The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Va 23219-8000
(804) 692-3597
EDUCATION:
University of Tennessee, M.S. in Library and Information Sciences (August 2007)
University of Virginia, Ph.D. in History (August 1978)
University of Virginia, M.A. in History (August 1972)
Manhattanville College, B.A. [with honors] (May 1971)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
July 2007 to present: Librarian of Virginia, Library of Virginia
April 2011 to present: State Archivist of Virginia
February 1996 to 2007: Deputy Director, Library of Virginia
March 1995 to January 1996: Acting Chief of Staff, Library of Virginia
January 1991 to March 1995: Director, Publications and Educational Services, Library of Virginia.
1983 to present: Coeditor of multivolume Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia.
May 1990 to December 1991: Director, Publications Branch, Virginia State Library and Archives.
1980-1987: Adjunct professor, Department of History, Virginia Commonwealth University.
1978-1982: Associate editor, Publications Branch, Virginia State Library and Archives.
1976-1978: Instructor, Department of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
1973-1975: Teaching assistant and part-time instructor, Department of History, University of Virginia.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
American Library Association; Virginia Library Association; Chief Officers of State Libraries Association; Council of State Archivists; Southern Association for Women Historians; Southern Historical Association; Virginia Historical Society.
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS:
Virginia Tech – Teaching Excellence Award, 1978
University of Virginia – Danforth Research Fellowship, 1975-1976; Danforth Teaching Fellowship, 1973-1975; DuPont Fellowship, 1972-1973.
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
American Historical Association: Member, Committee on Women, 1999 – 2002.
Association for Documentary Editing: Nominating committee, 1989; program committee, 1988.
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities: member, Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeological Advisory Board, 1996 – 2009.
Center for Historical Nursing Inquiry: Advisory committee, Public Health Nursing Exhibit, 1993.
Chief Officers of State Library Agencies: Member, 2007 – present; vice-president, 2014 – present; treasurer, 2012 – 2014.
Commemoration 2019: Member, Committee on the Impact of Women, 2016 – present.
Council of State Archivists: Member, 2011-present; Board member, 2013-present.
Library of Virginia: Member, Library Board, 2007 – present; Member Library of Virginia Foundation Board, 2007 – present.
Lyrasis: Board member, 2012 – present.
Organization of American Historians: Member, Standing Committee on Professional Ethics, 2006 – present; member, Ad-hoc Committee on Professional Integrity, 2003-2004; one of three scholars on a team to evaluate the historical interpretation at the Richmond National Battlefield Park in cooperation with the National Park Service, May 1997.
Publishers Association of the South: Executive board member and secretary, 1994 – 1996.
Randolph College: Guest instructor, History Majors Seminar (speak about sources for researching and writing senior theses and careers in the historical field), 1998 – 2012.
Serra International, Inc.: board of directors and co-owner of family-owned business, 1985 – present.
Southern Association for Women Historians: Chair, Ad Hoc Social Media Committee, 2011-2012; Member, Board of Editors, 2005 – 2007; president, 2001 – 2002; first vice-president, 2000 – 2001; second vice-president, 1999 – 2000; conference chair, Fifth Southern Conference on Women’s History, 1998 – 2000; fundraising chair, 1994 – 1998; executive committee, Second Southern Conference on Women’s History, 1990 – 1991; local arrangements chair, 1988; membership committee, 1985 – 1987.
Southern Council of State Library Agencies: Member, 2008 – present; treasurer, 2010 – present.
Southern Historical Association: Co-chair, Program Committee, 2016; Executive Council Member, 2012 – 2015; chair, Membership Committee, 2009; Member, Nominating Committee, 2008; Chair, Local Arrangements Committee, 2007; Member, Membership Committee, 2006; Member, Committee on Women, 2000 – 2003.
St. Mary School: School Board: member, 1988-1996; chairman, 1991 – 1993.
Supreme Court of Virginia Historical Commission: Member, 2006 – present.
University of Richmond: Judge for statewide Phi Alpha Theta History essay competition, 1998.
University of Tennessee, School of Information Sciences: Member of school’s advisory board for the graduate master’s and doctoral information sciences program, 2010 – 2013.
Valentine Richmond History Center: Member, board of directors, 2008 – 2015.
Historical consultant, Women and Work exhibit, 1989-1990.
Virginia Bicentennial of the War of 1812 Commission: Member, 2008 – 2015.
Virginia Business and Professional Women’s Foundation: Advisory committee, Women of Virginia Historic Trail Project, 1991.
Virginia Center for the Book: Executive board member and treasurer, 1994 – 1996.
Virginia Commemorative Commission to Honor the Contributions of Virginia Women, 2010 – present
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Member, editorial board, online Encyclopedia of Virginia, 2006 – present; proposal review panel, Virginia Humanities Center grant program, 1990.
Virginia Foundation for Women: Member, Women’s History Month Poster Committee, 2002-2004
(project transferred to Library of Virginia in 2005).
Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council: Member, 2007 – present.
Virginia Library Association: Keynote speaker, VLA Paraprofessional Forum, 2008; Presenter, session on the Library of Virginia’s Literary Awards, 2005 VLA Annual Meeting, Williamsburg.
Virginia Historical Society: Guest instructor, Teachers’ Institute, 1994-1998; conference consultant,
New Directions in Virginia History conference, 1988-1989.
Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission: Advisory Council member and Chair, 2006 – 2015.
Manuscript reviewer: Outside reader for manuscripts under consideration by the University Press of Virginia (1998), the University of Missouri Press (1999; 2002), Ohio University Press (2000), University Press of Florida (2002); Louisiana State University Press (2004), and University of Georgia Press (2004).
RESEARCH FIELDS:
Virginia history; history of women in America (particularly the South); library history (particularly the history of state libraries); United States history (since 1865); American diplomatic history; historical editing; public history.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Editor (with Cynthia Kierner), Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, volume one published 2015; volume two published 2016.
Editor (with Janet Coryell, Anastasia Sims, and Thomas Appleton), Negotiating Boundaries of Southern Womanhood: Dealing With the Powers That Be. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2000.
Editor (with Sara Bearss, John Kneebone, Jeff Looney, and Brent Tarter), Dictionary of Virginia Biography.
Volume 1 (Aaroe to Blanchfield). Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998.
Volume 2 (Bland to Cannon). Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2001.
Volume 3 (Caperton to Daniels) Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
Editor (with Janet Lee Coryell, Martha H. Swain, and Elizabeth Hayes Turner), Beyond Image and Convention: Explorations in Southern Women’s History. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1998.
Editor (with Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr.), The Common Wealth: Treasures from the Collections of the Library of Virginia. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1997.
Women of Mark: A History of the Woman’s Club of Richmond, Virginia, 1894-1994. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1995.
Editor, Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia, vol. 5, 12 November 1788 to 30 November 1791. Richmond, 1982.
Articles and Chapters
“A Century of Partnership: LVA and VLA.” Virginia Libraries 51 (July-September 2005): 29-34.
“‘A Most Brilliant Woman’: Anna Whitehead Bodeker and the First Woman Suffrage Association in Virginia.” Virginia Cavalcade 43 (Spring 1994): 166-177.
“Ora Brown Stokes.” In Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. 2 vols. New York, 1993.
“New Directions in Virginia Women’s History.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 100 (January 1992): 5-28.
“Anna Maria Lane: Uncommon Common Soldier of the American Revolution.” Virginia Cavalcade 37 (Winter 1988): 134-142.
“Triumph in Defeat: Black Hawk’s 1833 Visit to Virginia.” Virginia Cavalcade 35 (Summer 1985): 4-17.
(Coauthor with Lorraine Lees). “A Future for Our Diplomatic Past? A Critical Appraisal of the Foreign Relations Series.” Journal of American History 70 (December 1983): 621-629.
“Popes Creek Plantation: Birthplace of George Washington.” Virginia Cavalcade 31 (Spring 1982): 192-205.
“Sarah Lee Fain: Norfolk’s First Woman Legislator.” Virginia Cavalcade 30 (Winter 1981): 124-133.
“Anne O’Hare McCormick.” In Notable American Women, vol. 4, The Modern Period, edited by Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green. Cambridge, Mass., 1980, pp. 439-440.
(Coauthor with Louise Belot Dawe). “Hannah Lee Corbin: The Forgotten Lee.” Virginia Cavalcade (Autumn 1979): 70-77
PAPERS & TALKS:
“Pioneers to Power Brokers: Women Officeholders in Virginia.” (Keynote address, Southern Association for Women Historians annual meeting, New Orleans, La., 11 October, 2008).
“YOU are the Face of Change in Virginia’s Libraries.” (Keynote address, Virginia Library Association Paraprofessional Forum, Richmond, May 19, 2008).
“Preserving Place, State, and Race: Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Virginia.” (Session chair, Virginia Forum, University of Mary Washington, 12 April, 2008).
“Gendered Speech, Culinary Tradition, and Memory: Virginia Women Across Three Centuries.” (Session chair and commentator, Virginia Forum, Shenandoah University, 7 April 2006).
“Women of Georgetown County: the 20th Century” (Scholar/presenter for thematic video oral history of South Carolina women speaking about their roles in activism and volunteerism in the community. Session sponsored by the Georgetown County Public Library and the South Carolina Humanities Council, 14 June, 2002).
“Statesmen and Silversmiths, Slaves and Suffragists: The Dictionary of Virginia Biography.” (Session presentation with coeditors, Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, Va., 25 March 1999).
“Virginia Women Redefine Themselves After the War.” (Session chair, Fourth Southern Conference on Women’s History, College of Charleston, June 12, 1997).
“Southern Women’s History: An Overview.” (Workshop presentation and discussion leader, Teachers’ Summer Institute, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va., 16 July 1996).
“Forgotten Truths: Writing Women’s History.” (Session presentation, Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, Va., 29 March 1996.)
“Women in Virginia, 1860-1920.” (Lecture, Virginia Historical Society Teachers’ Institute on Virginia History, 1994-1998.)
“Notable Women of Virginia, 1607-1990.” (Talk delivered between 1991 and 1999 by request to more than thirty groups, including the Richmond chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames, the Henrico County Retired Teachers’ Association, the American Association of University Women, the Jewish Woman’s Club, the Tuckahoe Woman’s Club, the Virginia Commonwealth University Women’s Interest Group, and many others.)
“Politics and Policy Making during the New Deal and World War II: The Role of Women.” (Session commentator, Second Southern Conference on Women’s History, Chapel Hill, N.C., (7 June 1991.)
“Finding and Using Written Records by or about Women.” (Panel participant, Symposium “In Pursuit of Women’s History.” The Lyceum, Alexandria, Virginia, 23 March 1991.)
“When Men Were Men and Women Were Invisible: The Impact of Women’s History Upon Our Understanding of the American Past.” (Lecture, Hampden-Sydney College, 5 March 1991.)
“Women in Virginia.” (Session presentation, New Directions in Virginia History Conference sponsored by the Virginia Historical Society, 12 October 1990.)
“Notable Virginia Women: A Case of Historical Invisibility.” (Banner Lecture Series, Virginia Historical Society, 21 June 1990.)
“Richmond’s Volunteer Women: A Brief History.” (Lunchtime Lecture Series, Valentine Museum, 18 October 1989.)
“Retrieving Black Women’s History.” (Session chair, First Southern Conference on Women’s History, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 11 June 1988.)
“From ‘A Share of Honour’ to a Share of the Action: Women in Virginia History from 1607 to the Present.” (Paper delivered at “Origins of the Commonwealth” symposium, War Memorial Museum of Virginia, 10 September 1986.)
“Resources [for the study of women’s history] in Virginia.” (Paper delivered at session entitled “Identifying Topics and Resources in Women’s History: A State Approach,” Southern Historical Association annual meeting, Houston, Texas, 14 November 1985.)
“The Old Dominion’s Lively Heritage: The Dictionary of Virginia Biography.” (Talk delivered to the Richmond Rotary Club (April 1984) and the Wednesday Night Supper Group, First Presbyterian Church of Richmond (March 1985).
Book reviews have appeared in Southern Studies, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Journal of Southern History, and the Florida Historical Quarterly.
