Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services
MayorZohran Mamdani
Personal details
EducationCity University of New York (BS)
Queens College, CUNY (MFA)
Queens College, CUNY (MLS)

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an American librarian and archivist. She became the dean of Barnard College Library in March 2025.[1] In April 2026, Smith-Cruz was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services.[2]

Early life and education

Smith-Cruz is from Brooklyn, New York.[3] She has Jamaican heritage as well as Garifuna heritage through her maternal grandmother, Meruca "Mary" Lambey.[2][4] At age seventeen, she was the cofounder of Sister Outsider, an organization for and by self-supporting young women in Brooklyn.[2]

She attended the City University of New York (CUNY) Baccalaureate Program, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in queer women's studies.[5] Later she attended Queens College, City University of New York, earning Master of Fine Arts and Master of Library Science degrees.

Career

Smith-Cruz worked for five years as an associate dean at New York University Libraries and for nine years at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she served as Head of Reference.[4] She has also worked as a librarian at Brooklyn Public Library and as an archive coordinator at StoryCorps.[5] She serves on the board of Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO).[6] In March 2025, she became dean of the library at Barnard College.[4]

Smith-Cruz was appointed as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in April 2026.[2] The Advocate noted that "[h]er appointment places an out LGBTQ+ Black woman in charge of safeguarding the official record of the nation's largest city."[3] Smith-Cruz has been a professor at the Pratt Institute School of Information since 2018.[7]

Smith-Cruz was a coordinator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives for twenty years.[8] In 2020 she was awarded the Award for Significant Achievement in Women & Gender Studies Librarianship from the American Library Association's Women & Gender Studies Section to honor her work with the Lesbian Herstory Archives to collect and preserve materials from the Black lesbian organization Salsa Soul Sisters.[9]

Publications

  • Smith-Cruz, Shawn(ta); Howard, Sara A., eds. (2024). Grabbing Tea. Sacramento: Library Juice Press. ISBN 978-1-63400-134-2.
  • Bakaitis, Elvis; Smith-Cruz, Shawn(ta); Washburn, Red, eds. (Fall 2020). "Forty-Five Years: A Tribute to the Lesbian Herstory Archives". Sinister Wisdom (118). ISBN 9781944981464.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  • Ricket, Allison; Washburn, Amy; Martin, Angela; Warriner, Brynn; Smith-Cruz, Shawn(ta), eds. (Winter 2017). "Celebrating the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival". Sinister Wisdom (103). ISBN 9781944981662.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)

References

  1. ↑ Ahmed, Unaisah (February 11, 2025). "Barnard Announces New Dean of Barnard Library, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz". Bwog.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Mayor Mamdani Appoints Leaders Across City Government, Including the Department of Design and Construction and Department of Records and Information Services". The City of New York. 22 April 2026. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  3. 1 2 Wiggins, Christopher (22 April 2026). "Mamdani appoints NYC records chief Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz". The Advocate. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "At the Helm of Learning: Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Barnard's Dean of the Library". Barnard College. 23 June 2025. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz". Barnard College. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  6. ↑ St. Palmer, Poppy-Jay (2026-04-23). "Mamdani appoints Black lesbian as NYC chief records keeper". PinkNews. Retrieved 2026-05-07.
  7. ↑ "Shawnta Smith-Cruz". Pratt Institute. Retrieved 2026-05-07.
  8. ↑ Sprayregen, Molly (April 25, 2026). "Zohran Mamdani appoints Black lesbian archivist to critical commissioner role". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 2026-05-07.
  9. ↑ "Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz". American Library Association. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
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