Vienna, VA — Digital Scholar, a leading nonprofit organization which builds and maintains critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sharon M. Leon as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). With her extensive experience in humanities scholarship and strategic leadership, Dr. Leon brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the organization.
As COO, Dr. Leon will play a critical role in advancing Digital Scholar's mission to support and promote innovative digital scholarship initiatives. She will be responsible for managing core Digital Scholar operations, directing Omeka’s web publishing initiative (https://omeka.org), and launching a new effort to identify and support key free and Open-source software (FOSS) projects in the humanities to ensure their sustainability.
Dr. Leon brings two decades of experience in the field of digital humanities and digital scholarship. Most recently she was Associate Professor of History and Digital Humanities at Michigan State University she was a member of the Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research group and where she launched the On These Grounds project, an initiative to design, develop, test, and disseminate a linked open data ontology to describe the lived experiences of enslaved people who labored for colleges and universities. From 2013 to 2023 she also served as Vice President at Digital Scholar, where she oversaw the corporation’s transformation from lightweight external business support to full-fledged employer and service provider.
Before joining Michigan State, Dr. Leon spent thirteen years at George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) as Director of Public Projects, where she led teams producing award-winning projects including Omeka, Histories of the National Mall, the Bracero History Archive, and Historical Thinking Matters. Dr. Leon holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and an A.B. in American Studies from Georgetown University. She is author of An Image of God: the Catholic Struggle with Eugenics, published by University of Chicago Press.
“I am thrilled that Sharon is joining Digital Scholar as its new COO," said Sean Takats, President of Digital Scholar. “She brings an unmatched record of first-rate research and digital humanities leadership experience. I’ve had the good fortune to work closely with Sharon twice: first as colleagues at RRCHNM, and later as officers of Digital Scholar. Sharon’s imagination and drive have utterly transformed Digital Scholar over the last ten years, with fifteen-fold growth in revenue, expansion into entirely new areas of digital humanities software development, and direct hiring of our first full-time benefited employees. Sharon was able to oversee all of this working just a few hours per week alongside her work at Michigan State. The board and I can’t wait to see what she can do with her full attention.”
"I am excited to join Digital Scholar as COO," said Dr. Leon. "The future of digital scholarship demands that we find viable ways to develop and sustain critical open source infrastructure which makes it possible for the broadest range of scholars and cultural heritage institutions to effectively access, organize, and contextualize digital materials. For fifteen years, Digital Scholar has been quietly succeeding at these efforts, and I look forward to facilitating the ongoing work of our incredible project teams, and also to sharing our approach with digital scholarly infrastructure projects that might not yet have found their own paths to sustainability."
The appointment of Sharon M. Leon as COO marks a significant milestone for Digital Scholar as it strengthens its leadership team and expands its capacity to serve the humanities community. With her visionary leadership and deep understanding of cultural heritage, Dr. Leon will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the organization and driving its mission forward.
About Digital Scholar:
Committed to the responsible stewardship of critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, Digital Scholar was founded in 2009 to develop and operate the business models for Omeka and Zotero. Having secured their long-term sustainability and independence, Digital Scholar has since helped launch and sustain a growing family of software projects, including Tropy, PressForward, and Sourcery.