<div dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">**Apologies for cross posting**</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><br><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><b>Baltimore, MD | December 12, 2024</b></span>—<span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">We are delighted to announce that Dr. Timnit Gebru, Executive Director of the </span><a href="https://www.dair-institute.org/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR)</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">, will be the recipient of the 2025 Miles Conrad Award, NISO’s lifetime achievement award for those working in the information community. She will receive her award and deliver the 2025 Miles Conrad Lecture virtually during the </span><a href="https://niso.plus/niso-plus-2025-baltimore/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">NISO Plus Baltimore conference</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"> at 3:15 pm EST on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Prior to founding DAIR, Dr. Timnit Gebru was co-lead of the Ethical AI research team at Google, where she was fired in December 2020 after raising issues of discrimination in the workplace. Timnit also co-founded </span><a href="http://blackinai.org/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(150,96,125);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">Black in AI</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of </span><a href="http://addiscoder.com/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(150,96,125);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">AddisCoder</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican high school students. She has received a number of accolades, including being named one of </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-021-03621-0/index.html" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(150,96,125);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">Nature’s Ten people who helped shape science</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"> and one of </span><a href="https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177822/timnit-gebru/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(150,96,125);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">TIME 100’s most influential people</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">. She is currently writing </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The View from Somewhere</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">, a memoir + manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities instead of one that is used for surveillance, warfare, and the centralization of power by Silicon Valley.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Dr. Gebru holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“We are honored to have Dr. Gebru deliver this year’s Miles Conrad Lecture,” said Jason Griffey, NISO’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. “The award recognizes her critical work on the dangers of biases in AI as the information community grapples with ethics and rapidly advancing technologies. We look forward to hearing her views about the opportunities and risks inherent in the use of AI in an imperfect world.”</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The 2025 NISO Plus Baltimore conference will take place in person on February 10–12 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. For more information, please visit </span><a href="https://niso.plus/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">https://niso.plus</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">About NISO</span></p><br><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO’s mission is to build knowledge, foster discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional communities. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages with libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire life cycle of information standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO website (<a href="https://niso.org">https://niso.org</a>) or contact us at </span><a href="mailto:nisohq@niso.org" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">nisohq@niso.org</span></a><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">.</span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">NISO</span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302</span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">Baltimore, MD 21211</span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">Phone: 301.654.2512</span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"><br></span><span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;background-color:transparent;font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline">E-mail: <a href="mailto:nisohq@niso.org">nisohq@niso.org</a></span></div>