Michelle Ganz

Michelle Ganz is the Archives Director for the Dominican Sisters of Peace. She has previously worked in academic, museum, corporate, and private archives. Michelle is deaf, mixed race, queer, and weird which gives her a unique view of archival theory and practice. She has been a mentor for over 15 years, serving on the mentoring committee twice, as well as participating in the cohort mentoring program. She also does one-off mentoring for anyone who asks and offers advice and support to archivists on listservs and in social media groups. Michelle has served in section leadership roles in the Accessibility & Disability Section, the Independent Archivists Section, and the Lone Arrangers Section; she has also served on several section steering committees and appointed task forces. She was part of the working group who first developed the Best Practices for Working with Archives Researchers with Physical Disabilities in 2008. She has served as the SAA representative for ALA Committee on Cataloging and has served on two ARMA International working groups. She has spoken about DEI for most of her career and works to support others who speak on the topic. Michelle regularly speaks to MLIS students in classes, in symposia, and through keynote presentations. Michelle was the recipient of the 2020 Spotlight Award and Subject of a 2020 Council Resolution honoring the Accessibility and Disability Section steering committee. Michelle has spoken on numerous SAA panels, taught workshops and webinars for the SAA, MAC and the SGA and has been published numerous times. She is the current VP of the Society of Ohio Archivists. Michelle received her MLIS from the University of Arizona in 2006, her Archival Certification in 2008, and her Bachelors in Medieval literature from The Ohio State University in 2003.