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COMMITTEE  
REPORTS

Committee for Diversity, 
Equity, and Inclusion
By Donna Wells, Chair

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

 • Donna Wells, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chair

 • Ondrea Murphy, Delaware State University 

 • Evan Boyd, United Lutheran Seminary

 • Lee Staman, Center for Action & Contemplation

 • Drew Baker, Claremont School of Theology

 • Roger Morales, ATLA Staff Liaison

The Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) spent this past 
year in very productive activity. At the in-person meeting in Chicago 
in October 2017, with the help of Gillian Harrison-Cain, the committee 
prioritized and drafted a three-year plan of action. The first order of 
business was to make the scholarship offered annually by the commit-
tee more attractive (by raising the dollar amount) and contacting more 
library schools to make them aware of the scholarship. Spearheaded 
by Drew Baker, committee members all helped in contacting various 
schools and were rewarded with over two dozen applications. 

At the annual conference, DEI was involved with two presentations. 
In one, the Rev. Suzanne Wille of All Saints Church in Indianapolis 



2  ANNUAL YEARBOOK

presented a talk on the history of her church, which has had a repu-
tation for diversity, equality, and inclusion since its founding in 1864. 
In the other session, DEI partnered with the World Religions Inter-
est Group to sponsor an interfaith discussion. This revolved around 
a movement called Focolare, which in Indianapolis is a relationship 
between the Muslim and Irish-Catholic communities. Both sessions 
were well-attended and well-received, and we hope to find some 
equally compelling topics for the conference next year in Vancouver.

Also, in Indianapolis the committee sponsored a poster session to 
gauge the interest of ATLA members in a webinar series that would 
focus on practical library issues such as doing research and collection 
development. The webinar series was one of the potential goals in the 
three-year plan, and the committee did sponsor a webinar on mentor-
ship presented by Donna Wells in March 2018.

Work continues by the committee under the new leadership of Evan 
Boyd with some exciting projects on the horizon. One will be the prac-
tical webinar series, and there is groundwork being done on an oral 
history project for ATLA. The committee continues to brainstorm ideas 
for engaging a more diverse membership—racially, ethnically, and reli-
giously. 

We are still a fairly new committee that has experienced many 
changes over the past few years, but all the committee members are 
excited and committed to fulfilling our goals in the three-year plan. 
Stay tuned!

[Front row, left to right] Ondrea Murphy, Donna Wells, [Back row, left to right] Evan 
Boyd, Drew Baker, Lee Staman, Roger Morales


	Preface
	Committee reports
	Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
	Conference
	Endowment
	Professional Development

	Task Forcereports
	International Theological Librarian Education
	Scholarly Communication

	Interest Group Reports
	Public Services
	Small Libraries 
	Special Collections 
	Technical Services 
	World Religions 

	denominational Group reports
	Anabaptist Mennonite
	Anglican/Episcopal
	Baptist
	Campbell-Stone
	Lutheran 
	Methodist
	Orthodox
	Presbyterian and Reformed Librarians
	Roman Catholic

	memorials
	Officers of ATLA (1947–2018)
	ATLA Organizational Directory (2017–2018)
	ATLA Member Directory (2017–2018)
	historical Annual conferences
	AMENDED AND RESTATED BYLAWS OF AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
	2017 ATS Library Statistics

