LA as Subject Executive Committee

Jessica Gambling, Executive Committee Chair, 2021-2023 (email)

Jessica Gambling is a native to Southern California, born and brought up in Orange County, working in Los Angeles, and living in the Inland Empire, she has been the institutional archivist of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 2010, accessioning and processing its first collections.

She has previously held positions in the photography collections of The Huntington Library and the Los Angeles Public Library and holds a BA in history from Chapman University and an MLIS from UCLA.

Having previously served on the Executive Committee from 2018 to 2020 as Publicity & Outreach Lead she is honored to serve the L.A. as Subject community as the Executive Committee Chair.


Lizeth Ramirez, Executive Committee Member, Publicity & Outreach Lead, 2022-2024 (email)

Lizeth Ramirez is currently a Librarian/Archivist for Los Angeles Communities and Cultures at UCLA Library Special Collections. Her current work and collecting priorities focus on local marginalized communities, working to center them and their stories in the archival record. She received her MLIS with a focus on archival studies from San Jose State University. Prior to joining UCLA, she was an Archivist and Reference Librarian at the Orange Public Library & History Center in Orange, California, where she managed the local history archive for over eleven years. Born and raised in Southern California, she has worked in a variety of library settings as both a library assistant and librarian for over 18 years.


Stella Castillo, Executive Committee Member, Programming & Education Lead, 2023-2025 (email)

Stella Castillo is currently the Archivist in the USC Digital Library where she creates metadata for digitized materials.

In her previous role as the LA as Subject Community Archives Specialist, Stella collaborated with LA as Subject members to increase online discoverability and public engagement with Los Angeles archival collections using the updated LA as Subject Directory Portal. She also led the successful Virtual Talk-Shop series held online between March and September 2020 which bolstered LA as Subject’s community during the COVID-19 lockdown. 

Previously, Stella worked at Cal State Dominguez Hills on the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project digitizing Japanese American Incarceration materials and served as an LA as Subject Resident Archivist working on wide-ranging archival collections across the greater Los Angeles region. Stella holds a BA in the Study of Religion and an MLIS in Archival Management both from UCLA. 


Lisa Crane, Executive Committee Member, Secretary, 2022-2024 (email)

Lisa Crane is the Western Americana Manuscripts Librarian and Head of Special Collections & Archives in The Claremont Colleges Library where she oversees archival processing, teaches primary source literacy, performs collection development for Special Collections Western Americana materials, curates Special Collections exhibitions, and serves as the interim head of the Claremont Center for Engagement with Primary Sources (CCEPS).  

Prior to her current position, Lisa served as Digital Projects Coordinator for one year and then Digital Production Librarian for two years where she managed digitization, metadata creation, and the upload of digital objects into the Claremont Colleges Digital Library.

Lisa holds a B.S. in Criminology, with a minor in History, from the University of La Verne and a MLIS, with an archival emphasis, from San Jose State University.


Lulu Uriadales, Executive Committee Member, Exhibits Lead, 2023-2025 (email)

Lulu Urdiales is the Archive and Exhibitions Coordinator at Self Help Graphics & Art. Lulu has worked closely with guest curators and SHG’s Director of Art Programs and Education in developing and implementing exhibitions, including coordinating the adjacent public programs that uplift the exhibition’s theme. In her current role as the archives steward and with an MLIS from San Jose State University and B.A. in History of Art and Visual Culture from UC, Santa Cruz.


 

Azalea Camacho, Executive Committee Member, Archives Bazaar Lead, 2022-2024 (email)

Azalea oversees the operations of the Cal State LA Special Collections and Archives department, which includes archival processing, instruction, reference, public services, outreach, collection development, and maintenance. She has strengthened community partnerships and fostered student curiosity in the field by providing engaging opportunities for the campus community. She is currently a fellow of the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage, which aims to advance multicultural collections through innovative and inclusive curatorial practice and leadership. Her passion lies in mentorship, community archives, and public services. Azalea holds an MLIS with a concentration in Archival Studies from San Jose State University, and a BS in Communications from Cal Poly Pomona. 


Victoria Bernal, Executive Committee Member, Membership & Nominating Lead, 2023-2025 (email)

Victoria Bernal (she/her) is a biracial public historian, researcher and writer from Los Angeles who specializes in Southern California history. Victoria founded the @LAhistory twitter project, now with over 43,000 followers, in 2009 to raise social media awareness about the Los Angeles history. She presented her work at the 2016 Society for American City and Regional Planning History conference and also at Digital LA, a symposium hosted by the Huntington-USC Institute for California and the West (ICW). She has managed, researched and created online content for the ICW, Angel City Press, the Autry and the Los Angeles County Arboretum Library. In April 2022, Los Angeles Walks awarded Victoria the Ray Bradbury Community Walking Champion Award for all her volunteer work with the pedestrian organization, which included co-organizing a series of walks around the 1850 border of Los Angeles (approximately 26 miles). Her history articles and essays have been published on Curbed, LAist, KCRW and the Autry’s site and KCET’s Lost LA. For five years, she co-coordinated an L.A. History Happy Hour that brought together those working from difference disciplines (archivists, academics, librarians, preservationists and media makers) to build a community of those interested in the city's history. She graduated with a dual-masters in Global Media & Communications from USC's Annenberg and the London School of Economics.