Howard Brainen
Founder/CEO of TwoCat Digital, San Leandro, CA
Digital Imaging
Bio: Howard Brainen, photographer, teacher and entrepreneur passionate about enhancing human potential through the innovative use of technology. Over thirty years building and leading teams in imaging related endeavors, including the digitization of millions of objects for libraries, museums and corporate archives around the world. Founder: Two Cat Digital (2003 - present), The Visual Group (1983 - 2003), Custom Process Photographic Lab (1972 - 2003), Visualeyes Photographic Agency (1976 - 1981), Howard Brainen Photography (1970 - present).

Kevin J. Comerford
Digital Initiatives Librarian, Assistant Professor of Librarianship
University Libraries, University of New Mexico
Databases Panel Discussion
Bio: Kevin Comerford served as the Visual Resources Collection Manager at the Dallas Museum of Art from 1990-1995, where he implemented one of the earliest museum-based digital imaging projects, as well as a slide and photograph collection automation system. He also developed the museum’s first web site in 1993, which made the Dallas Museum of Art one of the first museums to have an internet presence. From 1995-2008, Mr. Comerford was the Group Manager for Media Content Management at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington. There he founded the corporation’s audiovisual media archives department, and implemented two enterprise-class Digital Asset Management Systems. Mr. Comerford’s team managed digital media content for such diverse enterprises as MSNBC, Encarta and Microsoft Studios. In 2009, he joined the staff of the University Libraries at the University of New Mexico, where he is currently engaged in developing several digital video cataloging and retrieval projects. Mr. Comerford has authored several papers on digital media management, including, “Integrating Media Asset Collections and Production Workflow” (2006), and “International Standard Audiovisual Number Implementation and Windows Media Technologies” (2006). He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Texas Christian University and a Master of Science degree in Information Science from the University of North Texas.

Virginia "Macie" Hall
Senior Instructional Designer, Center for Educational Resources, Johns Hopkins University
Strategic Planning, Professional Development
Bio: Macie Hall was been supporting faculty teaching with technology at Johns Hopkins University since 1987, first as Curator of the JHU History of Art Visual Resources Collection, then as a Senior Information Technology Specialist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and more recently as a Senior Instructional Designer in the Center for Educational Resources (CER). Her current position supports the application and implementation of technology to scholarly and pedagogical issues in academic disciplines. In 1994 she began pursuing ways in which digital imaging technologies could be used in the study and teaching of the history of art. She became interested in the related copyright and fair use issues and has published a number of articles on intellectual property rights and the reproduction of images of art in the digital age. More recently she has focused on visual literacy and its importance in education. An active member of the Visual Resources Association (VRA) for seventeen years, she served as President from 2006 to 2008, and was co-chair of the VRA Strategic Plan Task Force.

Amy Jackson
Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of New Mexico
Databases Panel Discussion
Bio: Amy Jackson is a Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of New Mexico where she works with the Institutional Repository and other digital collections. Before coming to the University of New Mexico in 2009, Amy was the project coordinator for the IMLS Digital Collections and Content project (IMLS DCC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The IMLS DCC project aggregates metadata from various digital collections, primarily image collections, and makes these resources searchable from one portal. Amy has been an active member of the Visual Resources Association since 2005. She holds a master's degree in music performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a MLIS from Simmons College in Boston, MA.

Michael T. Kelly
Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources, Special Collections, and the Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Libraries
Keynote Speaker
Bio: Michael T. Kelly is the University of New Mexico Libraries Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources, Special Collections, and the Center for Southwest Research. Before coming to UNM in 2004, Mr. Kelly was the Curator of Special Collections at Ablah Library, Wichita State University (1983 to 2004), and Librarian-Archivist at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (1980 to 1983). Mr. Kelly holds a Master of Arts in History from Iowa State University, and a Master of Arts in Library Science and a Certificate in Archival Administration, both from the University of Denver.

Mr. Kelly has authored several articles, book chapters, and served as co-author and photo editor for two textbooks. He has been the principal investigator for grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Records Publications Commission. He has participated in a wide variety of collaborative digitization projects, such as the Western Waters Digitization Project, and the Rocky Mountain Online Archives. Mr. Kelly is currently working on a major digitization project to celebrate the centennial of New Mexico statehood. His keynote address, "Building a Digital Community: The New Mexico Statehood Project," will describe this undertaking. Be prepared for an historical trip through New Mexico history and culture with some side detours explaining the challenges and excitement of working with many diverse partners.

Alix Reiskind
SEI ARLIS/NA Co-Chair
Visual Resources Librarian, Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Frances Loeb Library
Welcome Session
Bio: During her almost 13 years at the Loeb Library Alix has worked to increase student and faculty use of images, transitioning from analog to digital images.  Alix works closely with colleagues across Harvard repositories on Harvard University’s union catalog of visual materials, VIA (Visual Information Access).  Alix earned her Master’s in Library Science at Simmons College and her Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in English and Religion.

Elizabeth Schaub
SEI Incoming Co-chair & Faculty Liaison
Director, Visual Resources Collection, School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin
Strategic Planning, Future of the Profession
Bio: Since 1997, Elizabeth Schaub has been director of the School of Architecture’s Visual Resources Collection (VRC) at The University of Texas at Austin. The VRC serves the academic image needs of the school’s faculty members and students and its collection is available to the broader campus community through ARTstor. Ms. Schaub’s areas of responsibility include budget, personnel, collection development, training, project management, and strategic planning. Her areas of professional interest include cultivating staff morale and marketing resources using Web 2.0 technologies. In 2009 the VRC’s YouTube Channel received the Texas Library Association’s Library Public Relations Branding Iron Award in the Non-Traditional category. In 2010 the channel was added to the Association of College and Research Libraries Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) database. Ms. Schaub has served on the ARLIS/NA Board (2007-09) and was a member of the VRA White Paper Taskforce that authored “Advocating for Visual Resources in Academic and Cultural Institutions” (2009). Ms. Schaub holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Practice of Art from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archival Enterprise from The University of Texas at Austin.

Kelcy Shepherd
Digital Interfaces Librarian, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Databases
Bio: Kelcy Shepherd is the Digital Interfaces Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, where she works with a variety of metadata schemas including EAD, MODS, and METS. Kelcy teaches XML as an adjunct professor at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science and is a workshop instructor for the Society of American Archivists. She has a B.A. in Art & Design with a second major in Anthropology from Iowa State University and earned her M.S. in Library Science at Simmons College.

Madelyn Wessel
Associate General Counsel, University of Virginia
Intellectual Property Rights
Bio:Madelyn Wessel is Associate General Counsel at the University of Virginia, focusing on intellectual property, copyright, licensing, and special issues arising in the area of digital scholarship.  She has lectured on copyright, digital responsibilities, legal and policy frameworks for sustaining digital scholarship, fair use and censorship in recent years to groups as diverse as the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the Society for Scholarly Publishing, Art Libraries Society of North America, College and University Auditors, Digital Library Federation, Music Library Association, Educause, and the Visual Resources Association. Ms. Wessel teaches the seminar in Legal Issues in Higher Education at the University of Virginia’s Graduate School of Education.  She has been admitted to practice in Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Oregon.  Ms. Wessel holds a BA from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Boston University.