Karim Boughida
Stony Brook University, SUNY

Melissa Just
University of Southern California

Simon Neame
University of Washington

Brent Reidy
New York Public Library

Leslie Sharp
Georgia Tech

Steve Smith
UT Knoxville

Chancellor’s Professor and Immediate Past President, Faculty Senate, Human Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Derek Alderman is a Chancellor’s Professor of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a leading scholar in cultural geography. He examines place-naming, public memory, heritage tourism, and critical cartography, with particular attention to the African American Freedom Struggle. He is a Fellow and Past President of the American Association of Geographers.

Derek’s community-engaged, justice-oriented research is widely cited in the media and referenced by educators and policymakers. He has partnered with civil rights organizations, museums, municipal officials, and the federal government to advance more inclusive representations of historically marginalized histories and voices in the American landscape. His many publications appear in both scholarly venues and public-facing outlets, such as The Conversation.

Derek will speak about the Living Black Atlas, an initiative he and others have been developing to amplify traditions of Black-led mapping, memory work, and place-making as forms of intellectual and political intervention. The Atlas offers an alternative living archive of geographic narratives in the face of efforts to narrow or erase histories of racial struggle and Black freedom-making.

Head, Archives & Special Collections, University of Manitoba Libraries

Heather Bidzinski is the head of Archives & Special Collections at the University of Manitoba, living and working on Treaty 1 Territory. An archivist of settler descent, she brings over 20 years of experience in records management, collections care, and archival theory and practice. She is actively engaged in unsettling archival practices in her current role, building on nearly a decade as head of Collections at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR).

While at the CMHR, Heather co-led the development of a groundbreaking stewardship agreement for the Witness Blanket—one that uniquely weaves Indigenous laws and protocols together with Western common law. Her ongoing relationship with the Witness Blanket continues to shape her work in decolonizing archival practice through the incorporation of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

As the UM Libraries lead and representative on the University of Manitoba Respectful Rematriation and Repatriation Ceremony Working Circle, Heather is deeply committed to advancing respectful rematriation and repatriation practices in the archives, and across the university.

This work has motivated her to pursue a PhD in anthropology at the University of Manitoba, where she is currently a second-year student. Her research examines the Witness Blanket Stewardship Agreement as a concrete, transformative act of archival reconciliation.

Associate Professor of Journalism; Director, Land Grant Films; Director and Producer, The Library That Dolly Built, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Nick Geidner is a professor of journalism and the Kelly Leiter Director of Media Innovation in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Nick is an Emmy-nominated and Telly Award–winning producer and filmmaker. His university-based documentary production program, Land Grant Films, has produced more than a dozen films, including The Library That Dolly Built, Baker for America, and The Tennessee Circle Drill. Nick lives in Knoxville with his wife, Shelby, and two kids, Henry and Sam. 

Jefferson Chapman Executive Director, McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Claudio Gómez has led the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as its Jefferson Chapman Executive Director since 2019, championing community engagement through science, art, and culture. He sits on the Board of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville and serves on Knoxville’s Public Arts Committee.

Previously, Claudio directed the Chilean National Museum of Natural History (2007–2019), overseeing a 140% surge in attendance, a major exhibit remodel, mobile app rollout, and South America’s first public 3D collection downloads. During this period, he also served on Chile’s National Council of Monuments, helping shape national heritage policy. Earlier, he led the Rapa Nui Museum on Easter Island, including a landmark permanent exhibition.

Claudio holds an anthropology degree from the University of Chile, a master’s in public administration and a diploma in Latin American public policy from the University of Pittsburgh, and is a Lampadia and Fulbright-Andes Fellow.

Associate University Librarian for Research, University of Minnesota

Jody Gray is the associate university librarian for Research at the University of Minnesota, where she provides strategic leadership for advancing research support services across the libraries. Her professional focus is on bringing a strong commitment to creating inclusive and culturally responsive library services.

From 2005 to 2015, Jody served as the diversity outreach librarian for the University of Minnesota Libraries. She later became the director of the Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services at the American Library Association (ALA) in Chicago, where she led national efforts to embed equity and inclusion into library practices and policy.

Jody holds an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a BA from the University of Minnesota Morris. She is a past president and the current executive director of the American Indian Library Association (AILA), where she continues to advocate for Indigenous representation and leadership in librarianship.

Jody is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux (Lakota) Tribe of South Dakota and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Professor and Department Head, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Robert Kelchen is a professor of higher education and head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include higher education finance, accountability policies, and student financial aid. Robert is the author of Higher Education Accountability and regularly publishes in top education journals. He has received the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award for excellence in financial aid research from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and has been recognized as one of the most influential faculty members in education by Education Week. He is also the data editor for Washington Monthly magazine’s annual college guide and rankings. 

Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Truman State University, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a PhD in educational policy studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

President, Beck Cultural Exchange Center; Historian of African American History, City of Knoxville

Rev. Reneé Kesler is president of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, and serves as the City of Knoxville’s historian of African American history. A public historian and civic leader, she directs one of East Tennessee’s principal institutions dedicated to the preservation, research, and interpretation of African American history and culture. Since assuming leadership of Beck in 2014, Reneé has advanced an inclusive, scholarly approach to public history that centers African American experiences as foundational to the region’s social, cultural, and civic development.

Under her leadership, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center has expanded its archival research, educational exhibitions, and community-based initiatives and has emerged as a significant cultural heritage destination. A signature project of her presidency is the preservation of the last remaining ancestral home of internationally acclaimed artist Beauford Delaney and his brother Joseph Delaney, which will become the Delaney Museum at Beck, a site of national historical and artistic significance.

Reneé’s career includes senior leadership in municipal government as former director of the City of Knoxville’s Community Development Department, where she oversaw major initiatives in fair housing, neighborhood revitalization, and efforts to end chronic homelessness. Her professional background also includes university instruction and 15 years in banking and community development finance.

A longtime civic servant, Reneé served for a decade as chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission and now holds the title of chair emeritus. Her honors include recognition from the Tennessee General Assembly, the United States Department of Energy, and numerous civic, cultural, and professional organizations for her leadership in historical preservation, public memory, and community engagement.

Director of Repatriation and Curator of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

As the director of Repatriation for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Ellen Lofaro manages and coordinates national and international repatriation efforts. With a focus on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), she actively consults, collaborates, and partners with Native American Tribes to repatriate all Native American Ancestral remains and cultural items. Ellen is also involved in the ongoing development of university policies and procedures regarding repatriation, research, and collections care, and is working to integrate collaborative community research and traditional care requests into university standards.

To date, Ellen has spent over nine years in this role at the University of Tennessee, and previously worked on repatriation projects at the Florida Museum of Natural History while completing her PhD in anthropology at the University of Florida. 

Director of Communications, College of Architecture and Design, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Lindsey McBee (Owen) is the director of communications for the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville. She holds a bachelor’s degree in media communications from East Tennessee State University and a master’s degree in journalism and media from UT. While pursuing her graduate education, Lindsey worked with Professor Nick Geidner and Land Grant Films during the early development of a documentary on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and went on to serve as an associate producer throughout the film’s production process. Today, she enjoys sharing Imagination Library books with her daughter, Clara, bringing the full-circle impact of the program into her own family’s story.

President and CEO, EDUCAUSE

John O’Brien serves as the president and CEO of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit organization seeking to inspire the transformation of higher education in service to a greater good. EDUCAUSE serves over 2,000 member colleges, universities, and organizations from 41 countries who themselves collectively serve over 14 million students.

John speaks and writes on a variety of topics related to higher education, technology, and the crucial point at which these two passions meet. Throughout his career in higher education, he has served as an academic, technology, and institutional leader. He was a faculty leader in instructional technology, a statewide IT project leader, and associate vice chancellor/deputy CIO at the system level. John has been a college provost and president in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, the fourth largest higher education system in the United States. Immediately prior to his appointment at EDUCAUSE, he served as the system’s senior vice chancellor of academic and student affairs.

John is the former president of North Hennepin Community College, a minority-serving institution (MSI) in his home state of Minnesota, and he serves as chair of the Board of Regents of Augsburg University, a four-year university MSI in Minneapolis. He was recently appointed to the board of the American Council on Education (ACE) and the board of Achieving the Dream, an organization committed to championing community colleges. 

John holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Augustana University, a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin, and a doctorate in English from the University of Minnesota.

Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University

Professor Betsy Rosenblatt teaches intellectual property courses including Copyright Law and Trademark Law. Before joining the faculty of Case Western Reserve, Prof. Rosenblatt has taught at University of Tulsa Law School, U.C. Davis Law School, Whittier Law School, USC Gould School of Law, UCLA Law School, Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) and University of Maastricht (Netherlands).

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Prof. Rosenblatt practiced intellectual property litigation at the firm of Irell & Manella in Los Angeles, where she specialized in the areas of entertainment, copyright, trademark, and patent law. She represented clients in television, video game, film, semiconductor, DNA microarray, consumer electronics and other industries. She currently volunteers as the Chair of the Legal Committee of the Organization for Transformative Works (www.transformativeworks.org).

Professor Rosenblatt's scholarship focuses on intellectual property theory and intersections between intellectual property law and social justice. Her work has been published by the U.C. Irvine Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, Florida Law Review, Florida State Law Review, DePaul Law Review, Colorado Law Review, Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and University of Ottawa Press, among others. She is a frequent speaker at scholarly conferences as well as more popular venues like San Diego Comic Con.

President, Higher Education Strategy Associates

Alex Usher is the president of Higher Education Strategy Associates. He is an internationally recognized expert on a range of fields within higher education, including student financial aid, quality measurement, rankings, and public financing. He also has wide experience in strategic planning at both the institutional and system level. Alex is the lead author of the annual higher education almanac The State of Postsecondary Education in Canada and the co-author of the premier statistical handbook on global tertiary education: World Higher Education: Institutions, Students and Funding. His internationally read (and free) daily intelligence email, One Thought to Start Your Day, has over 17,000 subscribers. He also regularly engages with fans and critics alike on Bluesky (@alexusherhesa.bsky.social). 

Prior to founding Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2009, Alex served as the director of Educational Policy Institute Canada and prior to that he was the director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University. When Alex is not thinking about postsecondary systems and outcomes, he can be found raiding used bookstores for their most eccentric titles, cheering for Toronto FC, or obsessing about sumo.

Senior Customer Support Manager, The Dollywood Foundation

Danielle Velez is the senior Customer Support manager at The Dollywood Foundation, furthering the mission to expand literacy access and cultivate a love of reading nationwide. Her expertise is built on nearly a decade of impactful experience in community-based programming, notably as the program manager for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Knox County. Her diverse background includes strategic programming and cultural exchange leadership in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and accredited work as a registered court interpreter. Danielle holds a master’s degree in Spanish literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and is passionate about sharing the magic of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, helping register families across the country, and fostering a love of books and lifelong learning.

Principal, CultureSQ Capitol Consulting
Senior Fellow, Washington College of Law, American University
Former General Counsel, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Nancy E. Weiss works with nonprofit organizations and at the highest levels of government to advance access to information and cultural expression. She served as the first general counsel of the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), senior advisor for IP and Innovation at the White House, deputy general counsel of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and counsel to the US Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Program. As the Fifth Kaminstein Scholar in Residence at the US Copyright Office, Nancy’s research focused on Indigenous cultural expression.

Nancy has played a significant role in drafting and negotiating landmark international agreements addressing copyright, cultural heritage, and digital inclusion. Her work includes the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled; Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art; UNESCO cultural conventions; and United Nations frameworks on digital access and internet governance.

Nancy is currently a senior fellow with the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University's Washington College of Law, where she also teaches cultural heritage law and in the IP Clinic. Earlier in her career, she practiced law at Williams & Connolly and clerked for the Honorable William W Schwarzer (US District Court for the Northern District of California and director of the Federal Judicial Center). Nancy earned her JD with honors from the University of Michigan Law School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Vice President of Operations, The Dollywood Foundation

Samuel Wolfe is vice president of Operations at The Dollywood Foundation, where he oversees the global infrastructure that supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Prior to joining the foundation in 2014, he spent eight years supporting the organization’s work through one of its operating partners. In his current role, Samuel leads global operations and builds teams and systems that enable the monthly delivery of millions of free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five. His work focuses on scalable fulfillment, partner support, data protection, and operational reliability to help keep access to books affordable and consistent. Since its inception, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 300 million books to children across five countries as of 2026.

Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)

Kate Zwaard is the executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). She joined CNI from the Library of Congress (LC), where she served in various leadership roles from 2011 to 2025, including associate librarian for Discovery and Preservation Services, where she managed a $125 million annual budget and more than 600 staff members and led the Digital Services, Preservation, and Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorates.

Her previous positions at LC included supervisory information technology specialist for the Digital Repository Development team, chief of National Digital Initiatives, and director of digital strategy. Prior to LC, Kate led a development team responsible for the digital preservation and authentication data architecture at the US Government Publishing Office.

Kate has published and presented on topics such as software development and digital preservation. She has served with the ARL/CNI Joint Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Futures, the International Federation of Library Associations Information Technology Section, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s Standards and Practices Working Group, and the PREMIS Editorial Committee, which she chaired.