ELECTIONS

Name:
Christina Bleyer (she/her)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Connecticut

Biographical statement:
I am the College Librarian and Associate Vice President for Libraries and Digital Learning at Trinity College, where I also direct the Watkinson Library and its Special Collections and Archives. My work centers on community-engaged, post-custodial archival practices that foreground epistemic sovereignty and equitable access to cultural heritage. Over the past decade, I have led initiatives that bridge archives, technology, and pedagogy—ranging from the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean digitization partnership to the Hartford Medical Society Library’s preservation planning.

Within the New England archival community, I’ve championed collaboration, mentorship, and professional growth through active engagement in the Boston Library Consortium and other regional networks. As a co-chair of the BLC’s Special Collections and Archives Community of Interest, I’ve fostered cross-institutional partnerships and advocated for inclusive archival frameworks that value community knowledge alongside institutional expertise.

If elected President of NEA, I will focus on sustaining a vibrant, forward-thinking community—one that empowers archivists to adapt to changing technologies while holding fast to the human and ethical core of our work.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
I believe archives are living systems—rooted in care, accountability, and imagination. As College Librarian and Associate Vice President for Libraries and Digital Learning at Trinity College, I’ve dedicated my career to advancing community-centered, post-custodial archival models that expand who gets to preserve and tell history. My proudest accomplishments include leading the digitization of the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean archives, directing a regional planning grant for the Hartford Medical Society Library, and mentoring emerging professionals who now lead their own archives programs across New England.

I am drawn to this role because I see the New England Archivists as a powerful collective—one that can shape our profession toward greater inclusion, collaboration, and critical engagement with technology. My professional interests include digital preservation, ethical metadata, and decolonial archival praxis; my personal joys include raising two curious boys, cooking from my collection of mid-century Brazilian cookbooks, and hiking with my family.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
Over the next decade, I would like to see NEA deepen its role as both a professional home and a catalyst for transformation. The archival field is at a crossroads, confronting automation, the consequences of climate change, and the urgent need to center equity and community agency in our work. NEA can lead by modeling what an inclusive, resilient, and ethically grounded professional organization looks like.

I envision NEA expanding regional collaborations that connect institutions with community archives, supporting digital stewardship training that bridges technical and philosophical understanding, and creating intentional mentorship pipelines for emerging and mid-career professionals. I also hope to see NEA become a stronger advocate for labor equity, flexible career pathways, and post-custodial models that honor the sovereignty of the communities whose histories we steward.

Ultimately, I want NEA to be known not only for preserving the past, but for shaping the future of archival practice with creativity, care, and courage.

Name:
Margaret Dalton (she/her)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Massachusetts

Biographical statement:
Professionally speaking, I am the Collection Services Archivist at the Harvard Law School Library. Prior to assuming this role, I completed an array of term appointments spanning seven years. These appointments included, but were not limited to, Project Archivist at the Frances Loeb Library of Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Project Archivist for Women's Sports Collections at the New-York Historical Society, and Luce Grant Project Archivist at the George Washington University Special Collections Research Center.

I began service to NEA as Treasurer-Elect in 2024, concurrently served as Treasurer-Elect and Treasurer for a spell, and I will continue to serve as Treasurer until the 2026 Annual Business Meeting. I have been a member of the Financial Planning Committee since 2024 and contributed to the Program Committee’s work on planning the Spring 2025 Meeting.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
In fulfilling responsibilities of the Treasurer-Elect and Treasurer over the past couple of years, I have treasured the opportunity to collaborate with the NEA Executive Board, Committee members, and other volunteers. I have contributed to and learned about the many activities, functions, and bureaucratic requirements across NEA and have been inspired by my peers and their dedication to serving NEA.

If elected for this role, I would look forward to applying my particular understanding and appreciation of NEA’s challenges and opportunities in service of ensuring NEA’s continued operation, coordinating efforts and initiatives across NEA’s Executive Board and Committee structure, growing our volunteer community, and striving to meet the needs and expectations of our members.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
Given certain realities of the increasingly challenging financial landscape, I anticipate that NEA will need to more thoroughly systematically reimagine elements of core functions and programming and seek creative, yet sustainable, methods for serving needs of the membership. I trust that the progress already made towards this evaluation, specifically the ongoing work of the Meeting Review Task Force, will continue to inform our leadership and membership, and I also trust that NEA will successfully identify a suitable and sustainable path forward.

I believe that NEA can and should represent and embody a commitment to all members to foster community, to create and maintain connections beyond our institutions, to welcome new professionals into the field, and to engage in advocacy and conversations that are not possible elsewhere. I believe that further engagement with current and potential members, especially including students, new professionals, and contingently-employed colleagues, will allow NEA to grow towards identifying and meeting emerging needs that will make certain that NEA’s mission and offerings remain relevant for our field. Now and in the next five to ten years NEA must remain steadfast in supporting the work of archivists and institutions stewarding cultural heritage and the historical record during this particular milieu.

Name:
Cooper Filhaber (he/him)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Connecticut

Biographical statement:
Cooper is a 2025 graduate from Simmons University's MLS program concentrating in archives management, and current Archives Project Assistant at the University of Hartford. Hailing from eastern Connecticut, Cooper learned early on to appreciate the history of not only his own state, but New England as a whole.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
While relatively new to the archivist profession, Cooper brings prior experience from the world of publishing, both in audiobooks and traditional print media, performing proofreading, contract drafting, and database management. With his experience from Simmons and a slew of internships and volunteer work at the Cambridge Historical Commission, Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, and the Connecticut River Museum, Cooper brings broad experience and an interest in the operations of archives of all sorts. Cooper is currently working at the University of Hartford on a project funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources’ Recordings at Risk grant program.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
We are currently in the most dangerous time for America’s cultural heritage in living memory with the Trump Administration’s continued attacks on our institutions and archives. Now more than ever, NEA needs to show its support for those institutions affected by this plight, both through expanding its public engagement and membership, and through directly providing its support to those affected institutions. The only way we will be able to continue to safeguard and steward the recorded past of New England is if we can meet the ongoing attacks head-on, supporting those institutions most in need and one another.

Name:
Heather Mumford (she/her/hers)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Massachusetts

Biographical statement:
As the Archivist for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, I work collaboratively to build inclusive collections that reflect the school’s legacy and the evolving story of public health. This includes partnering with communities to identify gaps and ensure our records fully capture each story, while remaining mindful of how dominant identities—including my own—shape the stewardship of history. I’m also driven by a professional interest in how grief and transition influence the ways archivists engage with donors and approach the acquisition of records.

Before joining the Center for the History of Medicine in 2011, I volunteered with the Peabody Essex Museum, Boston Public Library, Providence Public Library, and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. In 2023, I became a certified End of Life Doula.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
I’m interested in serving as NEA Treasurer-elect because I value the role that financial stewardship plays in sustaining a healthy, inclusive professional community. Having worked in archives since 2011, I understand the balance between mission-driven work and the practical realities of managing resources responsibly. I’m detail-oriented, organized, and eager to deepen my experience with financial processes—from budgeting and expense tracking to collaboration across teams to ensure transparency and accountability.

I enjoy collaborative problem-solving and see the Treasurer role as an opportunity to both contribute my organizational strengths and continue learning in a new area of professional practice. I’m especially drawn to the chance to work closely with fellow board members and committees to support programs and initiatives that strengthen the NEA community.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
NEA’s top priority—now and in the long term—must be supporting its membership. What do members need from NEA, especially in this current moment as our institutions, careers, and professional priorities are reshaped by shifting political and funding environments? What challenges are coming that our community will need help navigating? It is the responsibility of NEA leadership to ask these questions directly—through formal and informal conversations—and to respond with action, not assumption.

As someone interested in managing NEA’s finances, I take seriously the obligation to steward our resources in ways that are both meaningful and sustainable. How do we support our members’ professional growth when grant funding evaporates and the job market shrinks? I come to this moment with more questions than answers—and intentionally so. Strong leadership starts with listening. My goal is to work collaboratively with both leadership and membership to chart a clear, strategic path for the decade ahead.

Name:
Molly Brown (she/her)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Massachusetts

Biographical statement:
I am currently Reference and Outreach Archivist at Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections and have been in this role since 2018. My focus as a public services archivist is community-informed collaboration and fostering archival engagement environments that move beyond transactional research.
My first connection with archival work was in high school as a historic home tour guide in Montana conferring with volunteers transcribing previous homeowners’ diaries. Since then I have worked in part-time and professional roles at a variety of institutions in the Pacific Northwest and the Boston area from historical societies, museums, university special collections to corporate and church archives.

I joined NEA after attending the 2016 fall conference in Amherst while a student at Simmons. Over the years have had the honor of holding leadership positions in the Roundtable for Early Professionals and Students, Teaching with Primary Sources Roundtable, and as a representative-at-Large.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
As an archivist in the Boston area I am proudest when I can collaborate with local institutions to create low-stakes and inviting environments for people to become acquainted with archives. Organizations like the New England Archivists make the connections with colleagues that catalyze cross-institutional collaborations possible.

It has been a couple of years since I’ve volunteered for NEA and I am eager to offer my energies to this essential organization again in the role of secretary. As someone that has served in past roles I hope to draw on my experience as an NEA volunteer as well as my experience as a facilitator, scribe, and communicator in my day-to-day work. Ensuring minutes and organizational documentation are clear, descriptive, up-to-date, and easily available to others is work I genuinely enjoy and find extremely valuable.

Recently as Northeastern’s representative for the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium I participated in a working group to update public facing language and establish a rubric for application evaluation. I relished being able to provide minutes, draft rubrics, identify action items, and create other documentary structures to aid our discussions.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
NEA’s strength lies in its membership. Any development within the organization must support and inspire the professionals that NEA serves. However, to do so in times where many of us and our organizations are at diminished capacity, will require a keen eye toward sustainability and maintenance measures.

I hope that the next years of NEA can be devoted to maintaining communication and connection between our membership, supporting and rallying for our most precarious, and providing low barriers to opportunities for education, all while doing what the organization needs to adjust its scope to be able to forge ahead. This will require greater opportunities for candid conversations with members and distilling their needs so that the services and support provided by NEA can be rightsized to meet them. This will require special attention to be paid to students, contingent workers, and those seeking work to hear their concerns so that NEA’s advocacy and mentorship can provide intentional support and capacity. The paths for this work and these conversations have been laid, and I am hopeful to be a part of the volunteers who help continue forward.

Name:
Liam Sullivan (he/him/his)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Massachusetts

Biographical statement:
Since 2011, I have served as processing archivist with Baker Library Special Collections and Archives at Harvard Business School, with previous experience in records management, archives reference, and accessioning at the same repository.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
A significant responsibility of archival processing is description in which I endeavor to clearly let researchers what they can find in a collection with an emphasis on people and ideas that may not be readily apparent from a collection's creator or title. I hope to bring the same skills to creating the records of the Executive Board and communication with NEA members.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
Over the next 5 to 10 years I would like to see New England Archivists grow to enable participation by archivists working in all sectors throughout the six states, providing resources and connection for archivists throughout their career from student to retiree, building on the work we’ve done to improve diversity and inclusion, and accessible regardless of income level.

Name:
Benny Bauer (they/she)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Connecticut

Biographical statement:
I am the Digital Media Librarian at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. I earned my MLIS at University of Maryland, College Park, specializing in Archives and Digital Curation. I have worked several contract positions, including one as Archives Technician at Smithsonian Channel, one on the NEH-funded Historic Maryland Newspapers Project, and one as Digitization Specialist at the National Agricultural Library. I am Chair of NEA's Inclusion and Diversity Committee (IDC), as well as Chair of the LGBTQIA+ Issues Roundtable.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
I am proud of the work I have accomplished within NEA, particularly through my involvement in the IDC the past three years. We recently had our land and people acknowledgement approved by the Board, and I look forward to following through on action steps beyond the statement. As the new Chair, I am excited to continue working on projects that help eliminate barriers in the organization and in the field in general, and help make information more accessible.

I am interested in becoming Representative-at-Large so I can expand my involvement within NEA, learn about the work of other roundtables and committees, make more connections throughout the organization, and overall help NEA flourish.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
Over the next five to ten years, I hope to see NEA grow and diversify our membership, increase engagement with graduate students, improve accessibility, and better our outreach overall. I would love for the Racial Justice Honoraria Fund to receive more applicants and thus receive more funding! Moreover, I would like to see NEA create a positive impact in the archives community.

Name:
Sally Blanchard-O’Brien (she/her)

The state in which you live and/or work/study: 

Vermont

Biographical statement:
I work as a Congressional Papers Archivist at the University of Vermont Silver Special Collections Library and have over a decade of experience with government archival records, holding previous roles at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. I have been an active member of the New England Archivists since 2016 and have served in several volunteer roles, including as a member of the Membership Committee, member of the 2021 Spring Program Committee, member of the Academic Archivists Roundtable, co-chair of the Community Archives Advocates Roundtable, editor and co-chair of the Newsletter Committee, and Marketing and Outreach Associate for the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies.

What would you like NEA members to know about you and your interest in this role?
The New England Archivists has been such an important organization for me as I’ve developed in my career, and I cherish the lasting connections that I’ve made with my professional colleagues around the region. I look forward to making more connections with members and volunteers through the Representative-at-Large role and bringing those voices and perspectives back to NEA leaders as we all work to shape this organization and our field for the future.

How would you like to see NEA develop over the next five to ten years?
Firstly, I’d like to see NEA become more sustainable. We all know that the organization has had some struggles with engagement in recent years, and I think that we need to focus on self-care before looking for expansion. But I would also like to see more collaboration with other regional organizations. While New England has its own unique qualities and issues, just as any region does, there could be opportunities that come from engagement with our neighbors. And at the other end of the spectrum, there could be a benefit to NEA interacting more with the state professional organizations to better understand the challenges and opportunities in each of the New England states. Finally, while NEA has already done great work in advocating for the archival profession and principles, I’d like to see NEA take on an even stronger stance on advocacy, both through macro-initiatives like crafting statements and collaborating with the initiatives in local and regional associations, but also through micro-initiatives, like training students and professionals on the small ways they can advocate through their everyday work.