Michael Morand, ’87 ’93 M.Div., is director of community engagement at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He leads efforts “to bring people to the library and bring the library to the people” as part of a commitment to encourage public engagement with Yale Library’s special collections, including as sources of historical reckoning and restorative justice. The community engagement team leads public programs and events, tours, and other visitor experiences; engages in strategic partnerships with public libraries, K-12 schools, neighborhood groups, and civic and cultural organizations; helps build community archives; and conducts online outreach through the web, video, and social media.
Michael has been a resident of New Haven since 1983 and is deeply committed to the city and to strengthening Yale’s relationship to its hometown. Currently, he lives with his husband in the Fair Haven neighborhood. The university and the city
recognized him with a Special Elm and Ivy Award in 2010.
Michael has previously been Yale’s deputy chief communications officer and associate vice president for New Haven and State Affairs. He served two terms as on the New Haven Board of Alders and has more than two decades of service as a leader on the boards of the New Haven Free Public Library and its foundation. Michael has been chair of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and vice president of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, among other past civic roles.
He currently chairs the Friends of the Grove Street Cemetery and is on the board of Dixwell Community Q House. He chairs the history committee of the Q House, which celebrates its centennial in 2024. Michael presents frequently on New Haven and Yale history to campus, community, and alumni groups.
Michael has been active with the Yale and Slavery Working Group since its inception, helping to guide research and share that work with the public. As of May 2023, Beinecke had produced 17 online “Mondays at Beinecke” talks about Yale and Slavery research, with 12,000 total views. The library produced a 20-minute documentary on the 1831 proposal to create a Black College in New Haven, seen by more than 14,000 viewers online and featured in ongoing community screenings. Beinecke has also hosted in-person sessions with showings of archival materials about Yale, slavery, and Black community-building in New Haven.