Columbia Association (CA) has hired Lela Sewell-Williams as the new manager of Columbia Archives. She joins the organization after working for two decades as an archivist, first at South Carolina State University; then as a manuscripts librarian at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library; and was the initiator and project archivist for The Schomburg Center’s Hip-Hop Archive Project.
While serving as the assistant curator of manuscripts at Moorland Spingarn Research Center, Sewell-Williams developed an initiative with Howard University to collect the records of regional black dance companies. She also founded Preserve Your Story (an archival consulting firm) and is the archivist for the International Association of Blacks in Dance. Sewell-Williams holds a master’s degree in archives, museums and historical editing from Duquesne University.