BOARD OF TRUSTEES (2020)

The Board of Trustees is ASOR’s governing body, responsible for setting ASOR policy. The Board meets twice a year (in the spring and on the Sunday following the Annual Meeting).

The officers, all of whom are elected by the ASOR Board, include a Board Chair, President, Past President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and such other officers as may be elected pursuant to the Bylaws, such as a Vice Chair, Assistant Secretary, or Assistant Treasurer. In addition, the Board is comprised of six Membership-Elected Trustees, six Institutionally-Elected Trustees, twelve Board-Elected Trustees, and three Overseas Institute Trustees, as well as individuals designated by the Board as Honorary and Life Trustees.

OFFICERS & TRUSTEE CLASSES

Richard L. Coffman

Chair of the Board
(until December 31, 2022)

Richard L. Coffman, a native Texan, is a trial lawyer and managing partner of the Coffman Law Firm in Beaumont, Texas. His law practice focuses on class actions, mass actions, and business litigation throughout the United States. He has been named a Texas Super Lawyer.

Before attending law school, Coffman, who also is a Certified Public Accountant, worked for two international public accounting firms. He also served as an adjunct member of the accounting faculties of the University of Washington and University of Texas business schools. Coffman regularly travels on mission trips to South Sudan.

Prior to taking up his current position as ASOR Board Chair, on July 1, 2016, Coffman served as ASOR’s Assistant Treasurer in 2012 and as the ASOR Treasurer, from January 1, 2013, through June 30, 2016. He also served on the ASOR 2016-2020 Strategic Planning Task Force and the ASOR Branding Task Force. As Chair of the Board, Coffman also sits on several ASOR committees.

Sharon Herbert

President
(until December 31, 2022)

Sharon Herbert is the Charles K. Williams II Distinguished University Professor of Classical Archaeology Emerita and Research Associate at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Formerly, she served as the chair of the Department of Classical Studies and Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology at Michigan, where she has enjoyed a remarkable career as a field archaeologist, teacher, and academic administrator since she joined the Michigan faculty in 1973. She is also the former Curator of Greek and Hellenistic Collections and Director Emerita (1997-2013) of the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum.

Herbert’s research specialties include Hellenistic Egypt and the Near East and ancient ceramics. She is best known for her contributions to the archaeology of Israel, as director of the Tel Anafa excavations from 1978 to 1981 and as co-director of the Tel Kedesh excavations from 1997 to 2012. She has also conducted archaeological fieldwork in Greece, Italy, and Egypt.

Before assuming her position as ASOR’s President on January 1, 2020, Herbert served as ASOR Vice President from 2013-2019. Herbert also served as the President of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) from 2013-2018. In November 2017, Herbert received ASOR’s W. F. Albright Service Award, in recognition of her work on behalf of the Albright.

Susan Ackerman

Past President
(until December 31, 2022)

Susan Ackerman is the Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, where she has been on the faculty since 1990. At Dartmouth, she served as the Chair of the Religion Department from 2004-2012 and as the Chair of the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies  from 2002-2004 and 2015-2019. Her research specialties include the religion of ancient Israel, women and gender in ancient Israel, myth and ritual studies in ancient Israel, and the Hebrew Bible.

Ackerman served as ASOR President from 2014-2019. Prior to that, Ackerman served as a member of the ASOR Board for seven years (2007-2013), during which time she was a member of the ASOR Capital Campaign Cabinet, the Task Force on the ASOR Strategic Plan for 2011-2015, and the Finance Committee. She has also served as President of the New England and Eastern Canada Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (2013-2014), as President of the Colloquium for Biblical Research (2008-2010), and as a member and then Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR), from 2008-2013.

In November 2019, Ackerman received ASOR’s most prestigious award, the Richard J. Scheuer Medal, for lifetime achievement and professional service.

Andrew G. Vaughn

Executive Director
(until June 30, 2023)

Andrew G. (Andy) Vaughn became ASOR’s Interim Executive Director on January 1, 2007, and he was appointed Executive Director on July 1, 2007. Prior to this appointment, Vaughn taught at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. There, from 1997–2007, he was Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible. He also served as Chair of Department of Religion. His teaching and research interests include cultural heritage, history, archaeology, Semitic languages, and Israelite religion.  He is a past recipient of the Mitchell Dahood Prize for Biblical Scholarship, and he was a Fulbright Fellow at Tel Aviv University from 1993–94.

Prior to taking up his position as Executive Director of ASOR, Vaughn served on ASOR’s Publications Committee from 2001–2006, and he was elected as Chair of the Publications Committee in 2005. As Chair, he served on the ASOR Board and Executive Committee from 2005–2006, and he was on the ASOR Management Committee from 2006–2007. He was editor of the joint ASOR/SBL Archaeology and Biblical Studies Book Series from 2001–2007. He has also served as Vice President of the Upper Midwest Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2007) and on the SBL Development Committee (2004–2007).

Charles Ellwood Jones

Vice President
(until December 31, 2022)

Charles Ellwood (Chuck) Jones is the Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities at The Pennsylvania State University Library, a position he has held since August 2013. At Penn State, he also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Previously, Jones served as the Head of the Library for the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), in New York, where he also held a position as Senior Fellow and was a faculty member of the Institute’s 2012-13 Linked Ancient World Institute. Prior to his time at ISAW, Jones was the Head Librarian for the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies, in Athens, and was the Research Archivist-Bibliographer for the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Jones is particularly known for developing online resources for ancient Near Eastern scholars, including AWOL (the Ancient World Online). In 2008, he won the ASOR Open Archaeology Award, for the Abzu website, and in 2015-2016, he won an award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology from The Archaeological Institute of America.

Within ASOR, Jones has served as a session chair for programs on cyberinfrastructure and digital scholarship and as a member and then, from 2012-2018, as chair of the Publications Committee. In November 2018, Jones received ASOR’s Membership Service Award in recognition of his work as Publications Chair.

Ann-Marie Knoblauch

Secretary
(until December 31, 2021)

Ann-Marie Knoblauch is Associate Professor of Art History and Associate Director of the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech. Her research interests bridge east and west, especially Cyprus and Greece during the archaic and classical periods. She is especially concerned with articulating the voices of underrepresented groups in the ancient Mediterranean world — non-Athenian and non-male — through the material culture left behind. This approach to the ancient world manifests itself in two main research endeavors, investigations into the visual iconography of Athenian women and active fieldwork on the island of Cyprus. Knoblauch has been involved in the excavations of Idalion, Cyprus, since 1998, and on Cyprus, she has also excavated at Yeronisos Island. She has also excavated in Israel and Greece.

Knoblauch has chaired several ASOR sessions on Cyprus at the ASOR Annual Meeting, and she also served as guest co-editor for a special double issue of Near Eastern Archaeology (NEA 71/1-2) whose focus was “Ancient Cyprus: American Research.” In addition, she served as a member of the Near Eastern Archaeology editorial board from 2008 through 2016.

Knoblauch joined the ASOR Board in January 2013. While on the Board, she has been a member of the Executive Committee, the Finance Committee, the Officers Nominations Committee, and the Task Force for Implementing the ASOR 2011-2015 Strategic Plan, and she served as the chair of the Trustee Nominations Committee. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) since 2002.

Knoblauch has been ASOR Secretary since January 1, 2019.

Heather McKee

Treasurer
(until December 31, 2020)

Heather McKee has held multiple management positions in the field of healthcare policy. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of The Sublette Center, in Pinedale, WY, a nonprofit senior health and housing organization, and while in Wyoming, she was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Health Finance Reform. Prior to that, she worked as a Project Manager for the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, a Program Manager and Instructor in Medical Ethics, at The Medical College of Wisconsin, and a Grant Writer and Grants Administrator for The Milwaukee Indian Health Board, in Milwaukee, WI. She has also served as Director of The Bonner Scholars Program and The Center for Service-Learning at Mars Hill College, in Mars Hill, NC, and as a Staff Accountant at Arthur Andersen & Company, in Charlotte, NC.

Currently, McKee is involved in several volunteer activities. She serves on the Board of Directors, and is the Co-Chair of the Finance Committee, of the Davidson Housing Coalition, and she is a Founding Member of The North Mecklenburg Homelessness Task Force. She also serves as a mentor in the “Leadership Davidson” program at Davidson College, her undergraduate alma mater, and she serves the Davidson College Presbyterian Church as a deacon and in numerous other capacities.

McKee has been ASOR Treasurer since January 1, 2018.

TRUSTEE CLASS OF 2020

(serving through December 31, 2020)

Theodore Burgh

Membership-Elected Trustee

Theodore (Teddy) Burgh is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research specialties include the archaeology of ancient Israel and the Near East, the Hebrew Bible, archaeomusicology (the study of ancient music culture), the reconstruction of Syro-Palestinian and Near Eastern music culture and cataloging musical artifacts, utilization analysis of Syro-Palestinian sacred and secular space, and ethnomusicology. Burgh is himself an accomplished musician (he plays flute, clarinet, and saxophone), and in addition to his university career, he enjoys composing and performing. He is a member of the FROG Project and Lee Venters and Vermillion Sands (Wilmington, NC).

Burgh has been an ASOR member since 1996, presenting numerous papers at the ASOR Annual Meeting as well as chairing sessions. He has been a member of the Membership and Outreach Committee since the beginnings of his involvement with ASOR, and he has especially championed that committee’s Friends of ASOR initiative. In January 2020, he assumed the position as Chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee.

Burgh joined the ASOR Board in January 2015. Currently, he serves as a member of the Board’s Trustee Nominations Committee.

Peggy Duly

Board-Elected Trustee

Peggy Duly, a native Californian, is retired from her position as medical technologist and research associate in the Clinical Chemistry Lab at the University of California, San Diego. Previously, she worked at the University of Colorado Medical Center. As far back as her undergraduate days, however, Duly identified her avocation as anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology. She has fostered her anthropological interests through trips to Canada, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel.

Duly joined the ASOR Board in January 2015.

Joseph Greene

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Joseph (Joe) Greene is the Deputy Director and Curator of the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (formerly the Harvard Semitic Museum), where he has worked since 1994. His research interests focus on archaeological survey and landscape archaeology of the Mediterranean/Middle East region, cultural resource management in the Mediterranean/Middle East region, and museums and the history of museums in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.

From 1976 to 1980, Greene excavated at Carthage, Tunisia, with the ASOR Punic Project. From 1980 to 1983, he directed the Carthage Survey, an archaeological reconnaissance of the hinterland of ancient Carthage. In 1986, he was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan, and in 1987-88, he directed the ACOR/USAID Cultural Resource Management Project. In 2001, Greene served as a consultant to the Petra National Trust. Between 1977 and 1986, he worked on archaeological excavations and surveys in Cyprus at Idalion, Kourion, and Palaipaphos, and in 1986-87, he was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia.

Within ASOR, Greene served as the editor of the ASOR Archaeological Reports Series from 2003–2008 and then of the ASOR Annual from 2009–2014. He currently serves as the Clerk/Newsletter Chair of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) Board, and since 2002, he has been the editor of CAARI News.

Greene joined the ASOR Board in January 2015. Currently, he serves as a member of the Board’s Committee on the ASOR Policy on Professional Conduct and the Officers Nominations Committee.

In November 2015, Greene received the ASOR Membership Service Award.

Susan Laden

Board-Elected Trustee

Susan (Sue) Laden is the publisher of the Biblical Archaeology Society, which was founded in 1974. Laden joined the Biblical Archaeology Society almost immediately thereafter – in 1975. This non-profit, non-denominational Society’s goal is making available, in understandable language, the latest insights of professional archaeologists as they relate to the Bible. The Biblical Archaeology Society is known primarily for its magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. The magazine’s core audience includes individuals who are fascinated by the Bible or by ancient history but who have almost no background in archaeology. The Biblical Archaeology Society also sponsors travel/study programs. Recently, Laden has been instrumental in launching the Biblical Archaeology Society’s web-based newsletter “Bible History Daily.”

Laden serves on ASOR’s Membership and Outreach Committee, where she has been especially involved in helping develop the Friends of ASOR outreach program.

Laden joined the ASOR Board in January 2015.

W. Mark Lanier

Board-Elected Trustee

Mark Lanier is a trial lawyer and founder of the Lanier Law Firm, which has offices in Houston, New York, and Los Angeles. He has won many awards for his work as an attorney, including, most recently, being recognized as “Houston’s Lawyer of the Year” in 2017 for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs, as “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by The National Trial Lawyers and The Trial Lawyer magazine (2016), and as “Houston’s Lawyer of the Year” for Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions (2016). In 2015, he was awarded the American Association of Justice’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2012, he was awarded the Clarence Darrow award, which honors the famed attorney Clarence Darrow and is given to attorneys who have demonstrated conviction in their work and exceptional courage in the face of adversity.

Lanier is also enthusiastically involved in government and community activities outside the practice of law. He is the founder of the Lanier Theological Library, one of the nation’s largest private theological collections. He himself has published two books focused on integrating Christian faith into daily life: Christianity on Trial (2014) and Psalms For Living (2016).

Lanier joined the ASOR Board in January 2012. He has been a strong supporter of ASOR’s outreach efforts, and the Lanier Theological Library provides major funding to help publish ASOR’s e-newsletter that is dedicated to outreach, The ANE Today. Lanier also serves as a Trustee of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR).

Carol Meyers

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Carol Meyers is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. Her research interests include the archaeology of ancient Israel, archaeology and religion in ancient Israel, the Hebrew Bible, women and gender in ancient Israel, and anthropological and social-science approaches to the Hebrew Bible.

In 1971, Meyers began excavating at Meiron, and from 1978 to 2009, she served as Associate Director of the Meiron Excavation Project, which included excavations of the nearby synagogues of Gush Ḥalav and Nabatrein. She has also served, since 1984, as the Co-Director of the Joint Sepphoris Project and, since 1992, as the Co-Director of the Sepphoris Regional Project.    

Within ASOR, Meyers served on the Publications Committee from 1977–1992 and on the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy for nine terms (twenty-seven years!) at various points between 1976 and 2010. She has also served on the Media Committee, the Officers Nominations Committee, the Advisory Committee of the ASOR Archiving Initiative, and on various ASOR Strategic Planning Committees: the Task Force on the ASOR Strategic Plan for 2011-2015, the Academic Master Planning Committee of 2004–2006, and the Strategic Initiatives Retreat of 2001. In addition, she was an associate editor of the Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR) from 1997–2005.

Meyers first joined the ASOR Board in 1976, serving as a Trustee from 1976-1978 and again from 2005 onward. Since 1994, she has also served as a Trustee of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR). Currently, she serves as a member of the Board’s Committee on the ASOR Policy on Professional Conduct and on the Officers Nominations Committee.

In November 2014, Meyers was awarded ASOR’s P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award, and in November 2017, she received the Charles U. Harris Service Award, which is given in recognition of long term and/or special service as an ASOR officer or Trustee. The Eric and Carol Meyers Excavation Fellowships, established in 2014, also honor her long-standing service to ASOR.

Joe D. Seger

Board-Elected Trustee

Joe D. Seger is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures and Director Emeritus of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University, whose faculty he joined in 1982. His research interests include Near Eastern archaeology and field methods, Old Testament history and literature, ancient Semitic languages, and ancient Near Eastern religions and cultures. He is an expert in ceramic analysis and excavation techniques.

Seger’s career as a field archaeologist began with the Joint Expedition to Tell Balatah, biblical Shechem, in 1962. He returned for the 1964 season and became Field Director in 1969. Since 1975 he has been the Project Director of the Lahav Research Project excavations at Tell Halif in Israel.

Seger first joined the ASOR Board in 1986 and has served on the Board ever since. From 1996-2002, he served as the ASOR President. Seger also served as the President of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) from 1988-1994 and now he serves as an Honorary Trustee of the Albright. He also currently serves the ASOR Board as a member of the Officers Nominations Committee and the Development Committee.

In 2006, Seger received ASOR’s most prestigious award, the Richard J. Scheuer Medal, for lifetime achievement and professional service. The recently established Joe D. Seger Excavation Fund also honors his long-standing service to ASOR.

Eric Welch

Membership-Elected Trustee

Eric Welch teaches at the University of Kentucky, where he is a founding lecturer in the Lewis Honors College. His areas of expertise include the Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology. Welch has been with the Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavation Project since 2006, where he directs the excavation of a 9th century BCE olive-oil production facility. His work at Tell es-Safi has been supported by ASOR’s Heritage Excavation Grant, the Sean William Dever Fellowship, and it was presented at the ASOR Annual Meeting with the assistance of the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology Scholarship.

Welch has been an active member of ASOR since 2008 in both scholarship and service. He is a member of the ASOR Early Career Scholars committee and currently serves as Co-Chair of the committee. He also served on the ASOR Ad Hoc Committee studying the future location of the Annual Meeting, and he is the Chair of the ASOR program unit, “Archaeology of the Near East: Bronze and Iron Ages.”

Welch joined the ASOR Board in January 2019.

TRUSTEE CLASS OF 2021

(serving through December 31, 2021)

Emily Miller Bonney

Membership-Elected Trustee

Emily Miller Bonney is a professor of Liberal Studies at California State University Fullerton, where she currently serves as Dean of the Pollak University Library. She has also served as Interim Assistant Vice President for Academic Human Resources. Her research focuses on Bronze Age Crete and specifically on the application of extended mind and material agency theories to the relationship between the archaeological record and social/political/economic change. In addition, she examines the ways in which the specific disciplinary frameworks affect the conclusions scholars reach. Her recent work re-examines the mortuary evidence for social organization transitions in the Early Bronze Age on Crete, particularly the circular stone tombs, and for cross-crafting in pottery and other media.

Bonney began attending ASOR meetings in 1999, after fifteen years in the world of law school and legal practice. Since 2016, she has served as the session chair of “Career Options for ASOR Members: The Academy and Beyond.” She currently serves as a member of the Board’s Finance Committee and she is Chair of the ad hoc committee charged with developing a Code of Conduct for the ASOR Annual Meeting.

Bonney joined the ASOR Board in January 2019.

Erin Darby

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Erin Darby is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. She is an expert in the Hebrew Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern history and literature. At the University of Tennessee, she is one of the founding members of the Partnership for the Academic Study of Early Judaism, the Knoxville ArabFest cultural festival, the UT Archaeology Day outreach event, and the Tennessee Initiative for Middle East Studies. Darby is also the co-director of the ASOR-affiliated ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan, where she is excavating a Nabataean-Islamic period site and leading the UT Dig Jordan study abroad program.

Darby has been an active ASOR member since 2008 and has served the organization in a variety of ways. She was the co-chair of the Junior Scholars Committee (now Early Career Scholars Committee) for seven years, from 2010-2016. More recently, she served on the ASOR Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of the Annual Meeting, and she has served as the session chair for the Archaeology of the Near East: Bronze and Iron Ages and as co-chair for a number of member-organized sessions.

In November 2017, Darby received the ASOR Membership Service Award in recognition of her work as the Junior Scholars Committee’s Co-Chair. She joined the ASOR Board in January 2020.

Lynn Swartz Dodd

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Lynn Swartz Dodd is Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. There, she has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Undergraduate Major and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religion. She was also designated a USC Dornsife Distinguished Faculty Fellow.

Dodd’s research centers on archaeology and politics and ancient innovation and social change, particularly the ways that beliefs about the world figure in social change. As Curator of USC’s Archaeology Research Center, she is also engaged in technical material studies, excavation publication projects, and research involving the use of lasers and new imaging techniques in archaeological research and conservation. She is a staff member of the Amuq Valley Research Project Survey (Turkey), the Kenan Tepe Excavations (Tigris River, Turkey), and the Tell al-Judaidah Publication Project (Turkey), as well as the Native American Sacred Landscapes Project (California). Dodd is in addition the co-organizer of the Israeli Palestinian Archaeology Working Group.

Dodd has served ASOR in many capacities: for example, as a member of the Publications Committee and of the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (and as Chair of that committee’s Fellowships Subcommittee). She was the Chair of the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group that authored the Policy on Professional Conduct adopted by the ASOR Board in April 2015. She served as ASOR Secretary from 2013-2018 and currently serves as a member of the Board’s Finance Committee and as Chair of the Board’s Development Committee.

In November 2015, Dodd received the ASOR Membership Service Award, and in November 2018, she received the Charles U. Harris Service Award, which is given in recognition of long term and/or special service as an ASOR officer or Trustee.

Jane DeRose Evans

Membership-Elected Trustee

Jane DeRose Evans is Professor of Art History at Temple University. She specializes in the archaeology of the Roman provinces and especially in ancient numismatics. She is a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society and a member of the Royal Numismatic Society. After excavating for many years in Javols, France, she is now project numismatist for the Harvard/Cornell Excavations in Sardis and the George Washington University excavations at Bir Madhkur (Jordan). She has also worked in Israel, Italy, England, and Philadelphia.

Evans has been a member of ASOR for many years, and from 2010-2015, she served on the Ad Hoc Ethics Working Group that authored the Policy on Professional Conduct adopted by the ASOR Board in April 2015. She currently serves on the Cultural Heritage Committee and has testified on behalf of the Memoranda of Understanding that allow intercepting illegally obtained antiquities from Cyprus and Egypt at the US border.

Evans served on the ASOR Board from 2011-2013 and then rejoined the Board again in January 2016. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Trustee Nominations Committee and as of January 1, 2020, as the Chair of ASOR’s newest standing committee, the Cultural Heritage Committee.

Peyton Randolph Helm

Board-Elected Trustee

Peyton Randolph (Randy) Helm was the eleventh president of Muhlenberg College, serving from July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2015. He also served as the interim chancellor of UMass Dartmouth, from January 2016 to June 2017. Previously, Helm served as Vice-President for College Relations and Professor of Classical Studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Helm began his career in academic administration at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named coordinator of College House Programs in 1981. He then served as Associate Director of Development and then Director of Development for Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences. From 1981-1988 he was also an adjunct Assistant Professor of Ancient History and Urban Studies at Penn. In 1988, Helm was named Vice-President for Development and Alumni Relations at Colby College, where he was promoted to Vice-President for College Relations in 2001.

Helm earned his B.A. in Archaeology from Yale University and his Ph.D. in ancient history, specializing in ancient Greek and Near Eastern history and literature, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Helm joined the ASOR Board in January 2016. He is currently serving as the Chair of the Board’s Ad Hoc Committee on ASOR’s Name.

Eric M. Meyers

Board-Elected Trustee

Eric Meyers is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Emeritus Professor in Judaic Studies and Archaeology in the Department of Religious Studies of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University. He served as Director of the Graduate Program in Religion at Duke from 1979-1985 and as Associate Director in 2000-2001. He became Director again in academic year 2001-2002, a position he held until 2007.

Meyers’s research interests include the Bible, Jewish history, and archaeology. Meyers has directed digs in Israel for forty years, including the Meiron Excavation Project, whose work included excavations of the nearby synagogues of Gush Ḥalav and Nabatrein, and the Sepphoris Regional Project.

Within ASOR, Meyers held the position of First Vice-President for Publications from 1982-1990, and from 1982-1992 he served as the editor of Biblical Archaeologist (BA). He served as well the associate editor of the Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR) from 1976-1993. Most notably, Meyers served as ASOR’s President from January 1, 1990, through July 1, 1996, and then again from May 2006 through December 2008.

In 2009, Meyers became Project Director of a major two-and-a-half year grant for archiving the history of American archaeology in the Middle East through ASOR. In addition, from 1975-1976, he served as Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem. Today, he is an Honorary Trustee of the Albright. He also currently serves as a member of the ASOR Board’s Development Committee.

In 1997, Meyers received ASOR’s G. Ernest Wright Publication Award, which is given to the editor/author of the most substantial volume(s) dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports, and material culture from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean. A decade later, in November 2007, he received ASOR’s most prestigious award, the Richard J. Scheuer Medal, for lifetime achievement and professional service. The Eric and Carol Meyers Excavation Fellowships, established in 2014, also honor his long-standing service to ASOR.

Ann V. Sahlman

Board-Elected Trustee

Ann V. Sahlman was chairman and founder of Sahlman-Williams Public Relations & Marketing. She specializes in senior executive counseling, strategic planning, public relations consulting, communications policy, issues management, public relations program development and implementation, management, and donation/fund-raising program development.

Sahlman’s career began at the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority (Tampa International Airport). She served as senior public information officer for Tampa General Hospital, assistant to the president of TECO Energy responsible for community relations, education and corporate contributions, and as the first staff director for the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. She has served on more than 17 boards and counsels such as Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Florida Chamber of Commerce, United Cerebral Palsy Foundation, University of Tampa Board of Fellows, and Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center Leadership Gifts Campaign. Additionally, Sahlman was appointed by Tampa mayor, Pam Iorio, to a four-year term on the Public Art Committee for the City of Tampa.

Sahlman has won several awards, including Who’s Who in Leading American Executives, Who’s Who in Public Relations in the U.S. and Canada, Finalist in the J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award For Community Service, and the Florida Hospital Association Public Relations Award. She now serves as Strategic Communications Counsel for the David A. Straz Performing Arts Center, one of the largest centers and conservatories in the United States.

Sahlman joined the ASOR Board in April 2019.

Carolyn Midkiff Strange

Board-Elected Trustee

Carolyn Midkiff Strange is the granddaughter of T. O. and Lilly Midkiff, West Texas pioneer ranchers who settled and bought property in Texas at about the turn of the twentieth century. Tyson, their oldest son, and Naomi, his wife (Carolyn Strange’s father and mother), also bought property. They worked hard, doing whatever work was necessary in order to pay off their land while living through the Great Depression.

Carolyn Strange met her life partner, James F. Strange, when they were students at Rice University, and for 57 years, until Jim’s death in 2018, Carolyn and Jim were steadfast partners in Jim’s archaeological work. Carolyn Strange served as Registrar for several seasons at Khirbet Shema‘ and Meiron and subsequently had other roles in Jim Strange’s excavations at Sepphoris. The Stranges also raised four children and instilled in them their love for archaeology. Today their son James Riley Strange, their daughter Katherine Burke, and their son-in-law Aaron Burke are all professional archaeologists.

Carolyn Strange has been an ASOR member for more than 50 years. In 2014, Jim and Carolyn Strange jointly established ASOR’s Strange and Midkiff Familes Excavation Fellowships, designated to support the participation of ASOR members as volunteers or staff on excavation projects.

TRUSTEE CLASS of 2022

(serving through December 31, 2022)

Lisa Ackerman

Board-Elected Trustee

Lisa Ackerman is the Executive Director of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, a non-profit organization in New York City committed to fostering an appreciation of Italian-American heritage and achievement through a broad range of philanthropic and cultural activities. Previously, Ackerman served as the Interim Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of the World Monuments Fund, an organization founded in 1965 that has assisted in the conservation and development of long-term stewardship strategies at more than 600 sites in 100 countries, and as Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. At WMF, where she worked from 2007 to 2019, Ackerman developed multiple international collaborative projects in conservation. In addition to general supervision over approximately 60 projects in 40 countries, she is the senior project manager for activities in Cambodia, Iraq, Libya, Thailand, and Tunisia.

Ackerman serves on the boards of Historic House Trust of New York City and New York Preservation Archive Project. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Graduate Center for Planning at the Pratt Institute in New York City. She previously served on the boards of St. Ann Center for Restoration and the Arts, Partners for Sacred Places, and the Neighborhood Preservation Center. In 2007, she received the Landmarks Lion award from the New York City Historic District Council. In 2008, Ackerman was named the first recipient of the US/ICOMOS Ann Webster Smith Award for International Heritage Achievement.

Ackerman joined the ASOR Board in January 2018.

Sheila T. Bishop

Board-Elected Trustee

Sheila Bishop is the President of the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology, which was established “to promote the science of Biblical Archaeology as a discipline by providing funding and support for new and continuing excavations, publication, research, and education.” The Foundation has helped support the Mount Zion Survey, the excavations at Sepphoris, the Roman Aqaba project, the Cana of Galilee project, the reconstruction of a first-century Nazareth farm site, the Tzuba excavation, and the Jezreel expedition. The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology also funds Student Service Scholarships, which provide undergraduates and graduates at ASOR-member colleges, seminaries, and universities with funding to pay for transportation and lodging incurred while attending the ASOR Annual Meeting. In return, students serve as volunteers at the Registration Desk and in service of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and Session Chairs.

Bishop has served on the ASOR Board since January 2011. In November 2016, Bishop received the ASOR Membership Service Award.

Paul V. M. Flesher

Membership-Elected Trustee

Paul V. M. Flesher is Professor of Religion Studies and Associate Department Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wyoming. Previously, in 1993, he founded the university’s Religious Studies Program and served as its head until he stepped down in 2014. He is an expert in the Jews and Judaism of the land of Israel during the Roman and early Byzantine periods.

Flesher served on the staff of the Tel Miqne excavations in 1995, where he was responsible for designing a pottery database and recording finds. More recently, he served on the Huqoq staff for four years, first designing their database and then guiding recording. Currently, he helps lead a project to create an online database archive of the excavation records from the four upper-Galilean synagogues and the Jewish quarter at Sepphoris which Eric and Carol Meyers excavated and published. In Summer 2019, Flesher served as an area supervisor at Legio (part of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project) this past summer. He also was appointed the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in 2016.

Flesher joined the ASOR Board in January 2020.

Debra Foran

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Debra Foran is Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focuses on pilgrimage and trade during the Late Byzantine period (5th to 8th centuries CE) in Jordan.

From 2006 and 2012, Foran directed the Tell Madaba Archaeological Project. Currently, she is the Director of the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project, which is investigating the role of landscape in the religious and economic development of the site of Khirbat al-Mukhayyat (Jordan). This project is part of a larger regional research effort designed to investigate the development of centralized institutions and state-ordered societies in central Jordan. Foran has also participated in archaeological field projects in Syria and Tunisia.

Foran has chaired several ASOR sessions on the archaeology of Jordan and the Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. She served as Vice-President and Treasurer of ASOR-Canada (CASOR) from 2004 to 2007, at which time she was elected President, a position she still holds.

Foran joined the ASOR Board in January 2017.

Michael Hasel

Institutionally-Elected Trustee

Michael G. Hasel is Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University, where he has also served as Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology since 1998.

Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on ten different excavations in the Middle East, including Gezer, Ashkelon, Dor, Miqne-Ekron, Masada, and Hazor, in Israel; Idalion, Cyprus; and Jalul in Jordan. He has directed excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa and currently is co-director of the Fourth Expedition to Lachish. As curator of the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum, Hasel was responsible for planning and displaying art and objects from the ancient Near East in a state-of-the-art exhibit entitled “Vessels in Time: A Journey Into the Biblical World.”

Hasel, an ASOR member since 1989, has chaired several ASOR sessions and served on the Agenda Committee. He held the Samuel H. Kress Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in 1995-96 and a Fulbright at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in 2005. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research.

Hasel joined the ASOR Board in January 2014.

Robert Mullins

Membership-Elected Trustee

Robert (Bob) Mullins is a professor of Biblical Studies at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles where he is also Chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies. His research interests encompass Egyptian-Canaanite interaction during the Late Bronze Age, the Late Bronze/Iron Age I transition, Canaanite and Israelite religious cult, and cross-cultural interaction in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean. Mullins currently co-directs the archaeological project at Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel. Elsewhere in Israel, he has worked as an area supervisor Tel Beth Shean and Tel Rehov under the direction of Prof. Amihai Mazar. Outside of Israel, he worked for two projects in southeastern Turkey at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) and Zincirli Hoyuk (Samal) under the auspices of the University of Chicago.

Mullins has been a regular member of ASOR since 1996, and over the years, he has served as a chair for multiple sessions at the ASOR Annual Meeting. He also held the U.S. Information Agency Junior Research Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Oriental Research in 1197-98 and he was the James A. Montgomery Fellow at the Albright from 1998-2002. He served as an ASOR trustee from 2008-2013 and rejoined the ASOR Board in January 2020.

Timothy Potts

Board-Elected Trustee

Timothy Potts is the Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, a position he has held since 2012. Previously, he served as Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from 2008 to 2012, where he was also Professorial Fellow and Director of Studies in the history of art at Clare College. Previous to that, he was Director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas from 1998 to 2007, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, from 1994 to 1998, and a research lecturer and research fellow in ancient art and archaeology at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1984 to 1990.

Potts earned his B.A. with double first class honors and university medals in archaeology/ancient art and philosophy from the University of Sydney, and a D.Phil. (PhD) in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology from the University of Oxford. He has participated in excavations in Iraq, Greece, and Jordan, most notably at the Jordanian site of Pella. He has published major books on Pella, as well as on ancient Mesopotamia; he is also the author of numerous publications on ancient art, culture, and history; museum studies; and art history. In 2009, he was named a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London.

Potts joined the ASOR Board in 2020.

OVERSEAS INSTITUTE TRUSTEES

J.P. Dessel

W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR)

J. P. Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee. His research focuses on the rise of social complexity, urban-rural dynamics in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and ethnicity in the ancient world. He has participated in excavations in Israel, Turkey, Egypt and North America. He has directed the excavation of two village sites, Tell el-Wawiyat and Tell ‘Ein Zippori, in the Lower Galilee of Israel. He has also served as the co-field director at Tell Tayinat in Turkey and is currently a member of the excavation team working at Abel Beth Maacah.

Dessel also currently serves as the President of the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR). Previously, he served as Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary of the Albright Board. He has been a member of the Albright Board since 2000. Within ASOR, Dessel served on the editorial board of Biblical Archaeologist (BA) from 1994-1997 and continued in this position from 1997-2000 under the journal’s new name, Near Eastern Archaeology (NEA). He became the Albright representative to the ASOR Board in 2015.

In November 2012, Dessel received ASOR’s W. F. Albright Service Award, which honors an individual who has shown special support or made outstanding service contributions to one of the overseas centers, ACOR, AIAR, CAARI, or to one of the overseas committees – the Baghdad Committee and the Damascus Committee.

Øystein LaBianca

American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR)

Øystein (Sten) LaBianca is Associate Director, Institute of Archaeology, and Professor of Anthropology and Graduate Programs Coordinator in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Andrews University, where he has taught since 1980. LaBianca also served as chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences from 1982 until 1990.

LaBianca’s areas of research and teaching include cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, development anthropology, and research methods. He is co-director of the Madaba Plains Project in Jordan and senior director of the Jordan Field School at Tall Hisban, also in Jordan. His research in Jordan has received research grants from Andrews’ Office of Scholarly Research, the National Geographic Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and the Research Council of Norway.

In addition to serving as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), LaBianca has represented Middle East anthropology and archaeology on the steering committee of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association. Within ASOR, he served as the Chair of the Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy from 2009-2014. He became the ACOR representative to the ASOR Board in 2001.

In November 2014, LaBianca received the ASOR Membership Service Award.

F. Bryan Wilkins

Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI)

Bryan Wilkins grew up in Middle East (India, Iran, and Cyprus), while his father pursued a Foreign Service career. He developed a lifelong interest in archaeology and anthropology and participated in numerous underwater explorations off the northern coast of Cyprus. Later, he studied with John Witthoft and J. B. Pritchard at the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania. He pursues ongoing studies of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Mediterranean, focusing in particular on early trade development patterns. Wilkins has also spent a thirty-year career as a newspaper reporter especially concerned with macroeconomics and international economics. In addition, Wilkins operates a farm business based in Kentucky.

Wilkins became President of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) and a member of the ASOR Board on July 1, 2015. Previously, he served as CAARI Treasurer for many years.

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Vivian Bull

Lawrence T. Geraty

Norma Kershaw

C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky

Elizabeth Moynihan

B.W. Ruffner

Lydie Shufro

Gough Thompson, Jr.