15th Annual Conference
#DCConference21
via Zoom Webinar
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Guest Speaker
Digital Public Library of America:
Equity, Inclusion in 2021
John Bracken, Executive Director
Digital Public Library of America
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Executive Director John Bracken will provide an update on how DPLA is working to live up to a key component of its mission in this unique historical moment: contributing to a more equitable society through empowering institutions and communities that have been historically marginalized, underserved, and underrepresented. Bracken will share some of the insights and challenges that have emerged as they work toward making DPLA's aggregated collections more inclusive and more reflective of the nation they serve, as well as their work toward designing a digital equity fund that will help build more diverse partnerships and surface artifacts that tell stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian communities.
John Bracken is executive director of DPLA. Previously John worked for nearly two decades as a philanthropic investor in digital media, media policy, and innovation. He most recently served as vice president for technology innovation at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where he oversaw the Knight News Challenge, Knight’s Prototype Fund and other efforts to improve the creation, curation, and accessibility of information. He previously managed technology and civic innovation programs at the MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. He has a master’s degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Pitzer College. He serves on the board of the Illinois Humanities Council.