Bios of our Presenters, Guest speakers, panelists and Tour guides
Solomon Blaylock
solomon.blaylock@woodbury.edu
Woodbury University
Solomon Blaylock is Assistant Professor and Access Services Librarian at Woodbury University in Burbank, CA where he also serves as liaison to the School of Architecture. He received his MLIS from San Jose State University and has held positions at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.
Tess Colwell
tess.colwell@yale.edu
Yale University
Tess Colwell is the Arts Librarian for Research Services at Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Arts Library, where she serves as liaison to the School of Art and School of Architecture.
Namrata Dhore
Project Archive Collective/RISD
Namrata Dhore is a designer and researcher based in NYC. She recently graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA and Bachelor’s in Architecture and a concentration in Politics and Policy. She also received the Warren Family Social Engagement Award upon Graduation and honors for her work for Project Archive. Furthermore, understanding how artists and designers position their post-colonial practice has always intrigued her. As a result, she worked on organizing a series of three discussions within creatives at RISD & Brown University. This inquiry later lead her to co-curate a show at the RISD Museum titled {re}position. She is currently working as a Junior Designer at Architect Associates along with coordinating the Project Archive with Sofie Kusaba and Christina Truwit.
Jenny Davis
jbd2148@columbia.edu
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
Jenny Davis is the Public Services Librarian at Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, where she is responsible for coordinating research support across a variety of platforms and providing research instruction. She previously served as a Manager for Book Conservation at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Information Literacy Librarian at the United States Military Academy Library. She holds an MLIS and an MS in the History of Art, Design, and Architecture, both from Pratt Institute.
Catherine Essinger
cwessinger@uh.edu
University of Houston
Catherine Essinger is the Coordinator of the William R. Jenkins Architecture, Design, and Art Library at the University of Houston. She is a past president of AASL and past board member of ARLIS/NA.
Thomas Fowler IV, FAIA, DPACSA, NOMA
tfowler@calpoly.edu
California Polytechnic State University
Thomas Fowler is Professor of Architecture and Director Graduate Architecture program, Cal Poly, SLO, CA. Fowler is a Fellow of the AIA, Distinguished Professor of ACSA, and has received the prestigious Outstanding Faculty Wang Teaching Award for all of 23 CSU Campuses. He directs the interdisciplinary Design Collaboratory with his structural engineering colleague Professor Kevin Dong in collaboration with students and industry leaders, and over years that has been successful with a range of award-winning student design competition entries in addition to several local and international community design-build projects. (for more context: https://architecture.calpoly.edu/faculty/fowler)
Cindy Frank
cfrank@umd.edu
University of Maryland
Cindy Frank is the subject librarian for Architecture, Historic Preservation, Real Estate Development and Urban Studies and Planning. She manages the branch library at the School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, at the University of Maryland and is responsible for collection development as well as instruction. She recently was Library Assembly Chair, as well as Diversity Co-Officer for the Libraries. She is also a licensed architect.
Maya Gervits
gervits@njit.edu
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Maya Gervits has been the Director of the Littman Library at the Hillier College of Architecture and Design at New Jersey Institute of Technology for almost 20 years. Prior to that she worked at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, at Princeton and Rutgers Universities. In addition to an MLS, Maya holds a Ph.D. in art and architectural history. She is interested in various aspects of librarianship and digital scholarship. Her research in both fields has been presented at multiple conferences and resulted in two books and numerous articles.
Jessica Holada
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
Jessica Holada is the Director of Special Collections and Archives at the Robert E. Kennedy Library at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. With its leading undergraduate program in architecture and environmental design, the department collects on the history of California's built environment for the purposes of instruction and scholarship. Examples include the papers of architects Julia Morgan, William F. Cody, and Mark Mills, and landscape architect Arthur G. Barton. Prior to Cal Poly, Jessica held positions at the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; California State University Northridge; and the Getty Research Institute. She earned her BA in Art History from Loyola Marymount University, her MLIS from UCLA, and is a co-founder of CalArchNet.
Alex Inshishian
Program Manager
Los Angeles Conservancy
Alex manages the Conservancy's adult educational programing, including its Walking Tour Program, Last Remaining Seats classic film series, and bi-annual Special Tours. Previously, Alex created and implemented educational programs as education coordinator for the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Alex graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in history and holds a M.A. in public history from New Mexico State University.
Sandy Isenstadt
Professor and Chair, History of Modern Architecture
University of DelawareSandy Isenstadt teaches the history of modern architecture at the University of Delaware. He has published essays on postwar reformulations of modernism and American material culture. Spatial perception in the domestic environment is the subject of The Modern American House (2009), winner of the Spiro Kostof Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. He has co-edited Modernism and the Middle East. Politics of the Built Environment (2008), the first book-length treatment of modernism in the Middle East; Cities of Light (2015), the first global overview of urban lighting; and two recent volumes, Elusive Archives and Modelwork: Material Culture and Modeling in the Humanities (both 2021) His recent monograph, Electric Light: An Architectural History (2018), examines the novel luminous spaces introduced by electric lighting. His work has been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, and the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J.
Gail Kennard
Kennard Design Group
Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission
Gail Kennard is Vice-President of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission and President of Kennard Design Group (KDG), the oldest African-American-owned architectural practice in the Western United States. Raised in Los Angeles, Ms. Kennard began her career as a journalist for United Press International and Time Magazine.She is a former public information officer for the San Diego Historical Society, and a former member of the Board of Advisors of the USC School of Architecture.
kenzie@njit.edu
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Monica Kenzie is Architecture, Art and Design Librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She obtained her Master of Science in Information from University of Michigan’s School of Information and received her BA in Art History, also from the University of Michigan.
Sofie Kusaba
skusaba@alumni.risd.edu
@KusabaSofie
Project Archive Collective/RISD
Sofie Kusaba is a multidisciplinary musician, architect, writer, and digital artist who is currently interested in the intersection of queer identity and social engagement through the metaverse. Sofie is a recent graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Her most recent project was an exploration on the nuclear family housing typology in Tokyo, known as the Danchi and which was selected for Super Jury. Sofie is now working on a zine that focuses on alternative sharing and support structures through the framework of adaptive reuse, and this will be showcased at the 2021 Tokyo Art Book Fair at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Currently she is working at the architecture firm, Junya Ishigami and Associates. In Project Archive, she is the Administrative and Website Manager in addition to researching and producing written and audio content for the website.
Margaret Logas
mlogas@ufl.edu
University of Florida
Margaret Logas is a Graduate Assistant and Librarian for the University of Florida's CityLab Orlando Graduate School of Architecture. She has been there for three years while she works on her Masters in Architecture and her Masters in Historic Preservation. Previously, she worked as an Art Teacher and for the public library system for 15 years.
Emilee Mathews
emathews@illinois.edu
University of Illinois
Emilee Mathews is the Head of the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and subject liaison for art and architecture. She has worked in the field of art and architecture librarianship for ten years, holding positions at Indiana University and University of California, Irvine in addition to her current role at UIUC. In the Art Libraries Society of North America, she has served as member and chair of the Strategic Directions Committee, and is incoming chair of the Documentation Committee.
Hank Morgan
henrytruemorgan@gmail.com
University of Washington (alum)
Hank Morgan graduated from the University of Washington in 2021, and is currently serving as a school librarian in Seattle, Washington. He wants to network with other neighborhood activists looking to advocate for more inclusive city design.
Aimee Lind
alind@getty.edu
The Getty Research Institute
Aimee Lind is the Reference Specialist for Architecture Collections and Manager of Interlibrary Loan at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, where she has worked since 1996. She has a BA in Art History (with an emphasis on Modern Architecture) from UCLA and an MLIS from SJSU. She is the co-founder and chair of CalArchNet and recently served as the ARLIS Architecture Section Moderator and the ARLIS/SAH Liaison.
Kevin McMahon
kevin_mcmahon@sciarc.edu
Southern California Institute of Architecture
Kevin McMahon has managed the SCI-Arc library since 1987, and co-managed the SCI-Arc media archive since 2012. He has also worked for the Getty Research Institute, Verso Press, the University of Limerick, the Mike Kelley Foundation, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Michael C. Oliveira
mcolivei@usc.edu
ONE Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries
Michael C. Oliveira is the Reference and Instruction Librarian/Archivist at ONE Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries. From 2006 through 2015, Oliveira was a project archivist for a series of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Historical Publications and Records Commission grants. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh's Master of Library and Information Science, Archival Studies Specialization program in 2005.
Rebecca Price
University of Michigan Library
Rebecca Price is the Architecture, Urban Planning and Visual Resources Librarian and Museum Studies liaison at the University of Michigan. She came to the position over twenty years ago with a combined academic, museum and library background. She holds an MA in architectural history from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in art history and an MIS, both from the University of Michigan. She is a past president of AASL and incoming president of ARLIS/NA.
Alisha D. Rall
Kansas State University
Alisha D. Rall manages the onsite operations of the Paul Weigel Library of Architecture, Planning & Design at K-State Libraries. As a member of the Library User Services Team, she supervises Weigel’s student employees, and oversees reference and collection maintenance. In addition to her master’s of library science, she is currently pursuing a master’s of history at Kansas State University.
Dylan Rosenlieb
Avery Architectural Library & Fine Arts, Columbia University
Dylan Rosenlieb is the Avery Classics Assistant at Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. His work focuses on the preservation and stewardship of the rare books collection, and is a former co-chair of the Libraries’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He previously held positions at Columbia’s Butler Library, and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. He holds an MLIS and Certificate in Archives and the Preservation of Cultural Materials from Queens College.
Christina Truwit
crtruwit@gmail.com
Project Archive Collective/RISD
Christina Truwit is an architect focused on our pressing climate issues and its intersections between social justice and stewardship of land. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Allegheny College where she majored in Mathematics and Studio Art. Following that, she received her Masters of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design where she received the Graduate Thesis award for her work on deprioritizing owned property to create space for natural systems to combat climate change. While pursuing her masters degree she also completed her certificate in collegiate teaching. Currently she is employed as a teaching fellow at Rhode Island School of Design, and also works as a coordinator of Project Archive. (for more context: https://www.projectarchive.info/ )
Ellen R. Urton
Kansas State University
Ellen R. Urton is an associate professor and an Academic Services Librarian at K-State Libraries, serving as Team Lead for the Arts, Humanities & Design Team. She liaises to the college of Architecture, Planning & Design, Art department, and department of Interior Design & Fashion Studies. Her research interests include team-based librarianship, embedded librarianship, library instruction, and sustainability.