Speakers

Anne Ashton is a Processing Archivist at BYU Library. She processes (and reprocesses) collections in the University Archives. 

Maddie Blonquist works primarily with religious art objects within the MOA's collection. In 2018, she graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in Music and Interdisciplinary Humanities and went on to receive an M.A.R. in Visual Arts and Material Culture from Yale Divinity School. At Yale University, she completed program requirements through the Institute of Sacred Music and earned a certificate in Public Humanities with an emphasis on Museums and Collections. Maddie has worked at numerous art institutions, most recently the Yale University Art Gallery, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. She is passionate about collaboration, arts accessibility, and museum studies—all interests that have led her to a career in art curation, education, and publication.

Cindy Brightenburg is a Reference Specialist at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, where she helps connect researchers with rare and unique materials. She holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and has a broad knowledge of books as a history generalist. Cindy has a deep appreciation for all things old—from ancient tablets to Victorian publications —and enjoys sharing that enthusiasm with others.

Devynn MacLennan Dayton is a marketing professional with a passion for brand storytelling and social media strategy. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a double major in Advertising and French, and has helped startups across industries, from healthcare to consumer goods, craft messaging that connects and resonates. Devynn lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and their toddler.

J. Gordon Daines III is the Research and Instruction Services archivist and Yellowstone National Park collection curator in the BYU Special Collections. He previously served as university archivist and has a deep interest in how Brigham Young University has successfully balanced the sacred and the secular.

Michael Gates is the Audiovisual lab manager at the BYU Library in Provo, Utah.  He is responsible for the digitization of legacy audio and video media in the library.  While at BYU he spent 2 years as a Digital Preservation Specialist for the Library validating, ingesting and monitoring all digital objects submitted to the permanent digital repository.  Prior to BYU, Michael spent 2 years in micrographics digitization, 8 years in audio visual digitization, AV born digital validation and normalization for the Church History Library.  He holds a master's degree in Sound Recording technology from the University of Massachusetts. 

Nicole Jacobsen is a writer and teacher from California. She is interested in the intersection between writers and the places that inspired their works. Nicole graduated from BYU with a degree in French Studies and English and later from Stanford University with a Master's in Education. In her spare time, she likes to bake, chat, travel, and spend time with the people she loves most. 

Christopher McAfee spends every waking hour wrangling the ideas racing through his head, and occasionally his ideas will emerge in the form of book arts. Though he doesn’t make his living as an artist, per se, his career as a book conservator at BYU incorporates many of the skills he learned from art. He received a BFA in printmaking from BYU and an MFA in book arts from the University of Alabama. Through these programs and the years of practice that followed, he learned (and continues to learn) not only the technical skills, but also the problem-solving skills that apply to both his conservation work and his artwork. 

Lexi K. Nilson is an illustrator, picture book maker, surface designer, letterer, educator, and a creative hype girl who is always looking for ways to spark creative joy! Lexi graduated from Brigham Young University with an Illustration BFA and French minor before getting her MFA in Illustration Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art. She currently lives in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and rambunctious dog while working on her first picture book for Union Square Kids as both author and illustrator (to be published Winter 2027). Find more from Lexi K. at lexiknilson.com.

Cory Nimer is the University Archivist at Brigham Young University. Located in the BYU Special Collections, he works to appraise, transfer, coordinate the processing and digitization, and provide access to university records. His research has focused on the transition from the Brigham Young Academy to Brigham Young University.

Greg Seppi is the curator of the 19th and 20th Century Americana Collection in L. Tom Perry Special Collections. He holds a BA in History from BYU, an MA in the History of Medicine from Oxford Brookes University, and an MLIS from San Jose State University. His interests include the history of printing in the American West, Church history, and the history of bias in the American West. He has written several articles and presented at a number of conferences on these topics, including the annual meeting of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association), the Mormon History Association, and of course the A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference.

Lili Hall Sharp is a book conservator at BYU by day; a book artist and design binder in spurts; and a mother of four spirited little boys around the clock. She earned a BFA from BYU in printmaking, weaving as much of the book arts into her major as she could, hoping that books would fit into her life’s work. She went on to receive a master’s degree in book and paper conservation from West Dean College in the UK. She thinks of herself as a lifelong student, taking classes at the American Academy of Bookbinding and elsewhere to continue to develop her craft. She is also a bookbinding instructor for the BYU Department of Art.

Michael Sharp completed an MFA at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah in 2017. Before coming to BYU, he completed a residency through the Book Arts Program at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. This followed an artist assistantship with Gibby Waitzkin at Sarvisberry Studios and Gallery in Floyd Virginia, where he learned paper making skills. A key part of his development as an artist stems from his time in the Corcoran College of Art + Design Art and The Book Masters Program. Here he learned letterpress printing and book binding skills. In between studies and residencies, Sharp has worked in museum archives developing an understanding of histories within a place or event. He grew up in the West and has been exploring how that has shaped and defined his individual and collective identities.

Christina Thomas became a bookbinder and conservator a little by accident and a little on purpose. Her chance undergraduate job as a Book Repair Technician in the BYU Library laid the foundation for her to go on to complete the Bookbinding diploma at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Christina accepted her current position as a library conservator much more intentionally than her student job, despite claiming in a 2001 journal entry about her book repair job, “At least I won’t be doing this the rest of my life!”. She is still here, twenty-five years later, learning, teaching, problem-solving and discovering for the rest of her life.

Jen Watson currently works as a mixed media artist. Her recent works have been exhibited at venues such as The Urban Arts Space in Columbus, Ohio, The Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, Illinois, The Rio Grande Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. Jen is an Associate Professor in the BYU Department of Art, where she oversees aspects of core courses and exhibitions and helps direct the department’s printmaking studios in addition to teaching printmaking, drawing and 2-D studio courses. She received her MFA from the Ohio State University in 2014.

Jamie E. Wiser is a Processing Archivist for the BYU Library Special Collections. She is focused on processing manuscript, audiovisual, and digital materials, and was a member of this committee. She received her master’s degree in library information science from San Jose State University and is a Certified Archivist.