Will Raynolds

Co-Director of ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives
ASOR

willraynolds@asor.org

In addition to his work with ASOR, Raynolds is Co-director of the Garden Collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (Egypt), and consultant for the World Monuments Fund (Haiti), the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the American Archaeological Mission in Libya. Following his time at Yarmouk University (Jordan), where he was a Fulbright Fellow affiliated with the Department of Archaeology, Mr. Raynolds completed his MSc. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, New York (2009).

Lisa Ackerman

Executive Director of Columbus Citizens Foundation; Volunteer Principal Investigator of ASOR CHI

Executive Director of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, New York. Ackerman is past CEO and Chief Operating Officer at the World Monuments Fund. She has assisted in the documentation and conservation of historic sites in more than 100 countries, and she holds an appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. Previously Ms. Ackerman served as Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Ms. Ackerman holds the M.S. degree in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute, an MBA from New York University, and the B.A. from Middlebury College. In 2007 she received Historic District Council’s Landmarks Lion award. In 2008, Ms. Ackerman was named the first recipient of US/ICOMOS Ann Webster Smith Award for International Heritage Achievement.

Project Managers and Coordinators

Talal Bariun

Director of ASOR Libyan Museum Toolkit Program, and ASOR’s Representative for Libya (West)

talalbariun@asor.org

Talal Bariun was trained as a lawyer and served as a judge, presiding over cases pertaining to the application of Libyan antiquities law to ensure their protection. As a photographer, tour guide, and former Director of International Partnerships for the Libyan Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, he has decades of experience introducing foreign visitors to the depth and breadth of Libyan cultural heritage. For the past four years, Bariun has been the primary architect and implementer of ASOR’s cultural heritage outreach programs in Libya, establishing and sustaining a nation wide network of heritage advocates. Bariun serves as ASOR’s Heritage Representative for Libya (West).

Hanan Charaf

Professor, Lebanese University, and ASOR CHI Program Manager
ASOR

hanan.charaf@asor.org

Dr. Hanan Charaf is associate professor of art archaeology at Lebanese University. She has been a member of ASOR since 2000 and served the organization on different committees, on the board of trustees, and as the series editor of the Archaeological Reports Series for 6 years. She holds her Ph.D. from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, her M.A. from the University of Lumière Lyon II, and her B.A. from the Lebanese University. She has been involved in numerous excavations in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, France, Turkey, and Tunisia. She is the director of the archives and publications of Tell Arqa in Lebanon and of the excavations of the Middle Bronze Age site of Tell Douris in Lebanon and the Roman cemetery of the MWM 481 site at Sidon. Her areas of specialization include the Bronze and Iron Ages in Lebanon and the central Levant with an emphasis on pottery productions and international trade. She has been involved in cultural heritage projects in Lebanon focusing on preservation, awareness, and outreach.

Ahmad Emrage

Professor, University of Benghazi, and ASOR Heritage Representative for Libya (East)
ASOR

ahmademrage@asor.org

As ASOR’s representative for heritage activities in Libya (East), Dr. Emrage manages ASOR’s cultural heritage grants and activities in the eastern area of Libya. He also serves as a senior advisor for ASOR’s work throughout Libya and North Africa. Emrage holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees in Archaeology from University of Benghazi, and the Ph.D. degree from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester. During the 2019–20 academic year, Emrage held a Fulbright Fellowship to teach courses on Libyan cultural heritage at Oberlin College (Ohio, USA).

Jared Koller

Manager for Data Management and Web Development
ASOR

jaredkoller@asor.org

Website and Database Developer for ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives. Mr. Koller is a doctoral candidate in Archaeology at Boston University. He has conducted research in Bir Madkhur, Jordan, and throughout SE Asia, where he utilizes new media tools to conduct experimental investigations in landscape and environmental change over time. Mr. Koller holds an MA in History and New Media from George Mason University (2010) and a BA in Anthropology-Archaeology from the University of New Mexico (2005).

Marta Ostovich

Programs Manager
ASOR

programs@asor.org

Programming support for ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives. Ostovich has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the western Mediterranean, primarily in Spain, where she worked for many years with Boston University’s project at Torre d’en Galmes. Her research interests include the combined management of cultural and natural heritage, cultural tourism, and teaching heritage in the field. Ostovich undertook both her graduate and undergraduate studies at Boston University with a focus on Archaeology and Heritage Management. She has been working with ASOR since 2018.

Regional Contractors and Volunteers

• Intisar al Arebi, Libyan Department of Antiquities
• Morgan Belzic, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art
• Khaled El Haddar, University of Benghazi
• Abd al Hafid al Massalati, Department of Investigations, Benghazi
• Mftah Haddad, University of Tarhuna
• Abd al Jabar Al Saghrir, Ghadames Association of Manuscripts and Heritage
• Ramadan Al Shebani, Libyan Department of Antiquities
• Abd Al Qasim Youshaa, Ghadames Association of Manuscripts and Heritage

Amr Al-Azm

Director The Day After, and Shawnee State University

aalazm@shawnee.edu

Founder and board member of The Day After Project (TDA) and Associate Professor of History and Anthropology at Shawnee State University, formerly of Brigham Young University (2006-2009), the University of Damascus (1999-2006) and the Arab European University (2005-2006). Dr. al-Azm previously served as the Director of Scientific and Conservation Laboratories at the General Department of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) (1999-2004). He holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University College London (UCL).

Zaki Aslan

Director ICCRO ATHAR

Director ICCROM- ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and ICCROM’s Regional Representative for the Arab States. Dr. Aslan holds a Ph.D. in Heritage Conservation and Management from the University College London, United Kingdom, and an MSc in Conservation of the Built Environment from the University of Montreal. Aslan provided technical advice to the Arab States in the Mediterranean and Gulf countries on heritage conservation, management and planning, World Heritage procedures, national heritage strategies and governance, technical guidance through publications, as well as heritage education. He is honorary senior lecturer at University College London. He is a regular commentator on the destruction of heritage in the Middle-East.

Scott Branting

Principal Investigator for Geospatial Inventories and Arches Development,
University of Central Florida

Senior advisor for Heritage Mapping and Data Integration with the Cultural Heritage Initiatives. Associate Professor at University of Central Florida. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Branting was director of Geospatial Initiatives at ASOR for the 2014-15 academic year. He previously served for ten years as the Director of the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL) at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Andrew Cohen

Govenment Professional and Expert on Cultural Heritage

Dr. Cohen is currently a government professional using his experience with the legislative process, congressional oversight, and executive-legislative branch relations to advise the Internal Revenue Service on Congressional affairs. In 2020-21, he was a Brookings Fellow at the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Prior to that, he worked for over a decade advising the U.S. Department of State on international cultural heritage protection and preservation policy, and representing the United States government in bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental fora as an expert on cultural heritage. In 2018-2019, as Executive Director of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the State Department, Cohen managed the simultaneous negotiation, signing, and implementation of more than 20 cultural property agreements between the United States and partner countries around the world, including most of the countries in the Near East and wider Mediterranean world. Dr. Cohen holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology and M.A. in Classical Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College.

Timothy Harrison

University of Toronto and Director of the CRANE Project

tim.harrison@utoronto.ca

Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Dr. Harrison earned the Ph.D. in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Chicago. He has directed excavations at the Bronze and Iron Age site of Tell Madaba, Jordan, and currently is directing the Tayinat Archaeological Project on the Plain of Antioch in southeastern Turkey. In 2012, he launched the CRANE Project (Computational Research on the Ancient Near East), an international consortium of projects conducting research in the Orontes Watershed (www.crane.utoronto.ca). He served as President of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) from 2008–2013.

Gil Stein

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Formerly of Northwestern University, Dr. Stein has conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork in Turkey and Syria. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1988).

Jeanne Marie Teutonico

Getty Conservation Institute

Associate Director, Programs, at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) in Los Angeles. An architectural conservator with over thirty years of experience in the conservation of buildings and sites, she was previously on the staff of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome and later of English Heritage in London. Ms. Teutonico holds an A.B. (Hons) in art history from Princeton University and a M.Sc. in historic preservation from Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is published widely and maintains research interests in the conservation and sustainable use of traditional building materials. She was a Resident of the American Academy in Rome in 2009, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Association for Preservation Technology.