Alexia Hudson-Ward Announced as Opening Plenary at Atla Annual 2021 Online

We are excited to announce Alexia Hudson-Ward will kick off Atla Annual 2021 Online as our Opening Plenary Speaker.

Alexia is the Associate Director of Research and Learning of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries. She is considered one of the information professions’ leading diversity practitioners. Her past roles include serving as the Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries for Oberlin College and Conservatory, a Penn State University tenured librarian, an award-winning entertainment editor, a public radio promotions coordinator, and a Coca-Cola Company marketing manager. She has published multiple book chapters and research articles on a wide range of diversity-related topics. 

Alexia is the recipient of several honors, including being highlighted as one of fifty “Mover and Shakers” by Library Journal in 2008 and the “Outstanding Young Alumni” awardee by the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information in 2013. She was recently appointed to the MIT Press Editorial Board and is an elected member on the Board of Directors for three organizations: The Center for Research Libraries, LYRASIS (Board Vice-Chair), and The Conversation U.S. Edition. She is also an appointed member of the Advisory Board of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. Alexia has served on the faculty of Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s programs for library leaders and conducted scores of webinars for membership organizations and consortia. 

She was recently appointed the Editor in Chief of Towards Inclusive Leadership (TIE), hosted by Choice Editions. This blog will engage readers in how DEIA is successfully operationalized within the academy through a series of thought-provoking posts, interviews, webinars, opinion pieces, and podcasts on a multitude of topics. 

Alexia holds an MLIS degree from the University of Pittsburgh & a BA in English Literature and African American Studies from Temple University and is currently a Simmons University doctoral candidate in the Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions program. 

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, June 16, at 10 a.m. Central Time for this riveting session.

Add her session, Well Done is Better than Well Said: Benjamin Franklin as a DEIA Model for Higher Education, to your Sched.

Register for Atla Annual, June 16-18, 2021.