{"id":12119,"date":"2021-08-11T12:12:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/libnews\/?p=12119"},"modified":"2021-08-11T12:12:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:12:30","slug":"kenvi-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/kenvi-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcement | Kenvi C. Phillips Named Director of Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Kenvi C. Phillips, PhD<\/strong> as the inaugural Director of Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion<\/strong>. Kenvi\u2019s first day at Brown will be August 23, 2021. Consistent with Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University<\/em><\/a> and the Library\u2019s own strategic goals<\/a> in this critical area, hiring an executive officer whose portfolio focuses exclusively on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of an intentional move toward becoming a more just, inclusive, equitable academic library.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Director of Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Kenvi will direct critical organizational and programmatic initiatives, expand the Library\u2019s outreach, and contribute her expert knowledge and skills to advance the Library\u2019s and the University\u2019s core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kenvi\u2019s work at the Library will include oversight for Library initiatives connected to Brown\u2019s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) Phase II<\/a> and the Anti-Black Racism Task Force<\/a>. She will oversee the Library\u2019s Racial Justice Project<\/a>, and play a key role in the Library\u2019s expanding partnerships with campus programs including the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative. Working closely with the Library\u2019s own representative DIAP committee, Kenvi will provide expertise for strengthening Library staff competency related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and promoting and advising on strategies for Library physical, digital, and educational accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenvi currently serves as the Johanna-Marie Fraenkel Curator for Race and Ethnicity at Harvard Radcliffe\u2019s Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. While there, she has led the library\u2019s efforts to diversify the collections to be more inclusive of racial and ethnic populations across the country. Since her arrival at Schlesinger in the fall of 2016, she has identified gaps in the collections and worked to develop relationships with financial and collection donors while leading the effort to engage community members in the greater Boston region in order to expand collections and programs. She consults with scholars within the Harvard community and other universities to advise the library as it expands its collecting scope and rewrites its collections development plan. She has worked with archivists and curators, both within Harvard Library and other repositories, to develop partnerships to increase access to collections about marginalized people, particularly women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before joining the Schlesinger Library, Kenvi served as Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at Howard University\u2019s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. There she led an initiative to revise and increase access to the collections by merging the reference services of the library and manuscript divisions. By combining the two departments, staff was able to increase both research access to collections and manuscript processing. In addition to her work with the Harvard Library and the Howard University Library System, Kenvi has worked with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a non-profit bi-county agency established more than eighty years ago in the Washington, DC area.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An historian, Kenvi holds a master\u2019s in public history and a doctorate in US history from Howard University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrating a serious and impactful commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and associated issues of racial justice is a major guiding principle at Brown. These commitments are also integral to the Library\u2019s mission on campus as well as its growth and development as an organization. As Brown\u2019s focus on these issues has increased, the Library\u2019s specialized skills, resources, and services are being called upon in new ways. At the same time, the Library is also identifying new opportunities through its own work to make important contributions to the University\u2019s goals in this area. Every member of the Library\u2019s administration and staff is responsible for contributing to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Library. We look forward to bringing the Library\u2019s commitment and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion to the next level with Kenvi\u2019s expertise, leadership, and guidance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Kenvi C. Phillips, PhD as the inaugural Director of Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Kenvi\u2019s first day at Brown will be August 23, 2021. Consistent with Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University and the Library\u2019s own strategic goals in this critical … Announcement | Kenvi C. Phillips Named Director of Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-page","category-staff-transitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}