Our consultants have real world experience in organizations just like yours.

Our consultants have decades of experience with cultural heritage organizations of all sizes in administrative and practitioner roles – giving us a valuable perspective on both the institutional contexts and needs of our clients and the needs of the on-the-ground staff who are tasked with implementing organizational change.

Frances Harrell

Executive Director

 

Frances (she/her) is the Executive Director for Myriad, and is responsible for project coordination with all our clients. She is an independent archives professional with over ten years of experience working with cultural heritage organizations. She has spent the larger part of her career helping libraries, archives, and museums achieve their preservation goals through consulting and training in paper, photograph, audiovisual, and digital collections.

She has served the preservation field in many professional leadership roles, including as Co-Chair of ALA's Preservation Outreach Committee, Co-Chair of ALA's Digital Preservation Interest Group, Chair of SAA's Preservation Section, as well as serving on the Program Committees for the PASIG conference and the New England Archivists conference. Frances received her MLIS with a focus in Archives Management at Simmons College and her BA in English Literature from the University of Florida.

Areas of consultation: Project development, grant writing, preservation and collections assessment, digital preservation, renovation or new construction, environmental monitoring, emergency preparedness, personal or family collections.

Headshot of Snowden Becker whose consulting specialties include strategic planning, policy development, audiovisual preservation, and change management

Snowden Becker

Consultant

 

Snowden (she/her) has over two decades of professional experience working at the intersection of collections, technology, and access. From 2012-2019, she administered the graduate degree programs in Moving Image Archive Studies and Library and Information Science at UCLA, where she continues to teach courses on archival administration, professional development, and audiovisual preservation. In 2016, she collaborated on a $100,000 IMLS National Forum grant exploring the data management implications of large-scale digital video recording regimes such as police body-worn cameras. She is a member of the Video Committee of the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence, and has served on the National Digital Stewardship Residency Advisory Group since 2018.

Snowden received her B.F.A. in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, her MLIS from UCLA, and completed coursework and qualifying requirements toward the PhD in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of consultation: Strategic planning for collection management, digitization, and preservation; Policy development and process improvement; Audiovisual preservation and reformatting projects; Working with materials and collections outside of traditional archival settings; Documentation and training; Collections moves and change management

Headshot of Jessica Bitely, whose areas of consultation include preservation assessments and training related to paper-based, photographic, and audiovisual materials; moving and renovating; and project planning.

Jessica Bitely

Consultant

 

Jessica believes deeply that preservation is collaborative, iterative, and works in service to access. She is the current Preservation Manager for the Boston Public Library and former Director of Preservation Services for the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Her experience has been focused on preservation in a special collections and research environment, and covers aspects from planning a large collections moves and space renovation to working with collections and facilities staff to make the best of existing resources for collections care and access. She has spoken extensively on preservation topics to a wide range of audiences, has written and managed large grants, and has performed general preservation assessments for dozens of cultural heritage institutions across the US.

Jessica received her MLIS with a concentration in Archival Management from Simmons College in 2009.

Areas of consultation: preservation assessments and trainings related to paper-based, photographic, and audiovisual materials; moving and renovating; project planning; procedure development; preparing collections care job descriptions, hiring, and on-boarding; and grant writing.

Ashley Blewer

Consultant

 

Ashley Blewer is an audiovisual archivist and software developer. She has worked for MediaArea, Artefactual Systems Inc., New York Public Library, and University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections, for small archives collections, and in the private sector. As an educator, Ashley has taught information technology fundamentals at Pratt Institute, led several half-day workshops on MediaConch and QCTools, led multi-day events focused on the Archivematica digital preservation software, and given dozens of educational conference presentations on audiovisual technology. Ashley is the author of the Illustrated Guide to Media Formats series (published by Archives of Tomorrow) and the Pragmatic Audiovisual Preservation (published by Digital Preservation Coalition). She holds a Master of Library and Information Science as well as a Bachelor of Art in Graphic Design from the University of South Carolina and is a graduate of the Flatiron School’s Web Immersive program. She is an active contributor to many open source software and resources for audiovisual preservation.

Areas of consultation: digital preservation program assessments, preservation systems and solutions, audiovisual media preservation, time based media preservation, open-source software implementation.

Headshot of Megan Creamer, who consults on interventive and preventive conservation, objects and textiles, costume and textile mounting, storage, materials analysis, and environmental monitoring.

Megan Creamer

Consultant

 

Megan is an objects conservator with a specialization in textile and plastics-based collections. As the Isabel Bader Research Fellow at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, they are performing research on preventing and interventive conservation treatment for cellulose acetate in collections, and coatings for steel sculpture. Megan obtained an MPhil  in textile conservation from the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History at the University in Glasgow, an ALM in museum studies through Harvard University Extension School, as well as a BFA in industrial design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Their past work experience includes the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in objects conservation at Historic New England, and technical, archives, and exhibition work at Harvard University’s libraries and museums. Graduate work placements were undertaken at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Glasgow Museums Burrell Collection in Scotland, and the University of Glasgow’s Tapa: Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Space research project with institutional partners at the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens of London, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.  Prior to a career in conservation, Megan worked in collections management and translational research with biopathology specimens. Recent publications include topics such as plastics collections in historic houses, and novel uses of insecticidal netting for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of collections.

Areas of Consultation: Interventive and preventive conservation, objects and textiles, costume mounting and flat mounting of textiles, storage and re-housing, materials analysis, IPM, condition surveys, environmental monitoring, research and technical analysis.

headshot of Stefan Elnabli who consults on tools and technologies for digital asset management and access, digital preservation, audiovisual preservation, and grant writing and management.

Stefan Elnabli

Consultant

 

Stefan is an information management professional and educator whose engagement with preservation and digital repository services in the cultural heritage space spans the areas of digital preservation, repository service management, applications development, digital asset management, and digital scholarship. His past appointments include positions with AVP Information Management Solutions, the Samvera application development team for Avalon Media System, WNET Channel 13 Digital Archive, and preservation units within major university libraries including Stanford University, New York University, Northwestern University, and University of California San Diego.

 Stefan holds an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University and certificates of completion from Harvard University's Library Leadership in a Digital Age, ScrumAlliance's Scrum Master Certification Program, the Primary Trustworthy Digital Repository Authorization Body's High Level Training Course on ISO16363 for Auditors and Managers of Digital Repositories, MIT's Digital Preservation Management Workshop, FIAF's Analogic and Digital Film Restoration Program, and Rath and Strong Management Consultants' Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Program.

Areas of consultation: Tools and Technologies for Digital Asset Management and Access, Digital Preservation, Audiovisual Preservation, Digital Reformatting, Grant Writing and Management, Staff and Workflow Management

Headshot of Joey Heinen, digital preservation and time based media specialist, who consults on digital preservation, organizational management, and digital and AV collection assessment.

Joey Heinen

Consultant

 

Joey Heinen is a digital preservation and time based media specialist, currently serving as Digital Preservation Manager in the Collection Information and Digital Assets Department and head of the Time Based Media Committee at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He graduated from the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation MA program at NYU in 2014. During his tenure he worked in NYU's film preservation lab, digitized audio for Anthology Film Archives, and served as a media collection and digitization assistant for new media artists Steina & Woody Vasulka. Following this he was selected for the National Digital Stewardship Residency at Harvard Library. He currently serves on the American Institute for Conservation's Electronic Media Group board as Secretary/Treasurer and the planning committee for the TechFocus conference.

Areas of consultation: Audiovisual preservation, digital preservation, organizational management, digital and audiovisual collection assessment.

Headshot of Julia Kim, whose areas of consultation include digital preservation, digital systems and workflow, web content accessibility guidelines, product management, UX interaction design and wireframing.

Julia Kim

Consultant

 

Julia (she/her) is a Digital Projects Coordinator and software Product Manager developing applications used worldwide. She is responsible for product strategy and vision, and ensures that the end-users are represented through the development process. She is also versed in software beta, alpha, regression testing, rapid-prototyping, and software distribution platforms. She is also an experienced Digital Assets Manager and Digital Assets Specialist who developed workflows for born-digital and digitized multi-format collections for preservation and access (2015 - 2020) at a major ethnographic archive. From 2014-2015, she was a National Digital Stewardship Resident during which time she developed born-digital workflows from accession to access, and developed case studies on born-digital emulations and patron reception of them. In 2013, she co-founded XFR Collective (2014), a nonprofit that provides affordable and accessible audiovisual migration services and support.

She has published widely with Code4lib, JCAS, IASA, and blogs like the Library of Congress’s “The Signal” on digital workflows, audiovisual case studies, emulation, the digital stewardship field and patron/user-studies. She has a B.A from Columbia University in Religion and an M.A. from New York University in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program. She is PMI-Certified. For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaykim1/

Areas of consultation: digital preservation, digital systems and workflows, audiovisual preservation and access, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Product Management, Project Management, software development, (patron) user studies, UX interaction Design and wireframing

Headshot of Lorena Ramirez-Lopez, who consults on digital preservation systems and implementation, and time-based media preservation.

Lorena Ramirez-Lopez

Consultant

 

A native New Yorker from Queens, Lorena Ramírez-López has worked as a moving image specialist for almost a decade within archives, libraries, museums and institutions. She is an active member at the Association for Moving Image Archivists where she is co-chair of the International Outreach Committee and curriculum coordinator for the Pathways program that supports pathways into the audiovisual preservation field for people from groups historically underrepresented in the profession. She’s also a member of XFR Collective in NYC and the Community Archiving Workshop group. She went to the Flatiron program for web development where her final project was an open-source software program that organizes and inventories audiovisual collections. She since has learned various programming languages to facilitate digital preservation and access.  Currently Lorena is a consultant at Myriad and community manager for the webrecorder project.

Areas of consultation: Digital preservation systems and implementation, time-based media preservation

Headshot of Katie Risseeuw, whose areas of consultation include preservation and collection assessments, environmental monitoring, collections storage planning, and disaster recovery.

Katie Risseeuw

Consultant

 

Katie is the Preservation Librarian at Northwestern University Libraries, a position she has held since 2010. She manages collections care and preventative conservation programs, such as environmental monitoring, and is involved with audiovisual preservation. She has a Master of Science in Information Studies with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Preservation Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Past work experience includes: projects at UT's Alexander Architectural Archive and the Video Game Archive, internships at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Yale University Library, and positions at Powell's Books and the Harry Ransom Center's Film Collection. She is active in preservation sections of the American Library Association and has organized and participated in outreach projects as part of ALA's annual conferences for several years.

Areas of Consultation: Preservation and collection assessments, environmental monitoring, collections storage planning and practices, integrated pest management, disaster recovery

Headshot of Emily Shaw, who consults on digitization; preservation of library, archives, and museum collections; conservation; digital asset management; RFP development and procurement.

Emily Shaw

Consultant

 

Emily (she/her) is a librarian and archivist from Chicago, IL, and has a B.A. in Anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an extended concentration in Digital Libraries. Emily began her career at the University of Illinois, conducting interdisciplinary communication policy research, conserving scrapbooks, and digitizing books in partnership with Google. She then served as the first Digital Preservation Librarian for the University of Iowa Libraries, and as Head of Preservation and Reformatting for the Ohio State University Libraries and a member of the OSU faculty. Most recently, Emily was recruited to lead the Obama Foundation’s digitization efforts, which included helping the organization to scope its role in preserving and providing access to the Obamas’ digital legacy and chart a course toward sound digital stewardship infrastructure and practices.

In her roles as practitioner and administrator, Emily has led and worked with diverse teams undertaking the complex work of managing, preserving, and leveraging collections of distinctive physical and digital content. Emily has successfully managed staff, budgets, facilities, and projects in both public and private non-profit settings. She has extensive experience with RFPs and grant writing, procurement of materials and services, workflow and policy development, strategic planning and communications, contracting, and donor relations. With equal strength in strategy and operations, Emily works to consciously embed the values of equity, diversity, inclusion, accountability, and trust into all aspects of her work.

Areas of consultation: Digitization. Preservation of library, archives, and museum collections. Conservation and collections care. Digital Asset Management. Digital preservation and stewardship. RFP development and procurement.

Headshot of Abi Simkovic, whose areas of consultation include project development; architecture and design, legal, and STEM records; records management; knowledge management; business systems; and strategic planning.

Abi Simkovic

Consultant

 

Abi Simkovic is an information professional with diverse experience across cultural, educational, non-profit, and for-profit institutions.  She is currently a Knowledge Sharing Consultant within General Electric where she problem solves and coaches scientists, engineers, and business professionals across all GE businesses to solve their preservation, collaboration, and findability needs within a secure and competitive environment.  This position crosses the boundaries of records and information management; enterprise search; knowledge management; traditional library services; archives; information lifecycle management; and taxonomy and ontology creation.  A core duty of this role is to empower others to lead a culture change of trust and collaboration. The Knowledge Sharing Team at GE is the recipient of the 2019 Digital Workplace of the Year Leadership award.

 Abi holds an MSIS with a dual focus in Archives and Special Collections and Library and Information Science from the University at Albany, SUNY, and a BA in English Literature from Montana State University.

Areas of Consultation: Project development, preservation and collections assessment, digital preservation (including policy and workflow development), renovation or new construction, architecture and design records, legal records, STEM records, collections management tools, information lifecycle management, records management, knowledge management, classification compliance, business systems, strategic planning

Headshot of Erica Titkemeyer, who consults on audiovisual preservation, grant writing, copyright, digital preservation

Erica Titkemeyer

Consultant

 

Erica (they/them) is the Associate Head of Repository Services within the Library and Information Technology department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). In this position they coordinate staff charged with digitization of Wilson Special Collection materials, and serve as Project Director on a Mellon-funded initiative to preserve audiovisual recordings for UNC-CH and partner institutions across the state of North Carolina. Erica is also the Product Owner of the open-source audiovisual database management application, Jitterbug.

From 2013-2014 they were a Library of Congress National Digital Stewardship Resident at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, working to produce best practices and recommendations for museums collecting digital media artworks. Erica received their M.A. in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and their B.S. in Cinema and Photography from Ithaca College.

Areas of consultation: Audiovisual preservation, grant writing, copyright, digital preservation, and technologies/tools

Headshot of Joel Wurl, former deputy director of the Division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Joel consults on grant writing and grants management.

Joel Wurl

Consultant

 

Joel Wurl retired from the federal government in August, 2020. He was deputy director of the Division of Preservation & Access, National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to joining NEH in October, 2006, he was part of the leadership team of the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center ending there as Head of Research Collections and Associate Director. During that tenure, Wurl was a consultant and advisor for several immigration-related projects undertaken by museums, historical societies, libraries, and civic organizations locally and beyond. He served from 2003-06 on the board of directors for the International Institute of Minnesota, an organization serving the needs of new Americans. From 2007-13, Wurl also served as an Adjunct Instructor in the Applied History program at George Mason University. He was elected to the council and executive committee of the Society of American Archivists and was named a Distinguished Fellow of SAA in 2007. Wurl’s publications have appeared in public history and immigration/ethnic history journals and include the online resource “North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories,” published by Alexander St. Press, for which he served as general editor.

Areas of Consultation: Grant writing, grants management