Elizabeth Allin

Elizabeth is an activist, musician, researcher, and librarian. She has served as a research librarian for news organizations including the National Press Club, NPR, and the Newseum. She specializes in information literacy and has conducted numerous trainings for journalists on a wide range of topics.

Prior to becoming a librarian, she worked for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth where she was responsible for curriculum development, expanding multicultural course offerings, and training staff on diversity issues. In an even earlier life, she worked at University of Maryland and the American Council of Teachers of Russia teaching and developing tools to aid students in cross-cultural communication.

As a teenager she was active in Riot Grrrl, a movement that combined feminism, music, and political action. A founding member of the Riot Grrrl Twin Cities chapter, she has been engaged in grassroots organizing to combat intersectional forms of oppression for almost 30 years. In addition to Riot Grrrl, she helped organize events such as Ladyfest DC and Girls Rock! DC. She played bass in the band Coup Sauvage and the Snips and other political punk bands.

Elizabeth has a polymath’s resume but a thread runs through all her disparate roles: the importance of effective communication and accurate information to create shared understanding. She believes passionately that white people have a moral duty to reckon with whiteness and their role in perpetuating white supremacy and structural oppression.

She holds a BA from Macalaster College, MA from University of Maryland College Park, and MSLIS from Catholic University. She hopes to live long enough to see multiple John Brown biopics and a woman president (a good one, not a Thatcher-type situation).