digitized and digital archives to further scholarship, discovery, and use of cultural heritage materials.

Karen King

Karen King is a State Records Archivist at the Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA. Her primary responsibilities include processing analog and electronic state records, web archiving, and outreach. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from James Madison University and a Master’s of Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. She is an artist who also enjoys Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, backpacking, and gardening. 

Aaron Purcell

Aaron D. Purcell is the Director of Special Collections at Virginia Tech. In addition to serving on the Virginia Heritage Governance Team, he is a member of the State Historical Records Advisory Board, the SAA Publications committee, and an active member of MARAC. He is the author of six books and twenty articles on archival and historical topics, ranging from working with donors, the early years of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the slave trade in Appalachia.  His next book on managing digital programs in libraries and archives is due from ALA in the fall. He received his MA in history from the University of Louisville, MLS from the University of Maryland, and PhD in history from the University of Tennessee. He enjoys quiet walks and tasty beers with family and friends.

Katie Rojas

Katie Rojas is the Head of Archival Processing at the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. She holds an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is an active member of MARAC, SAA, and the Society of Southwest Archivists. Katie enjoys Halloween/spooky things, gardening, visiting art museums, and spending time with her dog and three cats.

Laura Gilmour Stoner, Vice Chair

Laura Stoner is the Associate Archivist for Business Collections at the Virginia Historical Society. She received her BA from Randolph-Macon College in History and her MA in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University. She started in the field as an archival technician at the VHS in 1999. Laura processes mainly large 20th/21st-century business collections and has written several finding aids, including ones for Best Products, The Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection, A. H. Robins, and the Lane Company. She enjoys linking history and technology to better facilitate discovery, cooking, and traveling with her family.

 

Governance Meeting Minutes