Who we are

The ALES Committee is made up of volunteers drawn from the membership of ARA.

Our committee is as follows:

Chair – Kirsten Mulrennan

Kirsten Mulrennan is the Archivist for Engagement, Exhibition and Outreach in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick. She is responsible for faculty and student engagement with primary sources and is the UL lead for the Welcome-funded ‘New Jerusalems’ project on the Shannon Development Archive. She has worked as a professional archivist in a variety of services, including the National Archives of Ireland, the Military Archives and ESB Archives. She holds Ireland’s first PhD in Archivistics and has lectured on the MA in Archives and Records Management at University College Dublin. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Department of History at UL in 2021 and is also a member of CONUL’s Unique and Distinctive Collections Committee (UDC).

Training Officer – Tessa Spencer

I joined the ALES Committee as a joint Training Officer in September 2017. For my day job, I’m an archivist in the Outreach and Learning team at the National Records of Scotland [LINK to: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/] where I have worked in various roles since 2002.

We’d be delighted to hear from our members for suggestions for topics for future ALES events, as well as from other ARA Sections and Regions and related external groups for opportunities to collaborate.

Treasurer – Laura Yeoman

Access and Digital Engagement Archivist, Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York

I joined the ALES committee as Treasurer when the section was revived in 2017. My role is to support the committee by bidding annually for funds for our work and processing the day to day expenses we incur.

Whilst I’d had a break from roles within ARA, I was previously a Secretary of the Business Records Group (now the Section for Business Records). I am also a mentor and assessor for the ARA CPD programme.

Since May 2021 I have been Access and Digital Engagement Archivist for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. My work includes all forms of access and engagement, including teaching students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. My role also includes the management of the Borthwick’s medieval records, which I love!

Prior to joining the Borthwick I worked for Explore York Libraries and Archives (York’s city archive service) and at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group archives in Edinburgh (now NatWest Group archives).

Secretary – Harriet Patrick

Harriet originally joined the ALES committee as Secretary in 2019 in a maternity cover role, but has been ALES’ Secretary since 2021.

Harriet qualified with an MA in Archives and Records Management from UCL in 2011.  After qualifying, she worked in a museum archive for a year; and was later the Archivist (part-time) at The King’s School, Worcester for seven years.  Harriet has been the Assistant Archivist (part-time) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford since 2012.

Training Officer and Diversity Ally – Philip Milnes-Smith

Philip Milnes-Smith is a Registered Archivist, combining employment at Shakespeare’s Globe with freelance archive and oral history practice.  As well as volunteering on the ALES committee, he is one the Diversity and Inclusion Allies contributing to the Inclusive Cataloguing and Approaching Marginalised Communities workstreams.  He has an interest in disability history, collections and access, and is the current leader of the Accessibility working group. 

Communications and Social Media Officer – Jennifer Hunt

I am a registered archivist working the school archives sector, I also curate the museum and look after antiquarian books. I joined the ALES committee in 2019 while working in the charity archives sector as the Social Media Officer. I look after the Twitter Feed @ARALearning
and the ARA Learning Blog. In 2021 we started filming a series of vlogs taking a behind the scenes look at education and learning projects in UK Archives.

I would love to hear interested to hear from followers and members about their ideas for blog and vlog topics in the future.