MEET THE NEW BOARD-APPOINTED TRUSTEES
ASOR is pleased to announce four Board-Appointed Trustees who will be serving on the ASOR Board of Trustees for the next three years. The ASOR Board sets the direction for ASOR and provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year at their own expense, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR.
Lisa Ackerman
Lisa Ackerman is Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of World Monuments Fund, an international organization that raises funds and provides expertise for heritage conservation projects throughout the world. Ms. Ackerman holds an appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. Previously Ms. Ackerman served as Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, a private foundation that provides funds for projects related to European art and architecture from antiquity through the early 19thcentury. Ms. Ackerman holds an MS degree in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute, an MBA from New York University, and a BA from Middlebury College. Ms. Ackerman serves on the boards of Historic House Trust of New York City and the New York Preservation Archive Project. She previously served on the boards of St. Ann Center for Restoration and the Arts, Partners for Sacred Places, US/ICOMOS, and the Neighborhood Preservation Center. In 2007 she received the Historic District Council’s Landmarks Lion award. In 2008, Ms. Ackerman was named the first recipient of US/ICOMOS’s Ann Webster Smith Award for International Heritage Achievement. She lectures frequently on architecture, preservation, and philanthropy.
Peggy Duly
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.
Susan Laden
Susan (Sue) Laden is the publisher of the Biblical Archaeology Society, which was Susan (Sue) Laden is the president of the Biblical Archaeology Society, founded in 1974, and publisher of its flagship publication, Biblical Archaeology Review,which the Society, a non-denominational nonprofit, has published continuously for more than 40 years. Sue Laden started in 1976 as the Society’s second paid employee. Via Biblical Archaeology Review, the Society has shared professional archaeologists’ latest insights and discoveries of the lands of the Bible with the public, in accessible language, engaging hundreds of thousands of interested readers over the past four decades. The Society also fulfills its mission through its books, video lectures, tours, seminars – especially Bible and Archaeology Fest, which celebrates its 20th year in 2017 – and website. Recently, Sue Laden has been instrumental in launching the Biblical Archaeology Society’s web-based newsletter “Bible History Daily,” which has 85,000 subscribers. Laden joined the ASOR Board in January 2015.
W. Mark Lanier
W. 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” byThe National Trial Lawyers and The Trial Lawyermagazine (2016), and as “Houston’s Lawyer of the Year” for Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions (2016). In 2015, he was awarded theAmerican 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).
Joe D. Seger
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 the Chair of the Officers Nominations Committee and as a member of 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.
