PROJECT TEAM

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Devan Ray Donaldson, Ph.D.

Dr. Devan Ray Donaldson is Associate Professor of Information Science at Indiana University Bloomington. His research examines issues of trust, provenance, data quality, accountability, and stewardship in digital information environments. His work spans archives and records management, digital curation, research data management, electronic health record data quality, and emerging forms of AI data. He is Project Director of DECODE, where he leads research investigating the knowledge and competencies library and archival professionals need to understand, evaluate, and steward the data underlying artificial intelligence systems. 

Dinah Miles Archival Practice Consultant

Dinah Miles is a Digital Archivist at Indiana University Bloomington. Dinah earned her MLS from Simmons University in 2022 and completed her SAA Digital Archives Specialist Certificate in 2024. Her current research involves mediating Bitcurator forensic data and email collection through Capstone Approach implementation.​

PILOT SITE PARTNERS

Richard Marciano, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Richard Marciano works in highly interdisciplinary and collaborative environments at the intersection of technology, information, and records management. He focuses on blending disciplines (computer science, archives, and information management) to produce new ways of understanding the past. He was the director of the U. Maryland Digital Curation Innovation Center (DCIC) from 2015 to 2020. In 2020, he co-founded the multi-institutional international Advanced Information Collaboratory (AIC) research network which explores the opportunities and challenges of disruptive technologies for archives and records management (including CAS – Computational Archival Science, AI, ML, Digital Curation, etc.), while promoting ethical information access and use.

Nora Mattern, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Eleanor "Nora" Mattern is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Computing and Information. Her teaching and research interests include archives, government information, critical data studies, and information policy. She is the Associate Director of Responsible Data and AI Practices in the Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership in Pitt's Office of the Provost. At the University of Pittsburgh, she teaches a course on Preserving Digital Information, in she which will integrate the DECODE curriculum.

ADVISORY BOARD

Kimberly Anderson, Ph.D.

Dr. Kimberly Anderson serves as the Director of Distinctive at the University of Nevada, Reno where she directs activities to ensure that the unique library and archival collections stewarded by the University are positioned to support discovery, cultural heritage, scholarship, and in a professional, responsible, anticipatory, and ethical manner. Her research focuses on urgent issues in critical archival practice. She investigates this through the intersections of archival appraisal and value judgments, personal and community identities, and the social aspects of the ways in which archivists learn, adopt, and develop reflective and critical practices.

Derek T. Mosley

Derek T. Mosley is the Archives Division Manager at Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia. He has held this role since 2016. Mosley’s enthusiastic and engaged leadership has shaped the archival profession on local and national levels. In 2023, Mosley was inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), the highest honor the organization bestows. He recently completed his term as the 80th President of SAA. He graduated from Simmons University with an M.S. in Archives Management and Morehouse College with a B.A. in History.

Thomas Padilla

Thomas Padilla is Associate Dean for Research and Learning in the University Libraries at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He leads a Division of faculty and staff spanning Research Partnerships, Teaching Partnerships, and Information Services and Learning Spaces. Prior to coming to UNL, Thomas served as Deputy Director, Archiving and Data Services at the Internet Archive, Public Interest AI Strategist at the Authors Alliance, and worked in a number of R1 university libraries across the United States. He serves on a range of national boards including but not limited to the Roy Rozenzweig Center for History and New Media, Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Program, and the Opioid Industry Documents Archive. 

Holly A. Smith

Holly A. Smith is the College Archivist at Spelman College. She received her B.A. in History and Black Studies from The College of William and Mary, an M.A. in History from Yale University, and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. She co-authored the article “This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Embrace the Identity of the Memory Worker” (KULA Journal, 2018:2), and “Wholeness is No Trifling Matter: Black Feminist Archival Practice and The Spelman College Archives” (The Black Scholar 52:2).  She is passionate about community archives and archival advocacy related to collections for historically under documented communities. 

Ann Marie Willer

Ann Marie Willer is the Director of Preservation Services at NEDCC, the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Under her oversight, the Preservation Services department provides consulting to institutions and individuals across the United States on the preservation of audiovisual, digital, paper-based, and photographic collections; offers a robust catalog of online and in-person professional development trainings; and delivers the annual Digital Directions conference, now in its 18th year. Ann Marie holds an MS in Library Science from the University of North Texas and a certificate from Rutgers’ Preservation Management Institute.

EXTERNAL EVALUATOR

Paul Conway, Ph.D.

Dr. Paul Conway is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan School of Information.  His research interests encompass the digitization of cultural heritage resources and the complexities of access to audio-visual archives. Before joining the University of Michigan faculty in 2006, he was an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration and a senior administrator for the libraries at Yale and Duke universities. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, is a Distinguished Fellow of the Society of American Archivists, and is the recipient of the University of Michigan Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize.