Wilda Logan

Wilda D. Logan is an American archivist who is most well-known as her work of almost 40 years in the archival profession including 33 years of federal service with the Records Management Training Program of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She is a member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC), National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA), and is a Certified Archivist with the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA), where she served as a Regent from 1991–1994.

Education As an undergraduate student at Hampton Institute (now University), Logan originally dreamt of becoming a librarian. Because of their activities in diversity and inclusion, Logan and the team were awarded the Archivist Achievement Award in both 2001 and 2002.

Logan has assisted in the development of several important policies and documents through NARA "including appraisal justification memos; records management training materials; conference programs, newsletters, and publications; records management briefing documents; records management and diversity policies and procedures; and evaluation reports."

In 2023, Logan was awarded the Distinguished Terrapin Award for graduate school alumni by the University of Maryland College of Information Studies.

Affiliations

Society of American Archivists Logan became a member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in 1978 and served on several committees including serving on the SAA Council from 1998–2001 and her appointment as a Fellow of the SAA in 2006.

Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable There were many issues at SAA regarding diversity, or lack thereof. Historically, there had not been much minority participation in SAA so "people were talking about us and making decisions for us as if we didn't exist." Logan, with others, helped create the Minorities Roundtable in 1987 (now the Archivists and Archives of Color), and some began to speak out against some of the SAA's actions and began publishing a newsletter. After objections from the SAA on financing a newsletter, Dr. Thomas Battle proposed that Howard University would cover the costs and the staff would publish and distribute the newsletter for free. The newsletters were available to anyone interested in the topics of archives, manuscripts and collections of people of color. Within a year, they returned to SAA with numbers proving their popularity among not just African Americans. The newsletter was later used as a model for future Roundtables, although it continued to be funded through Howard University and Dr. Thomas Battle. "It was important for us to break down those barriers and I like to think that we did that." Through the Minorities Round Table, Logan also helped to establish the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award.

In 2018, Wilda announced her retirement from the National Archives and Records Administration. The Council Resolution Honoring Wilda Logan on August 17, 2018 concludes thus:"Wilda is an agent of change who has had a strong and guiding influence on the profession and on archivists around the country through her efforts in recruiting, mentoring, and preparing countless archivists for involvement in the profession and in SAA, especially archivists of color and NARA employees; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the Society of American Archivists recognizes and thanks Wilda Logan for her knowledge, expertise, passion, straightforward honesty, and outstanding service to SAA, the SAA Foundation, and the archives profession."