The Institute’s Advisory Board and partners are well-versed in the diversity needs of their profession and their communities. The Advisory Board consists of practicing archivists, librarians, educators and diversity advocates and includes individuals from around the country.

The Advisory Board includes: 

1. Brenda Banks – President and CEO of Banks Archives Consultants, former deputy director
   of the Georgia State Archives
2. Kathleen Bethel – African American Studies Librarian at Northwestern University Library
3. Ann Bishop – Director of the Community Informatics Initiative at the University of Illinois
   Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
4. Daniel Pitti – Associate Director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia
5. Carmelita Pickett – Head of Collection Development and Acquisition Services at Texas A&M University Libraries
6. Howard Rosenbaum – Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University
7. Amy Cooper Cary – Director of the Archival Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
8. John Unsworth – Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
9. Corinne Jorgeson – Director of the School of Library and Information Science at Florida State University
10. Susan Roman – Dean and Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University
11. Debbie Pendleton – Assistant Director for Public Services at the Alabama Department of Archives and History
12. Georgette Mayo – Coordinator of Archival Services and Donor Relations at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
13. Jessie Carney Smith -- University Librarian at the Franklin Library at Fisk University
14. Edward Papenfuse – State Archivist at the Maryland State Archives
15. Leah Kerr – Director of Archives at the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum

The host partnering repositories are located throughout the country from New Jersey to California. Their collections represent all aspects of African American history from slavery to the present and cover the spectrum between such items as handwritten bills of sale for slaves to the video oral history interview of the first African American President. They include government archives, academic libraries, and non-profit institutions. The partner repositories, their representatives and a brief overview of their collections are outlined below: