About Us

Rose Barrowcliffe is a Butchulla Doctoral candidate in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). Her research explores how the representation of Indigenous peoples in archives affects our historical narratives. In mid-2021, Rose was appointed as the inaugural First Nations Advisor to the Queensland State Archives. Through her research and consulting work she aims to improve the representation of Indigenous peoples in archives and historical narratives. She is an active member of the Indigenous Archives Collective and is a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) reference group. Rose’s pronouns are she/her. You can find Rose on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/rose-barrowcliffe/) or follow her on Twitter (@barrowcliffer)

Dr. Aisha Johnson (she/her), Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Outreach at Georgia Institute of Technology Library, is a revelator of Southern library history. Formerly an Assistant Professor/MLS Program Director for the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University, she is committed to archival research, the production of minority librarians and archivists for cultural preservation, and redefining the scholar.

 She is well-versed in archival research, instruction, program administration, assessment and evaluation as well as curriculum development to produce practical professionals. With such a dedication to the field, Dr. Johnson encourages redefining the scholar by introducing primary source research with emphasis on synthesis and encouraging scholar practitioners. In 2020, she was dubbed Distinguished Alumni of Florida State University’s School of Information, College of Communication and Information. She has also been recognized by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History as a 2021 recipient of the Freedom Scholar Award.  

Angela D.R. Smith (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Informatics at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information. Broadly, Angela’s research leverages equitable design practices to center marginalized populations. Her specific interests are finding ways to employ design as a catalyst to combat information poverty and provide socially responsible technology experiences. Currently, Angela conducts qualitative and exploratory design inquiries by leveraging co-creation and community-based participatory research methods to understand the technology needs and experiences of marginalized individuals. She received her Doctoral degree from Northwestern University in Technology & Social Behavior, Masters from Eastern Michigan University, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.

Alice (she/her) has worked professionally in the UK education, library, and scholarly research sectors for over a decade, with experience in public, academic, and radical libraries. This journey began with a traineeship in Radical Librarianship at the Feminist Library in 2010-11.  She currently supervises Academic Services in Learning and Teaching Support at University of Sussex Library (Brighton, UK), where she is developing decolonial approaches to delivering these services. She is Learning Representative on the executive committee for the Sussex branch of University College Union (UCU), where co-organises an Anti-Racism Working Group for all staff and student unions at Sussex. Alice completed her PhD in Sociology at Goldsmiths University of London in 2019 exploring the cultural politics and value of public libraries in times of crisis. Her work in public libraries has included developing an award-winning information and media literacy and Black History project for young people in the London Borough of Lewisham. Alice is committed to advancing social justice in all areas of her work and developing communities of learning and praxis. She is a member of various LGBTQ+ networks as well as the CILIP BAME Network Allies Forum.

Tony Dunbar (he/his) is Assistant Professor at Dominican University (DU) in the School of Information Studies and an Adjunct Sociology Professor at Lewis University. He is also an equity, justice, and inclusion thought leader. His research builds on the racial and social justice frameworks of Critical Race Theory (CRT).  His current efforts focus on developing curriculum, scholarship, and activism to expand the CRT framework into a platform specific for Information Studies: Critical Race Information Theory (CRIT). 

Tony received his Ph.D. in Information Studies and MLIS from UCLA’s iSchool along with master’s degrees in education with an emphasis in teaching and learning from the University of Utah and in communication and training from Governors State University. He is currently a member of the American Library Association’s Diversity Research Grant Committee, a 2022 co-convener for the Association of Library and Information Studies Educator’s Innovative Pedagogy Special Interest Group, and is the DU member board representative for the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. Dr. Dunbar recently authored a section introduction in the open access edited work, Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies Through Critical Race Theory. Tony is also the first scholar to publish a CRT article in a peer-reviewed Information Studies journal.

Stephanie Birch (she/her) is the Africana Studies Librarian at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. She earned her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, with a joint MA in African Studies. She also earned a MA in History and a BFA in Art History, concentrating in African and Diaspora Art.

Prior to joining UConn in January 2022, Birch served as the African American Studies Librarian at the University of Florida since 2016. She was also library liaison to the Oral History Program and curator of the Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Black Film & Film Literature Collection, which launched in February 2021. Birch played a pivotal role in the re-development of the Joel Buchanan Archive of African American Oral History, the largest open-access repository of Black oral histories in the Gulf South. Birch also lead the Libraries’ Carceral Studies acquisitions cluster, an interdisciplinary team working to collaboratively enhance holdings across collections and branches related to mass incarceration, confinement, policing, prison labor economies, immigration detention, and beyond. Her research interests include community-based engagement and research; learner-centered library instruction, outreach, and engagement; and Black digital humanities. 

Vanessa ‘Chacha’ Centeno (she/her) is a librarian in Northern California, where she has worked in public libraries for fifteen years. Her recent work has focused on youth services, management, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in public libraries. She is a Racial Healing Circle Practitioner, and a speaker with the American Library Association’s EDI Speaker’s Bureau. In 2018, she worked as a Librarian Advisor for the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Great Stories Club Deeper Than Our Skins: The Present is a Conversation with the Past project. Vanessa earned a Master’s in Library and Information Science through San Jose State University and a Bachelors of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice through Portland State University. Before working in libraries, she assisted with case management for families experiencing houselessness and worked with youth in juvenile justice settings. Her story touches on removal and return to culture, intergenerational trauma, generational gang cultures, identity and healing. She enjoys storytelling and believes it teaches and preserves culture while healing the wounds of historical trauma.

Amanda DeSimone-Shabrack (she/her) is an adjunct professor and instructional designer at North Carolina Central University’s School of Library and Information Science. Her areas of expertise are in Information Science and Education Technology. She received a joint master’s degree in both majors from NCCU, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2019.  Professor DeSimone-Shabrack is currently pursuing her Ed.D. in Learning Design and Leadership from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In addition to her role as an instructor, she is an avid researcher, working alongside colleagues and students in the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Equity Research® (LAIER), with several papers currently pending publication. Outside of her academic role, Professor DeSimone-Shabrack is also an autism family advocate and the co-chair of the Interagency Coordinating Council of North Carolina. This board is responsible for the oversight of the different agencies providing early intervention and continued support services for special needs children within the state 

Natasha (she/her) is Knowledge and Library Services Manager & Joint Chair of the Ethnic Minority Network at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) in the UK. Prior to NELFT she worked for a start-up in the City of London and at a healthcare charity. In her current role she has developed outreach services and resources to meet the information needs of a growing organisation that comprises over 6000 people based at 200 sites as well as initiating income generating external contracts. Natasha is passionate about health inequalities and health and digital literacy. Natasha was a joint winner of the CILIP Knowledge and Information Management and UKeIG Information Manager of the Year Award 2020.

Annie Bahringer (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Library and Information Science program at Dominican University, IL., focusing her studies on the theory and philosophy of public libraries. She gained her Masters in Information-Library Science at Rutgers University in NJ., and her Masters in Foreign Language and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with a concentration on literary criticism. She has been the Library Director at the North Shore Library in Glendale, WI. since April of 2021. She is also a Director at Large for the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries and the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Chair. Her interest in public libraries began in 2008 with her first library position and has grown ever since.

Kenyarna C. Harden (she/her) is a trained researcher, who is a member of the Circulation Services Unit in the Kentucky State University Library. She holds a BS from Bethune-Cookman University along with a MLIS from North Carolina Central University.

 As a  graduate student, Ms. Harden was an intern for the International Museum of the Horse, exposing her to undiscovered African Americans’ stories within the horse industry. Kenyarna also narrated some of the stories inspiring her to display these men and women as humans, not victims, and to detail their lives’ struggles, strengths, and rewards. She also co-founded  North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU) Society of American Archivists (SAA) student chapter. As a chapter leader she was accountable for identifying, evaluating, planning, and prioritizing the policies and procedures to ensure NCCU’s SAA chapter commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equitable practices while engaging in the communication, teaching, and sharing of archival practices with students, faculty, and the wider community. Kenyarna’s leadership was key to the NCCU SAA student chapter building a strong relationship with the SAA national staff as well as prominent archival leaders including the AERI (Archival Education and Research Initiative), a collaborative dedicated to expanding diversity among archival professionals.