Yorke Rowan

Mission Statement: Since the 1990s, ASOR has been fundamental to my development as a professional scholar and field archaeologist. The first grant I received for field research was an ASOR travel scholarship, and the first national professional paper I delivered was at ASOR in New Orleans. I have a long dedication to the success of ASOR, serving on the editorial boards of Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research and Near Eastern Archaeology, co-chairing the Program Committee after for two previous terms on the committee, serving on the Honors and Awards Committee, and the Committee on Archaeological Policy. In addition, I co-chaired and co-organized various sessions such as the standing session “Prehistoric Archaeology” (2015, 2019-2021) and the member organized “Archaeology of Religion and Ritual” (2005-2006). My involvement with ASOR is complemented by extensive engagement with communities on the ground in different countries, emphasizing my commitment to creating more collaborative opportunities with colleagues based abroad.

The organization has grown tremendously since I joined as a graduate student, with a welcome expansion to include a broader range of topics, geographic regions, and chronological periods. This growth is not limited to scholarly interests but includes increased worldwide accessibility through a hybrid meeting format. I believe it is important to sustain and build on this positive trend to build membership, engage with members at different career stages, and seek to find new collaborative partnerships that will only strengthen ASOR. As ASOR faces new challenges like complicated funding realities, regional civil unrest, and climate change, the organization must mount new initiatives and endeavors to respond to member needs. As a member of ASOR’s Board of Trustees, my goal will be to promote its mission to disseminate knowledge of western Asia and Mediterranean ancient societies, and to make that scholarship more accessible to the public. Finding creative ways to promote our research, particularly those of our research partners, to a variety of audiences is a challenge that will strengthen our organization and continue to interest future generations of students, the public, and scholars.

Ido Koch

Mission Statement: I have been a member of ASOR since 2009, have attended nearly all annual meetings since then, and have interacted with scores of ASOR members of all ages and backgrounds. ASOR has been my professional cradle and the place where I learned to appreciate the value of an international network, a value I hope my students will inherit.

As a scholar based in the Middle East, I believe ASOR must strengthen the representation of voices from the regions it studies. The societies who live in the lands whose pasts we uncover deserve a place in shaping how that past is researched, understood, and represented. As an Israeli archaeologist working on the remote and recent past of the southern Levant, I am acutely aware of the region’s diversity and complexity. Based on my experience, ASOR and its sister institutions (such as the W.F. Albright Institute) are uniquely positioned to foster dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian scholars, a dialogue urgently needed now more than ever. I see my role as a bridge: between ASOR and local scholarly and cultural communities, and between those communities themselves. In times of deepening divisions, we must hold fast to both our professional and human ties. In my fieldwork and collaborations, I strive to create spaces where Jewish and Arab students, alongside colleagues from different backgrounds and perspectives, can work together toward shared understanding. Archaeology can and should serve as a medium of dialogue, and as a reminder of our intertwined pasts and shared humanity.

Drawing on my experience directing and co-directing field projects, I recognize the need for ASOR to advance ethical, inclusive, and community-oriented archaeology. I propose developing a collaboratively produced “fieldwork toolkit,” drawing on the collective knowledge of ASOR-affiliated projects. This toolkit would guide projects that prioritize community engagement, the dissemination of results to local institutions, and accessible digital platforms for sharing data. Through such initiatives, I hope to help ASOR lead by example—making archaeology both academically rigorous and socially meaningful.

Kathryn Grossman

Kathryn Grossman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist with expertise in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Cyprus and Mesopotamia and a methodological specialty in zooarchaeology. She is Director of the ASOR-affiliated Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project (Cyprus), as well as zooarchaeologist for the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (Iraqi Kurdistan), the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt), and the Petra North Ridge Project (Jordan). She is currently co-editing, with Jesse Casana and Eric Jensen, the final report on the excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria.

Mission Statement: I have been involved with ASOR for seventeen years. I began attending and presenting at the annual meeting as a graduate student, and my engagement has deepened over time. I served on the Committee on Archaeological Policy for two terms, and during that time I also chaired the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. In 2018, I presented the work of the Fellowships Subcommittee at that year’s Legacy Dinner, and in 2023 I received an ASOR Service award for my work on the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. I chair the Archaeology of Syria sessions at the Annual Meeting, am a member of the Damascus Committee, a member of the Executive committee, the chair of the Trustees Nominations Committee, and I serve as the institutional representative for ASOR at North Carolina State University. In my time as an ASOR member, I have watched the organization grow dramatically in its geographic scope and evolve to meet the demands of 21st-century scholarship. In serving as an Institutionally-elected member on the ASOR Board of Trustees, I look forward to helping ASOR move forward with the issues that loom before us, including increasing our outreach to diverse audiences at home and abroad, and promoting the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Michael Hasel

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

Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on eleven 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 and surveys at Khirbet Qeiyafa and Socoh 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” and several temporary exhibits including “Peace and War: The Assyrian Conquest of Lachish” (2023-2025) and “The Ivory Comb: Lice and Literacy at Lachish” (2025).

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 and the NEH Fellowship at the Albright Institute in 2025-26. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research and Tyndale House, Cambridge.

Hasel joined the ASOR Board in January 2014.

Mission Statement: Over the past 36 years of my involvement with ASOR, I have watched ASOR grow into a strong society representing a wide variety of interests and research foci in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. During that same period, I have been actively involved in excavations in Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus while also engaged in Egyptological research. As an excavator I am interested in encouraging the archaeological interplay between text and material culture. This integration has been one of the historic strengths of ASOR and I believe it remains vital as ASOR continues to position itself as an important and relevant voice to a large segment of North America. As a museum director part of my vision is to make our field relevant for future generations through popularizing archaeological discoveries and making it accessible to a larger segment of society. This would include encouraging young scholars who are searching for direction and belonging to get involved in ASOR while fostering connections in the regions it serves. To accomplish these goals, I would welcome the opportunity to continue to support and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees for another term.