At its fall meeting, the CLIR Board elected new members Asma Naeem, chief curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Ben Vinson III, provost and executive vice president at Case Western Reserve University; and Sandra Phoenix, executive director of the HBCU Library Alliance.
Asma Naeem joined the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2018 from the National Portrait Gallery, where she had been a curator of prints, drawings, and photographs. Naeem specializes in American and contemporary Islamic art, and is particularly interested in the effects of displacement and dispossession, the history of technology, and the sensorial imagination of both artist and beholder. Her 2019 book, Out of Earshot: Sound and Technology in American Art, 1847–1897 (University of California Press), urges scholars to think in new and more expansive ways about relations among the visual arts, sound technologies, and the senses of sight and sound.
Ben Vinson III is responsible for all facets of the academic programs and research at Case Western Reserve University. He spearheaded the university’s Think Big strategic planning initiative, and has worked to increase collaboration and entrepreneurship on campus by naming an associate provost to the post of interprofessional education, research and collaborative practice; and by appointing a founding director for the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship. He is a historian of Latin America, and the recipient of the 2019 Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History for his book, Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico. He is chairman of the board of the National Humanities Center and member of the board of the National Humanities Alliance.
Sandra Phoenix has more than 30 years’ experience at nonprofit organizations and extensive project management experience. Responsible for the overall operations of the HBCU Library Alliance, she provides leadership in developing strategic and financial planning; managing an organizational budget with the Board of Directors; managing, publicizing, and promoting grant-related activities of the organization; and promoting active participation on grant projects by member institutions.
“CLIR is privileged to welcome our distinguished new Board members,” said CLIR president Charles Henry. “At a particularly challenging time, they bring exceptional leadership in the professional fields of libraries, museums, and higher education administration that will help guide us and strengthen our mission to these important constituencies.”
The Board also voted new officers for two-year terms. Buhle Mbambo-Thata, director of resource development for AfLIA-African Library and Information Associations and Institutions, will serve as chair. Guy Berthiaume, librarian and archivist of Canada emeritus, will serve as vice chair. John Wilkin, dean of libraries and university librarian at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will serve as treasurer.
