Winfrey puts her feet up as she relaxes in her office following a morning broadcast in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 18, 1985. AP.
Elections and Nominations Committee
The Elections Committee submits this final slate of Candidates for the 2022 Board Election for the consideration of AMIA Members. All candidates are running for two-year terms.
Your ballot will include voting for three Board members, a Treasurer of the Board, and a Secretary of the Board.
The 2022 AMIA Board and Officers Election opens Tuesday, September 13 and closes on October 11, 2022. Ballot information, including your voting password will be emailed to all eligible members by September 13, 2022. If you wish to request a paper ballot, please contact the AMIA Office and one will be sent. Paper ballots must be received no later than October 11, 2022 at 5:00pm (PDT).
All votes are anonymous and only the final election results are tallied. The ballot will require a 25% quorum to be valid, or 211 of 842 eligible votes.
The Ballot will close October 11, 2022 at 5:00pm (PDT)
Débora ButruceGoals as a Board Member. I’ve followed AMIA since I started working in the field in the beginning of 2000. The Association was actually one of the inspirations for the creation of Brazilian Association of Audiovisual Preservation (ABPA) in 2008 and I attended my first AMIA Conference in Portland in 2015 to talk about ABPA. Going to the Conference allowed me to exchange knowledge from a Latin American perspective with a passionate, welcoming and supportive community.
AMIA is a diverse and inclusive association that offers useful resources for audiovisual archivists in all countries. My experience in Brazilian archives, which face different challenges than North American institutions, can help to expand and strengthen AMIA’s role and the cooperation in the global archival community, especially in Latin America and the Global South. I strongly believe that the difficulties faced by the professionals and the archives in Brazil help us to develop local and creative solutions and a strong sense of solidarity. Including a new voice from a Latin American country in the AMIA Board will bring others perspectives, supporting the organization to increase its reach and furthering its mission.
As a member of the AMIA Board, I would encourage new initiatives to diversify AMIA’s membership and even further develop it internationally, focusing on new and diverse approaches and people, such as Latin American, Indigineous and Black voices. I would promote actions to develop access policies, to improve outreach, to support the continuing education and professional development of members, including the knowledge produced in Latin American countries.
Relevant Experience. I am an audiovisual preservationist, cultural producer and film curator with more than 20 years of experience. I received my doctorate from University of São Paulo, Brazil and during the research I was a Visiting Scholar at Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at NYU. I attended several international seminars and courses on audiovisual preservation and archiving, in institutions such as British Film Institute, L’Imaggine Ritrovata Film Restoration Laboratory, Cuba’s International School of Cinema and Spanish Cinematheque. Since 2001, I have dedicated my career to the Audiovisual Preservation field and held positions in various Brazilian archives, such as the Cinematheque of the MAM-Rio, Audiovisual Technical Center, National Archive, and in projects with Cinemateca Brasileira. I am also the founder and curator of the International Festival of Home Movies and the current president of the Brazilian Association of Audiovisual Preservation (ABPA), and have served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2014.
Tara KelleyGoals as a Board Member. I believe AMIA is making strides in ensuring that our field becomes more equitable and attractive. I am concerned, however, that most salaries remain low in relation to the baseline skill set and increasing educational investment of people entering our profession. A strong entry-level salary boosts the recruitment of new talent; continued wage growth sets the path to retention of talented professionals. If elected, I would work with the Board and our members on the additional steps we can take to support fair and equitable salaries in our profession. We are at a particularly opportune time internationally for this type of project, and it would be good to seize the moment.
In addition, the programs and the vision of AMIA would not be possible without the support of our members and volunteers, including our committees and board. This level of commitment can range from seasonal projects to year(s)-long work that requires an investment of time that edges up to full-time work. One of my priorities as a Board member would be to work with committees and the board to ensure the best support for our volunteers and projects.
Relevant Experience. I worked at AFTRA-SAG, Central Casting, and earned an MLIS before studying film preservation at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School. Since then, I’ve been a librarian/audiovisual specialist at NYPL (at both the Library for the Performing Arts and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) and just started my seventh year as a librarian and audiovisual archivist at Rutgers University.
I joined AMIA in 2014, started as a Conference Committee member in 2015, and have served as Conference Committee Co-Chair since 2018. I enjoy working collaboratively with all our members, new presenters, and professionals in the field to present an excellent program for the conference.
Mike MashonGoals as a Board Member. I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate throughout my career to have good mentors and, crucially, the invaluable resource that is AMIA. I frequently use the phrase “accidental archivist” to describe myself; I quite literally had no conception that people did this kind of work for a living for an embarrassingly long time. But that’s why AMIA assumed such an outsized role in my professional development because it was the conferences, contacts, friendships, and sometimes extra lively listserv that were my classroom. And all these years later that hasn’t changed, as I’ve learned so much from AMIA presentations on topics like inclusive description and the use of AI in archives.
Should I be elected to the Board, I’ll take a particular interest in building on the organization’s already strong foundation of facilitating mentorships and strengthening its education and training programs through an expansion of the AMIA Screening Room, which has tremendous potential as a resource. As someone who has been on dozens of hiring panels I am particularly attuned to issues of diversity, an ongoing conversation in our community. I’ll be engaged in assuring the fiscal sustainability of AMIA and because I have a consuming interest in access, will seek to expand initiatives like the Archival Screening Night Roadshow.
I belong to several professional organizations, but AMIA has always been my favorite. I hope to be of service to the organization and the community as a Board member.
Relevant Experience. I’ve been honored to lead the Library of Congress Moving Image Section since 2005; prior to that I was Moving Image Curator for seven years. Mine has been a circuitous journey into moving image archiving and preservation, having begun my professional career as an immunologist. I hold an M.A. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas and a Ph.D in the same area of study from the University of Maryland, where I was also Curator of the Library of American Broadcasting for four years before joining the Library.
Ujwal N. NirgudkarGoals as a Board Member. AMIA is an international NGO dedicated to the preservation and use of moving image media. If selected as a Director of this prestigious organization, I will be interested in designing & executing following expansion plans for AMIA under the guidance of AMIA President and with the help of fellow AMIA Directors.
Relevant Experience.
Hannah PalinGoals as a Board Member. I’ve been part of the AMIA community for over twenty years now, presenting at conferences, participating in committees, and learning from colleagues every chance I get. I have always been impressed by the breadth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and commitment of the AMIA membership. After the 2001 conference in Portland, I knew I’d found “my people.” I feel like now it’s time to give back to the organization that has contributed so much to my growth as an archivist and to my understanding of the complex issues facing our profession.
My interests include advocacy, institutional sustainability, and education. I tease that my mission has always been to preach the gospel of moving image preservation. We all know how important these materials are, which is why AMIA conferences, gatherings, and webinars are always so inspiring. But I’m also interested in growing our presence in the wider archival community, helping the public understand what we do, and bringing more AV Archivists into the fold. As the founder of a nonprofit, I understand the need to create a sustainable organization with solid funding, a positive culture, and programs that serve the mission. AMIA has done amazing work adapting to the pandemic, pivoting to online programming, expanding the evolving nature of our work, highlighting underserved communities and voices, and addressing issues of equity and diversity I can imagine no greater honor than to be involved in AMIA in a deeper way, to ensure that this important work continues far into the future.
Relevant Experience. I attended my first AMIA conference in Portland, Oregon in 2001. At the time, I thought I was going to be a documentary filmmaker but quickly discovered that I enjoyed preserving films more than I liked making them. I spent the next twenty years at the University of Washington Libraries first as a volunteer and eventually as Moving Image Curator. During that time, I worked to create and grow the moving image preservation program, building our collections to include local television news as well as the work of independent filmmakers and artists, mentor students interested in moving image preservation, and raise awareness of the visual heritage of the Pacific Northwest. Towards that end, I co-founded Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound and served on its board since its inception. I participated in the Regional Audiovisual Archives and News and Documentary committees and recently signed onto the AMIA Mentorship Pilot Program.
Goals as a Board Member. After nearly 20 years of attending AMIA conferences, it was my experience as one of the inaugural Conference Navigators that really opened my eyes (and ears) to how our members very much want and need to be heard – and seen.
The second year as a Conference Navigator brought this more into focus as I was sought out by those I had interacted with in the previous year – with requests for introductions across areas of specialization or even from those who needed some guidance on how best to reach out to a fellow AMIA member.
One of my favorite parts of any AMIA conference is interacting with members of the community of our host city and partner businesses – hotels, restaurants, watering holes, screening venues, etc. A great opportunity awaits me there to continue growing those connections as well and utilizing one of my professional skills in looking for patterns that can be used to build bridges and establish mutually beneficial relationships within the AMIA membership and externally with those organizations that could align with us and support our goals.
I’d like to utilize my position as a member of the AMIA Board to continue building connections across our areas of industry or specialization, investigating new ways for our members to interact and especially growing our Outreach Programs on both the education and professional frontiers. There are a lot of people out there who love what we do – I’d enjoy finding novel ways to reach more of those people.
Relevant Experience. Thirty-Five year career inside the Entertainment Industry Studio system with a common thread of preservation and management of archive collections running through an array of departments – Post Production, Localization, Distribution – with the last 25 years focused on Library Collections, Acquisitions Management, Restoration and Physical Archive Facilities.
Attended some of the earliest AMIA conferences on my own before being sponsored professionally beginning in 2002 which marked the year I became a fully involved and highly motivated member of the organization.
My career path has put me in a unique position, having encountered library assets in every conceivable condition whether it was from a Studio’s own legacy library or one of the dozens of library acquisitions I have shepherded. I have forged valuable and deeply insightful relationships with vendors, educational resources, research facilities and my studio colleagues that I feel allow me to speak to a broad spectrum of concerns.
Goals as a Board Member. As a current member of the AMIA Board, my contributions have been oriented towards a rethinking of the terms “diversity and inclusion”, central to the mission statement of the Association. With the support of Board Members, committees, and the general membership, we have made progress in practicing a more dynamic concept of diversity and inclusion. Yet, we still have challenges in incorporating international knowledge, skills, talent, and expertise–in particular from non-Eurocentric and non-US latitudes–in the many initiatives and projects we undertake. My main goal is to keep my relentless advocacy for underrepresented communities so that together we can gauge how differences in income and access to technology as well as societal and cultural differences don’t prevent us from our common interest in active internationalization.
AMIA is seen as an innovative association around the globe. We need to continue capitalizing on international interest by considering how our definition of the Association of a “vibrant, dynamic and committed community” brings professionals, students, and friends of the field, but also obliges more outreach to offer support groups, collaboration networks, and mentorship platforms for professionals everywhere. This also should encompass conversations on gender and technologies, the role of minor archives, new digital communities, archivists abroad, and communities who may feel ostracized by the field as a whole or hardly find their place in an association like ours. My experience working in international settings can help us balance the levels of participation and assess the necessary conditions to continue working for more global engagement.
Relevant Experience. Director of NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program. I have worked extensively in higher education, facilitating exchange among national and international communities of students and scholars. Through NYU MIAP Audiovisual Preservation Exchange Program (APEX), we have built an international community that catalyzes collaboration and strengthens global preservation projects.
I am currently participating in archival research projects funded by the NEH, and SSHRC (Canada). Working with Pratt Institute School of Information, we manage the Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Network (DPOE-N), funded by a Mellon Foundation Grant. These projects are based on a collaborative approach and make sure to include students as active participants.
I serve on the Board of Directors of the DPOE-N and AMIA, and the Board of Trustees of the Flaherty Seminar, always advocating for awareness of differences in income, gender, and opportunity at the international level so that we share resources while also acknowledging and including knowledge from global geographies.
Taylor McBrideGoals as a Board Member. During my first terms as AMIA Secretary, I strove to serve the membership through transparency and communication, both by sharing minutes from the Board in a timely and regular manner and sharing agenda items for upcoming Board meetings in advance whenever possible to allow for more membership feedback and participation. My aim has been, and would continue to be, to foster more dialogue between the Membership and the Board to ensure the Board is accurately representing the values and serving the needs of the membership.
If re-elected to the position of Secretary, I would also prioritize AMIA’s ongoing efforts to make the Association and its offerings more accessible. In my last term I helped to create an accessibility policy for AMIA events and online spaces, which was formally adopted. Implementing that policy and ensuring all official documents and websites meet or exceed accessibility standards would be a priority for the next term.
Finally, it is of the utmost priority that we continue growing our DEI and development efforts. These have been focal points for the Board these last four years and continue to be crucial to supporting the long-term sustainability of our organization.
Relevant Experience. I’ve been an AMIA member for 12 years, during which I’ve served as Co-Chair of the Small Gauge and Amateur Film Committee for eight years and Secretary of the Board for two terms. In my position as a Multimedia Specialist for the Smithsonian Institution’s DAMS, I support video and digital preservation and work with collections managers and archivists across the Institution. I’ve served as Chair of the Smithsonian’s Audiovisual Archives Institutional Leadership Group, fostering pan-institutional collaboration and co-authoring grant proposals to fund institution-wide AV surveys to aid in preservation planning.
I am a graduate of NYU’s MIAP program and remember fondly my years as an AMIA student chapter member, from which time AMIA has been integral in developing my professional career. Serving as Secretary has given me a broader view of the benefits AMIA offers its members and the field, further reinforcing my commitment to serving the AMIA community.
Randal LuckowGoals as a Board Member. I would like your vote to further serve as our Treasurer shepherding AMIA’s finances for two more years. Like many of our peer organizations, these pandemic years have been very challenging for our Association. I am amazed by AMIA’s ability to bring our community together, and I will work to guarantee we can continue to do great things.
As Treasurer, I will continue to ensure AMIA remains financially sustainable and independent, continue to provide the Board with the best financial information I can, and continue to support fiscally responsible decision making. Despite these uncertain times, I believe AMIA can be both financially healthy and provide affordable opportunities to our membership.
Relevant Experience. I joined AMIA as a grad student, and since that time, my participation in AMIA has never faltered. I have served as chair of the Cataloging & Metadata Committee, the LGBT Committee, the Conference Committee, and the Moving Image Related Materials & Documentation Committee. I have presented papers at AMIA events, Henry Stewart, MESA, etc., and I have published papers on asset management, digital authenticity, and moving image taxonomy & ontology administration.
I am a Director of Warner Bros. Discovery Archives, and in the past, I have been the Director of HBO Archives, a Digital Archivist and Sr. Director of Metadata & Media Services at Turner Broadcasting, and a Manager of Archives at DreamWorks. I have a BFA in film and video production, with an MLIS specializing in archive administration from the University of Wisconsin.