Cal Lee named IAH Academic Leadership Program Fellow
Christopher “Cal” Lee, Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has been selected for the Institute for the Arts and Humanities Academic Leadership Program (ALP) for 2019-20.
Eight Carolina faculty members are chosen for the program each year based on their potential to contribute as academic leaders. Fellows engage in a series of activities to help them develop leadership skills, clarify their career commitments, build a leadership network within the campus, and extend their contacts to other leaders beyond the University. Because the ALP requires a significant time commitment, a flexible use stipend of $5,000 is provided for each participant.
The ALP fellowship year includes a week of leadership training with the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., one of the nation’s most respected leadership development organizations. Fellows participate in CCL programs with senior executives from the government, business, and the not-for-profit sector. Fellows also take part in weekly seminars in which faculty discuss critical issues facing the University and formulate possible responses, have opportunities to meet with seniors leaders inside and outside the university, and go on retreats focused on career development, leadership skill assessment, and the creation of a personal vision.
“I’m very excited and grateful for being selected as an ALP Fellow,” Lee said. “As I’ve progressed through my career, I’ve taken on a variety of administrative and management roles. I’ve stepped into these positions to the best of my ability and have learned a great deal along the way. I’m grateful for the valuable guidance and mentoring that I’ve received from faculty and staff at UNC, but I know that I still have a lot to learn.”
Lee is a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and editor of American Archivist, the premier professional journal in the archives field. As a researcher, he led a series of projects, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, that created and developed free and open-source software–the BitCurator environment and associated tools–that archivists around the world use to apply digital forensics methods in the curation of their collections.
He is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Review, Appraisal, and Triage of Mail (RATOM) project, a partnership with the State Archives of North Carolina also supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lee is also PI for BitCurator.edu, which is studying and expanding the adoption of digital forensics tools through professional education with the support of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). He is serving as Co-PI for OSSArcFlow, also funded by the IMLS, which is investigating, synchronizing, and modeling a range of workflows to increase the capacity of libraries and archives to curate born digital content.
At SILS, Lee has recruited, advised, and guided emerging professionals and scholars, and overseen more than 50 master’s papers. A prolific writer, he has contributed widely to the professional literature, authoring or co-authoring dozens of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, conference papers, and research reports. He has presented at conferences and professional events in 32 U.S. states and 25 countries.