Kenya S. Flash Librarian Residency celebrates a first year filled with firsts

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About Staff, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility

Nick Wantsala, Risë Nelson, and Daphne Wantsala
Librarian Kenya S. Flash
Kenya Siana Flash, 1980–2022

January 9, 2025

In 2023, Yale Library created a three-year-long residency to honor the memory of Kenya S. Flash. From 2017 until her death in 2020, Flash was the librarian for Political Science, Global Information, and Government Information at Marx Science and Social Science Library.

“Kenya Flash was a brilliant scholar-librarian and a fierce student advocate,” said Risë Nelson, the library’s director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility (DEIA).

Under Nelson’s leadership—and in consultation with Flash’s family, colleagues, and friends—the Kenya S. Flash Librarian Residency Program set ambitious goals, both to advance library-wide DEIA efforts in Flash’s honor and to support the success of the selected Flash Resident.

Now entering its second year, the program and its inaugural resident, Nicholas “Nick” Wantsala, have made great strides toward realizing those goals, extending Flash’s legacy of scholarship, mentorship, and advocacy.

“This first residency has established a strong foundation for the program’s future,” said Barbara Rockenbach, Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian. “It also highlights how this opportunity supports a new librarian’s growth and development.”

Nelson met Flash while serving as a mentor in the History Keepers Program, a program Nelson developed in 2016 with Yale Library and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to prepare underrepresented undergraduates for archival and academic research careers.

“Kenya was incredibly dedicated to ensuring that librarians of color found support and community,” Nelson said. “She was also deeply committed to offering exceptional service to students to support their learning while also caring for them as individuals.”

During her time at Yale Library, Flash was integral to the work of the Advisory Committee on Library Staff Diversity and Inclusion. She also played a significant part in the creation of the inaugural role of director of DEIA at the library, the position Nelson assumed in 2022.

Step one: An advisory committee

When planning the residency, one of Nelson’s first actions was to convene an advisory committee to support the mission and the resident. “I have found that an advisory committee can be incredibly helpful in supporting and shaping the experience of an early career staff member, particularly in an inaugural role,” she said.

Nelson identified several ways in which the advisory committee would support the resident: by offering mentoring and experiential opportunities, providing a supportive network and career guidance, proposing opportunities aligned with the resident’s learning goals, and assisting the resident in postresidency job searches. On an ongoing basis, the committee also provides suggestions as to how to improve the resident’s experience and strengthen the committee’s role.

The first-year committee members were Mary Caldera, associate director of archival description; Jeremy Garritano, former director of research support and outreach programs at Marx Library, who had been Flash’s supervisor; Mike Rush, assistant head of the manuscript unit in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; Adiba Nabiz, library service assistant at Marx Library; and Michelle Peralta, archivist at Beinecke Library. All the original members, but for Garritano, who is no longer on staff at Yale, will continue to serve on the committee in the next year.

“Residencies serve a vital function by providing early career professionals with opportunities and experiences that help them launch their careers,” Caldera said. “They also benefit host institutions by bringing in talented individuals who provide energy and fresh perspectives. Effective residencies combine tailored experiences, skill building, and mentorship for the resident and needed staffing for the institution. Risë’s vision for the inaugural Kenya S. Flash Residency is anchored in these known best practices.”

“Risë’s hard work and dedication to shaping the Kenya Flash Residency has been a tremendous success,” Nabiz added. “For the first time in more than twenty years, someone has had the opportunity to gain skills and experience at Yale Library before formally entering librarianship.”

Committee colleague Mike Rush agreed that Nelson’s vision amplifies the benefit of the residency program for both the resident and the library. “Collaborating with departments across Yale Library gives the resident a unique perspective on a library as complex as ours, offering the chance to glean insights into large research libraries that are unusual to find among early-career librarians.”

The inaugural Kenya S. Flash Resident

One of Nelson’s primary goals was for the Flash Resident to integrate into communities within and beyond Yale, as a valued stakeholder and changemaker. Wantsala is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, but he has spent the last year fully immersed in the Yale, Yale Library, and New Haven communities.

A second goal was to forge connections with a network of Yale Library professionals and with local, regional, national, and global colleagues. At the same time, she wanted to ensure that the resident have an “empowering work experience” and opportunities for professional development in librarianship and library administration.

In his first year as the Kenya S. Flash Resident, Wantsala has experienced all of the above.

“Nick has truly embraced this residency,” University Librarian Rockenbach said, “bringing energy and fresh perspectives that not only enrich Yale Library’s work today but also prepare him for a bright future in librarianship. His contributions exemplify the mutual benefits of this program, advancing both his professional journey and the library’s mission.”

Working within the Yale community

“I was especially pleased,” Nelson said, “to secure Nick a residential fellowship at Davenport College where he lives, serves as student advisor to undergraduates, and participates in monthly fellows’ gatherings with faculty and staff.” Wantsala will speak about his experience as the library’s inaugural Kenya S. Flash Resident at an upcoming College Tea at Davenport.

Wantsala is also active with the Yale African American Affinity Group, one of Yale’s nine staff affinity networks that support recruitment, retention, education, advocacy, and community building. He also serves on the Advisory Committee on Library Staff Diversity and Inclusion and is a member of the Librarian Promotion Review Committee Working Group, which is one of the Yale Library Staff Climate Survey Working Groups.

He has worked with Nelson on several new library and university initiatives, helping host and coordinate staff affinity receptions with Yale’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) and other events to engage staff and build community. On one occasion, Wantsala and team led a group outing to a curated tour of an exhibition of the work of Mickalene Thomas, MFA ’02, a contemporary Black visual artist, at the Yale University Art Gallery. Team members also helped arrange a Black Genealogy Workshop with ODI.

Wantsala also assists Nelson in creating and distributing the monthly “DEIA Digest,” a library-wide e-newsletter containing recent news and upcoming. He reports to Nelson on the growing audience reach of the newsletter and on the community’s expressed needs and interests in topics to cover.

Working in New Haven and beyond

“When Nick expressed his interest in community-focused librarianship,” said advisory-committee member Peralta, “Risë successfully collaborated with the New Haven Free Public Library to provide the opportunity for Nick to explore his interest through public programming and local history.”

Wantsala has worked with Nelson to build partnerships with the New Haven Free Public Library (NHFPL) and other literature- and youth-focused entities. A key success last year was the library’s first annual Martin Luther King Jr. citywide read, an initiative created by Nelson and library staff to complement the university’s annual celebration of Dr. King, which Nelson also coordinates. More than 100 schoolchildren attended readings of “Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts,” a recent children’s book by civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, who was also the keynote speaker at the King celebration in 2024. The citywide read featured several guest readers, including former New Haven mayor Toni Harp. Wantsala was also one of the readers. In January 2025, he will be leading the planning for the library’s second citywide read for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

This past October, Wantsala partnered with NHFPL–Stetson Branch on Dixwell Avenue to launch “Books and Boos,” an event that provided the opportunity for children and families to enjoy Halloween-themed arts and crafts, snacks, movies, and free book giveaways. This year, Wantsala will assist with the Black History Month children’s workshop—a collaboration with the NHFPL, led by Kenya Loudd, the library’s DEIA Graduate Fellow for Accessibility Initiatives.

“Serving the youth has become a priority for me as I approach my second year in this residency,” Wantsala said, “especially after hearing feedback from community members about the lack of consistent events and programming for children and young teens that promote reading.”

Wantsala also volunteered as a marshal in the summertime Freddie Fixer Parade, an annual event that celebrates the history and culture of the Dixwell Avenue community. As a result of his experiences and his partnership with Stetson Library, Nick will be developing his own oral history project focused on Dixwell residents.

In his first year, to further his professional development, Wantsala attended the Association of Research Libraries Conference, the American Library Association Annual Conference, and the National Conference of African American Librarians. He was also selected to attend the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians.

“These conferences had a significant impact on my first year,” Wantsala said. “They put me in spaces with people doing amazing and innovative programming around community building and facilitated in-depth conversations about current and future issues facing the profession. The conferences broadened my perspective on the global nature of librarianship, while also highlighting the shared challenges that many communities face.”

The next two years

The programs and partnerships created in the first year of the residency will continue to develop during the next two years, Nelson said, and new initiatives will take shape.

In the spring semester, Nelson, Wantsala, and Princess McCann—the library’s recent postgraduate DEIA intern, a 2023 graduate of Southern Connecticut State University’s Master of Library and information Science program—will launch the DEIA Resource Library, which they have been curating together. The collection, supported by the generous donation of Alan Yuspeh ’71, includes books about accessibility, underrepresented librarian experiences, assessment and strategic planning, communication, building trust, and other subjects. These resources are intended to provide library staff with tools to help co-create a more inclusive work environment. “The DEIA team will later launch an electronic-resource hub with webinars, recordings, podcasts, and articles that staff can use as they learn to operationalize DEIA values throughout their work,” Nelson said.

Wantsala and Nelson will coordinate monthly DEIA workshops at the library to explore culture change, accessible event planning, and other relevant topics. They will also continue to strengthen partnerships with community-based literary organizations to develop and support efforts that foster learning opportunities for youth and the broader community.

Nelson has made a successful bid for Yale Library to host a site visit for fellows in the Leadership and Career Development Program for the Association of Research Libraries. She and Wantsala will form a committee to make plans for hosting the visiting fellows when they arrive in June.

“To see Nick hit his stride in his role, genuinely connect with colleagues and community partners to advance our DEIA goals, hear how his perspectives on librarianship have evolved, and see the impact of his work on folks on campus, in our community, and in the library world has been particularly fulfilling,” Nelson said.

“I found the Kenya S. Flash Lecture Series in Librarianship, coordinated by Josh Cochran—curator of American History and Diplomacy at Beinecke Library—and his colleagues to be enlightening, inspiring, and touching,” she added. “I hope in the future that Nick might be considered as a presenter for the series.”

After this inaugural residency ends in 2026, another supervisor will take on leadership of the program. It will have a different focus and different goals, but all will be designed to honor Flash’s expertise, her academic and professional achievements, and her personal passions.

“I truly hope that Kenya would be proud of our collective efforts to foster a more inclusive environment and ensure that Yale Library, and the broader field, uphold the values to which we aspire,” Nelson said.