Meet the 2018 Executive Board Candidates: Sara Schumacher, Vice President for Conference Program

The VRA annual election of officers will take place November 1-30, 2018.  Members will receive an email on November 1 with instructions for accessing the ballot.  Please vote and show your support to the candidates and participate in the governance of the Association.About the CandidateSara Schumacher is the Architecture Image Librarian at Texas Tech University, a position she has held since January 2018. Prior to this, Schumacher was the Technical Services Librarian and Art History Instructor at the University of the Cumberlands (2011-2017). She received her BA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin (2005), MA in Art History from the University of Oregon (2007) and her MS in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2011).She is currently pursuing opportunities to become more involved in the VRA, and to that end is a member of the VRA Development Committee (2018-). Schumacher is also a member of the Visual Literary Task Force to update the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. She has previously worked with other professional associations including the Kentucky Library Association (KLA), serving as the Chair of the Academic Libraries Association and 2-time Academic Library representative to ALA’s National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) for Kentucky (2015-2016). She was also the 2017 Chair of the KLA Library Awareness Committee, designated as the point person for the Kentucky delegation to 2017’s NLLD.Her research interests include ethics and visual media and applying visual literacy ideas to discipline specific conventions and professional applications. Her publications include the forthcoming “Placing Research on their Map: Curriculum Mapping as a Collaboration Tool for an Architecture Branch Library” co-authored with Bonnie Reed, Hillary B. Veeder and Brian C.R. Zugay for Art Documentation. Some of her recent conference presentations include “Media Literacy: Making an ImPACT” at the 2017 Kentucky Library Association Fall Conference, “Be ‘More Library’ with State and Federal Advocacy” at the 2017 Kentucky Library Association Spring Conference (Academic and Special Sections), “Beyond the Basic (Google) Image Search” at the 2017 Appalachian College Association Professional Development Day, and “Visual Literacy: Out in Front” at the 2015 Kentucky Library Association Fall Conference.GoalsMy goals as the Vice President for Conference Program would be to facilitate the aims of the VRA Strategic Plan, 2018-2022 through collaboration, creativity, and a careful balance of new ideas and traditions. I would like to address each tenant of the Strategic Priority 4.3 that mandates “conferences meet the professional development needs of current and potential members as defined by the mission statement,” and how I see myself undertaking each mission.4.2.1. Develop broader areas of professional practice in conference programming in order to reach a wider audience.VRA’s leadership is integral to maintaining high standards and professionalism in visual media research, education, and management. As disciplines intersect, new practitioners and entrepreneurs come into the field without necessary core knowledge and values. As an organization, we can reach out through branding initiatives and conference marketing that will connect us to different audiences. I firmly believe our members are our best advocates, so I would work on communications that would highlight the impact and reach of the work being done by VRA professionals.4.2.2. Engage diverse member perspectives to consider new ideas for conference models, programming, and scheduling in order to meet the professional development needs of members.I believe that diversity reflects the vibrancy, quality, and long-term success of any organization and our conferences should be a way of celebrating the “professional, socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, gender, age, sexual orientation, and geographic diversity” of our members and prospective members. I would start by seeking out perspectives from across our membership and work at supporting them to share their voice in the conference, through formal and informal programming. Sometimes “unconference” type events can empower people to get more involved and set up more diverse “conference” type events in future years.4.2.3. Coordinate with chapters or groups of chapters to build a regional conference program that complements the Association’s annual conferences.Professional funding and issues due to your career stage can often impede full participation in annual conferences, but regional conferences and chapter programming at annual conferences can provide ways of keeping engaged and facilitate collaborations. I would work with chapter leadership to identify goals and seek ways we can share resources (people, money, time, assessment data) that would enhance the quality of all conference programming.4.2.4. Publicize conference proceedings in order to promulgate the expertise of the Association to external audiences. In addition to communicating our identity to a wider audience, conference proceedings can be one way of celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of conference presenters. I would seek out the opinions and advice of other professional organizations that publish conference proceedings and with the help of the Executive Board and VRA Bulletin editors present our membership with publication options.VRA is a dynamic organization with a prominent history, and I am excited to tackle leadership roles where I can stimulate future successes for the VRA, its’ members, and myself.