Nancy S. Kirkpatrick (she/her/hers) is the Dean of Libraries at Smith College. She brings a forward-looking approach to supporting the Libraries’ strong foundation of inclusive service, scholarly engagement, and academic excellence. Her leadership focuses on sustaining and advancing the Libraries’ role as a vital partner in research, teaching, and learning across the College.

Prior to joining Smith, Nancy held senior leadership roles in both academic and nonprofit library organizations, including serving as Dean of University Libraries at Florida International University (FIU) and Executive Director and CEO of OhioNet. She has a background in law and information science and a record of building strategic partnerships, leading organizational change, and championing access to knowledge.

Nancy is a retired attorney who has spent her career in mission-driven, nonprofit organizations. She’s a proud mom of two great humans. Nancy loves reading, writing, knitting, and getting outside whenever she can. A frequent traveler and enthusiastic speaker, she’s passionate about lifelong learning and loves speaking with groups about change, curiosity, and the role of appreciative inquiry in personal and professional growth.

Steven M. Adams is currently the Librarian for Graduate and Postdoctoral Initiatives at Northwestern University. In this position, he coordinates outreach to graduate students and also manages collection development, instruction, outreach, and reference to several departments in the biological and behavioral sciences. He has an additional appointment as the Faculty Mentor for Northwestern's 7th class of Posse Scholars. Steven is currently Board Chair of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, which provides support to Chicago-area institutions with archival collections related to African-American culture and history.

Steven's current research and workshop design projects explore the role of curiosity in research institutions. As an experienced speaker and workshop facilitator, he creates dynamic learning experiences that spark introspection and nurture group cohesion. Before coming to Northwestern, Steven served as Princeton University's Biological and Life Sciences Librarian and Psychology Librarian. Steven received his B.A in Biology and his M.L.S. from Clark Atlanta University.

Holly A. Smith serves as the Archivist with the Spelman College Archives. Previously she served as African American Materials Specialist in the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 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 her M.S. in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in Archival Management, from Simmons College.

Ms. Smith has served as chair of the Society of American Archivists Diversity Committee, and co-chair of the Women’s Collections Roundtable. She is currently the co-chair for the National Women's Studies Association's Library and Archives Interest Group.


She is passionate about Black feminist archival practice, community archives and archival advocacy related to collections for historically under documented communities.

Kellee E. Warren is Associate Professor and Special Collections Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ms. Warren’s article, “Feeding the Insatiable Beast: Education Technology and Digitization in Special Collections Libraries and Archives” was published in the December 2024 special issue of the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship special issue (vol. 10), Libraries Extraction/Enclosure. Her biographical analysis, “Jean Blackwell Hutson: Black Women’s Leadership in Librarianship and Archives,” was published in the May 2022 special issue of Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 6 (1). “Excessive Workload in Special Collections Public Services Librarianship: Challenges, Feelings, and Impact,” a survey of special collections librarians in public services, was published in the Journal of Library Administration, 61(3), 2021. Her article on an approach to archival instruction with colonial collections, “Reimagining Special Collections Instruction: A Special Case of Haiti” was published in The American Archivist, fall/winter 2020 edition. And her article “We Need These Bodies, but Not Their Knowledge: Black Women in the Archival Science Profession, and Their Connection to the Archives of Enslaved Black Women in the French Antilles” was published in Library Trends, spring 2016. Her research interests include critical pedagogies, publishing history, digital humanities, and oral history.

Patrice R. Green is the Curator for African American and African Diasporic Collections at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, based at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. There, she acquires published materials and manuscript collections for the library and leads instruction sessions to engage students in primary source research. In 2022, she was selected as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage based at the Rare Book School. Green holds master’s degrees in Public History and Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina, with training focused on museums and material culture, historic preservation, and archives and preservation management. Her interests include archival representation, knowledge justice, and Black history and culture. Additionally, her work has allowed her to develop and steward collections that center Black life, enhance teaching and learning experiences, and cultivate Black memory.

Dr. Kenvi Phillips serves as the inaugural Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library and leads the planning and administration of all Library programs and activities. 

Dr. Phillips has over 20 years of experience in libraries, historic sites, and academic institutions and brings strong collections, research, archival, and programming experience—along with many other firsts—to the role. She most recently served as the first Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Brown University Library, where she played an integral role in strategic planning and relationship building across the campus, in the community and region, and with other academic institutions. Dr. Phillips was the first Johanna-Marie Frankel Curator for Race and Ethnicity at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library, focused on the History of Women in America. She also served as Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University and earlier as a historian at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Dr. Phillips earned a doctorate in United States history and a master’s degree in public history from Howard University, and a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Tulsa.