2020 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive Committee of the ASOR Board of Trustees acts on behalf of the Board to manage the business and affairs of ASOR between the regular Board meetings is composed of the Board Chair, Vice Chair(s) of the Board (if any), President, Past President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Chair of the Development Committee, and two (2) or three (3) other Trustees.

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 and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality 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, 2022)

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.

Lynn Swartz Dodd

(until December 31, 2021)

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

(until December 31, 2021)

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.

Eric M. Meyers

(until December 31, 2021)

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.

Joe D. Seger

(until December 31, 2020)

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.