Kenvi Phillips is an American librarian serving as the inaugural director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library since June 16, 2024.

Education and career

Phillips earned a B.A. in history at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

, the M.A. in Public History and the PhD in American History from

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

. She was Historian at the

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is a bi-county agency that administers parks and planning in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland. History The commission was formed in 1927 by the Maryland G ...

from 2009 to 2013. She worked as Assistant Librarian at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University from 2013 to 2016. She was the Johanna-Marie Frankel Curator for Race and Ethnicity at the

Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, it is "the ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 2016 to 2021. Phillips was Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

Libraries from 2021 to 2024. She is Associate Editor of the Library History Round Table journal, ''Libraries: Culture, History, & Society.''

Presentations

In 2015 she presented at the Digital Initiatives Symposium on "Digitizing the Black Experience: The Building of 'Digital Howard' and the 'Portal to the Black Experience.'" As part of the

National Women's History Museum The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) is a museum and an American history organization that "researches, collects and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic and political life of our nation in a context of worl ...

Centenary Celebration Series, "Determined to Rise": Women's Historical Activism for Equal Rights" in August 2020 Phillips presented on "Chicago's African American Women in the Fight for the Vote."Chicago's African American Women in the Fight for the Vote."
National Women's History Museum, August 26, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Kenvi Living people Howard University alumni University of Tulsa alumni Harvard Library Brown University libraries Howard University faculty Curators American librarians African-American academics African-American librarians Year of birth missing (living people)