Lae’l Hughes-Watkins – Project Director

Associate Director for Engagement, Inclusion and Reparative Archiving

She is also the Associate Director of Engagement, Inclusion, and Reparative Archives in Special Collections and University Archives, a newly established position for the University of Maryland in College Park. Hughes-Watkins is also the architect of the reparative archive framework, mentioned in her article, “Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices.” She has launched workshops that focus on this archival praxis, which centers on community building as a first step. Her research areas focus on outreach to marginalized communities, documenting student activism within disenfranchised student populations, and utilizing narratives of vulnerable populations within the curricula of post-secondary education spaces. She also serves as a Co-chair for the 1856 Project, a chapter of Universities Studying Slavery, and the Co-PI for the CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for African American and African Studies grant.

Valencia L. Johnson

Archivist for Student Life, Princeton University

She is the Archivist for Student Life at Princeton University. In addition to being a certified archivist, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and History from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Baylor University. As the creator of Amp Up Your Archives program, she works to create records management and archival initiatives to inspire students to view their records and materials as important documentation that is an equal to the administrative record of the university. She is a co-author of the Project STAND’s Archiving Student Activism Toolkit and the Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia’s Anti-Racist Description Resources.

Manuel Julio Duran Mendez

Chair, DC AfroLatino Caucus

He is the Chair for the DC AfroLatino Caucus, is originally from the Dominican Republic and moved to Washington, D.C., at the age of nine. After graduating from Bell Multicultural High School, Mendez received his bachelor’s degree in African Studies and Communication at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Fortunate to have a host of mentors in his adolescence, Mendez’s passion for supporting positive youth development and the issues that plague the people of the African Diaspora are ever-apparent themes in his pursuit of affecting progressive change in his community. As a constant staple in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, Mendez’s dedicated support has allowed him to forge long-term, meaningful relationships with members of the community. Currently, as the chair of the DC AfroLatino Caucus, Mendez’s goal is to unite “black and brown” people of the Washington metropolitan area. He is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland’s School of Information Studies.

Greg Bailey

Head of SCUA, Iowa State University

He serves as head of SCUA, providing vision and direction, strategic planning, and support to staff and programs to allow for the growth and development of both. Previously he served three years as University Archivist in SCUA before assuming the role Department Head. Prior to coming to ISU, Greg was the University Archivist and Clements Curator at Texas A&M University from 2014-2019, and he served as University Archivist and Records Manager from 2011-2014 at Stephen F. Austin State University.  Greg majored in History with Political Science and Geography minors at Eastern Illinois University. He holds an MLS with a concentration in Archives and Records Management from Indiana University – Bloomington.

Molly Rufus

Creative Event Producer and Project Management Strategist

She is a creative event producer and creative project management strategist. Her work is deeply involved within the Black community, focusing on art, culture, and community-based organizing. She currently serves as Programs and Exhibitions Coordinator for CulturalDC, coordinating projects revolving around exhibitions, festivals, and public art installations. Concurrently, she works in creative event production for EatonDC on projects such as concert series, non-profit events, and art initiatives. She is also the Co-Founder and DC Programs Manager for the DC Chapter for Black Girls in Art Spaces and has successfully started and maintained partnerships with Eaton D.C, the Smithsonian, Women’s History Museum, John F. Kennedy Center, and many other local galleries and non-profits. She has overseen expansion for larger scale events, including the upcoming recent screening for the Netflix docu-series Black Beauty Effects with sponsors such as Lipbar, Fenty Beauty, and more.

She is also serving as the 2023-2024 DC Fellow for WESTAF National Leaders of Color, a transformative leadership development experience in order to establish multicultural leadership in the creative and cultural sector. She currently resides in Washington, D.C., where she clearly does too much.