Anita Mechler (she/her/hers) is an information and archival professional with over 15 years of experience working in academic, private, and public organizations. A professional nickname that has stuck with her over the years is “synthesizer helper,” bringing together her passion for telling and making available stories of marginalized populations while serving her profession with a high level of reparative organization and accessible instruction, pulling on inspiration from unexpected places.

Anita graduated from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, with an MSLIS and a certification in Rare Books and Manuscripts. She is also a Certified Archivist through the Academy of Certified Archivists. She has a certification in Copyright Law for Archives from the Society of American Archivists and she also completed a Fundamentals for Project Management at the Graham School at the University of Chicago.

While in graduate school, she began her career in the Chicago Public Library as a Cybernavigator and moved on to become the Director of Library and Archives at the Union League Club of Chicago. From there she worked as Project Manager / Archivist for the Black Metropolis Research Consortium at the University of Chicago and then as Executive Director for the Young Adult Library Services Association at the American Librarian Association. She worked for Rotary International as a Records Management Specialist and launched her heritage management consulting business right before the 2020 pandemic shutdown. She has worked with myriad consulting clients over the last seven years, building a national reputation while moving all over the United States with her husband and their two beloved cats. Recently, she revamped and launched an adult literacy program at the Detroit Public Library.

As a visual artist and painter, Anita loves exploring every medium she can get her hands on and has recently learned three different ways to weld steel sculptures. In her free time, she writes personal essays—which are occasionally performed on-stage —and she is working on a novel dedicated to the folklore of her childhood home in San Antonio, Texas. She is also a long-distance cyclist, amateur birder, occasional yogi, and avid hiker of mountains.

She is beyond thrilled and grateful to be able to work at the Center for Craft and excited to dive into everything Asheville has to offer.