Our staff represents diverse backgrounds across all areas of library and information science and non-profit administration.

For more information about your METRO staff, check out the bios below.

 

We can be reached at (212) 228-2320 or at info@metro.org.

Nate Hill, Executive Director

Nate grew up in upstate New York and began his career in libraries at Brooklyn Public Library’s Stone Avenue Branch. After almost ten years of service and several different roles within Brooklyn Public Library, he relocated to Silicon Valley to retrain and re-tool as a web designer and developer for the San Jose Public Library. Before joining METRO in June 2015, Nate served as Deputy Director of the Chattanooga Public Library, where he led the 4th Floor project, a 12,000 square foot library loft space featuring a public access makerspace, civic laboratory, and gigabit laboratory.

Nate was named a “Mover and Shaker” by Library Journal in 2012. He earned his undergraduate degree in art from Skidmore College and an MLIS from Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science. When he’s not busy library-ing, Nate enjoys hiking, camping, art, design, and tinkering alongside his wife and kids.

Reach Nate at nhill@metro.org. 

Mary Bakija, Program Manager for Communication and Education

Prior to joining METRO, Mary worked with web archives of the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) at the Frick Art Reference Library, was a web services and reference librarian at CUNY's Hostos Community College, and managed a children's literacy program at Brooklyn Public Library.

She holds an MLIS and an advanced certificate in archives from Pratt Institute's School of Information, and a BFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Before attending library school, Mary was a writer and editor of local news in New York City. 

Reach Mary at mbakija@metro.org.

Kyle Brown, Chief Administrative Officer

Kyle manages METRO’s member programs and services. In addition, he manages METRO’s office facility, assisting the Executive Director in ensuring the METRO office is run effectively and efficiently.

Before joining METRO in 2014, Kyle was Office Manager at Jeanne Collins & Associates, a public relations firm that developed campaigns for arts and cultural institutions. Prior to office management, Kyle worked in the music industry for Nielsen Entertainment.

Kyle earned a BA in Communication from William Paterson University and an MBA from Howard University.

Reach Kyle at kbrown@metro.org.

Timothy Johnson, HLSP Manager

Tim manages METRO’s Hospital Library Services Program (HLSP). He recently retired from the New York University Library as Director of the Tamiment Library and Wagner Labor Archives. He has experience working in academic, public and special libraries. From 2000 to 2005 he served as METRO’s Program Manager for HLSP.

Tim has a BA in African American Studies (Earlham College), an MA in Library Science (Case Western Reserve University) and completed doctoral coursework at Rutgers University in African Diasporan History.

Reach Tim at tjohnson@metro.org.

Anne Karle, Associate Director, Finance and Administration

As a member of METRO’s Administrative team, Anne serves as liaison between METRO members and  METRO staff on financial, administrative and contractual matters. Previously, Anne served for several years as METRO’s Digital Services Manager, managing METRO’s digitization grant program, digital collection hosting service, and digital imaging services.

Prior to joining METRO in 2012, Anne worked in academic libraries at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, and (before becoming a librarian) she worked in the music industry in NYC.  She graduated twice from the University of Michigan, with an undergrad degree in Business Administration, and a MSI degree from the School of Information.

Reach Anne at akarle@metro.org.

Traci Mark, Program Manager for Grants and Education

Prior to joining METRO, Traci was the media archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library in Harlem. Traci specializes in archiving and preservation of analog media, black history and providing programming for the METRO community that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In the past she has worked for Anthology Film Archives, WITNESS Human Rights Video, DHX Media, Vtape, Frame Discreet and York University. She is also a proud member of XFR Collective. Traci graduated from Ryerson University with an MA in Film Preservation and Collections Management and from York University with an Honors BA in Cinema and Media Studies. She is a native of Toronto, ON.

Reach Traci at tmark@metro.org.

Shannon Mattern, Director of Creative Research

After serving for a decade as a member and the president of the METRO board, Shannon now serves as METRO’s first Director of Creative Research. She is simultaneously the Penn Presidential Compact Professor of Media Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and in Spring 2025 she’ll be the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress. From 2004 to 2022, she was on the faculty at The New School in New York. She has held tenured, full professorships in three fields: media studies, anthropology, and history of art. She has written books about library architecture, maps, and urban intelligence; edited several collections on digital technologies and everyday knowledge practices; and published over 100 articles and chapters, most of them in open-access venues, including a regular long-form column on public data and knowledge infrastructures for Places Journal. She has also collaborated with various local and international public institutions on library design and exhibition projects. At The New School she collaborated regularly with the Parsons School of Design, directed the graduate program in media studies and the undergraduate program in anthropology, and founded and directed the graduate minor in anthropology and design. She has designed and taught over 40 courses on topics ranging from urban technology, maps, and information infrastructures to design ethnography, local media, and critical university studies – and, since 2002, has created an open access website for nearly all of those courses. She won The New School’s Distinguished University Teaching Award and has advised over 70 graduate theses and dissertations. See more of her work at wordsinspace.net.

Reach Shannon at smattern@metro.org

Shelly Mohammed, Controller

Shelly facilitates the accounting, finance, and human resources functions at METRO. She manages membership dues and workshop fees as well.

Prior to joining METRO, Shelly was an Audit Senior who specialized in non-profit organizations at O’Connor Davies, LLP, a mid-sized accounting and consulting firm based in the New York tri-state area. Shelly obtained a B.S in Accounting from St. Francis College.

Reach Shelly at smohammed@metro.org.

Mark Parson, Delivery Services Coordinator/Administrative Support Assistant

Mark Parson provides critical support for a wide range of activities at METRO. In addition to working with our delivery service team to ensure that our member institutions receive quality service from our Referral Card program, he helps develop and maintain METRO e-mail lists, handles room set-up for METRO events, and administers the Coordinated Collection Development Aid (CCDA) program.

Mark is one of our longest-serving staff members, having started at METRO in 2006.

Reach Mark at mparson@metro.org.

Diego Pino Navarro, Director of Digital Strategy

Diego is a pet and human-friendly systems architect and open source software developer from Chile. He enjoys working on Linked Data, Web Semantics, IIIF, questioning AI and exploring open and scalable ways of describing and preserving human knowledge, all while helping others to implement open source digital repository solutions and solving interdisciplinary problems via computer science and empathy.

At METRO, Diego manages the digital services team that advances and supports our Objects Repository ecosystem. He also develops and leads the OSS Archipelago architecture (our very own and unique take on Open Source Digital Repositories) and tries to facilitate this work by providing tools and software solutions for everyday needs in our field. He really enjoys helping others.

When not developing, dreaming about code or walking dogs, he likes to build LEGOs, build toys, cook for others and do hobby research on reef ecosystems.

Reach Diego at dpino@metro.org.

Becca Quon, Program Manager for Research and Education

Becca Quon (she/her) joined METRO to support project activities + research outputs for the Digital Equity Research Center in 2023. Since then, her work has shifted to the facilitation of research and education opportunities across programs.

In her prior role, Becca coordinated grantmaking, partnerships, and community-building at the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). She holds an MLS with a focus in Archives & Records Management from the University of Maryland and a BA in American history/art history from UC Riverside. She’s a gardener, gamer, and cozy mystery reader.

Reach Becca at bquon@metro.org.

Colin Rhinesmith, Founder and Director, Digital Equity Research Center

Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is the Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council and a Research Fellow with the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University. He is also a Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Community Informatics.

Previously, Rhinesmith was an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Science and the Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Scholarship and Research at Simmons University. He has been a Google Policy Fellow and an Adjunct Research Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute in Washington, D.C. and a Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a Researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a Research Scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion.

Reach Colin at crhinesmith@metro.org.

Allison Sherrick, Digital Projects and Services Manager

Allison works as part of METRO’s Digital Services Team to extend METRO’s digitization, metadata, hosting and support services for digital collections and custom digital projects development. She is an active member of the Archipelago Commons open source software team, and specializes in implementing and supporting diverse digital repository configurations and environments. She is enthusiastic about supporting and expanding access to information resources from institutions of all shapes, sizes, and geographic locations.

Prior to joining METRO, Allison worked within academic and public library environments, where she provided cataloging and metadata maintenance for materials in digital, rare book & special, and general collections. She holds a MSI from SUNY University at Buffalo, and continues to pursue to lifelong learning in the fields of computer science and information studies. Outside of work, Allison loves to garden and read about the lives and challenges of ecologists and botanists studying and working to protect our shared natural world.

Reach Allison at asherrick@metro.org.