Keynote Speakers

Opening Keynote

Crystal Rae Coel, Esq. M.A. is the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity for the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. Dean Coel has over 30 years of administrative and teaching experience in higher education. Recently, she received the University of Louisville Student Champion Award for outstanding service to students and she won the Kentucky Communication Professional of the Year Award for 2022. Dean Coel joined Brandeis in May 2020 after 25 years at Murray State University, where she held a variety of leadership positions. She was the Director of a multiple 1st-place national award-winning Speech and Debate Union. Also, she served 13 years as the first African American Head of a 1200-member Residential College: Elizabeth College. Beyond her extensive career in higher education, Dean Coel is a freelance corporate consultant and a licensed Pennsylvania attorney. She has been a Kentucky representative for the American Bar Association’s Mediation Committee and a member of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. She is also a member of Pi Kappa Delta Honorary Speech and Debate Fraternity, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and other Greek and philanthropic organizations. She is on the national board for the National Association for Law Student Affairs Professionals and serves as the Director of Communications for the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education. She has authored and co-authored several books and articles focused on communication skills, workplace bullying and first amendment rights.

Closing Keynote

Arthur "AJ" Boston (he/him) is an associate professor and scholarly communication librarian at Murray State University where he manages the institutional repository and coordinates the Office of Research and Creative Activity. Boston has served as a Library Publishing Coalition Fellow (2019-21) and SPARC COAPI Steering Committee Member (2021-2023). Currently, Boston serves as an advisory board member for the Irish Open Access Publishers Group.

Selected works include Read & Let Read, PiePlate, and Kanye West Explains Scholarly Communication. ORCID: 0000-0001-8590-4663 Twitter: @aj_boston