Alison Stankrauff, MLIS '02
Alison Stankrauff is, first and foremost, a people person. As the new university archivist, she is responsible for maintaining 150 years of institutional memory for Wayne State University. However, she understands that behind every document, video, photo and file, there is a person on campus who was there in the moment. And one of her primary goals is to know each of those people.
The effectiveness of Stankrauff's philosophy of outreach has been proven over time. Prior to coming to Wayne State, she spent 13 years at Indiana University, South Bend, where she held the position of campus archivist and associate librarian. When she began at IU South Bend in 2004, there had not been a professional archivist on campus in more than 10 years, and she quickly went to work building relationships with departments and creating processes and procedures to preserve university history.
"As an archivist - particularly as a university archivist - it's really all about relationships. During my time at IU South Bend, I made sure to get out there on campus and into the wider community," Stankrauff explains. "In 13 years, I was able to establish strong relationships to grow the archives there. And I very much want to do the same here at Wayne State."
Prior to her work at IU South Bend, Stankrauff was an archivist at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. Her move to Detroit was a homecoming of sorts - she graduated from WSU's Master of Library and Information Science program with a focus in archival administration in 2002. Changes in Detroit and on campus have come as a pleasant surprise.
"I love the city of Detroit. When I was in the SIS program, I lived in the city - just a few blocks from campus. Now I live in the New Center area and love it. The university has grown so much since my time 15 years ago. Campus is so lively at all hours."
Stankrauff brings more than just immense professional experience and a talent for relationship building - she also brings experience as a mentor to other archivists.
"I've been both a mentee and a mentor," she says. "I've found that helping others in the profession, whether peers who are practicing archivists or budding archivists in archives programs, has been really rewarding. I've served as the chair of the Society of American Archivists Mentoring Program, and the people that I've mentored I can now count as colleagues and friends. My very first mentor was the Reuther's very own Mary Wallace - and now she's a colleague."
As Stankrauff settles in to her new role, she has one important project in mind: celebrating Wayne State's 150th anniversary in 2018.
"Celebrating 150 years is a big deal, and the campus historian has an integral role in that. I've been doing research on various aspects of the university through time, including its vibrant diversity through the decades and the many different groups that Wayne State has given an opportunity to. I'm working on the 150th exhibit here with colleagues that will kick off the sesquicentennial celebration in January at the Reuther Library. I'm also on the university-wide Sesquicentennial Committee."
When the anniversary passes, Stankrauff will ensure that the mechanisms are in place to capture the next 150 years of university history. She will continue to build important relationships and work with each school and department to ensure their milestones are preserved and recorded. Stankrauff is ready to meet the challenge, and you can be certain she will continue to reach out to the campus community to build key relationships.