ÂÌñÒùÆÞ ELECTS FOUR TRUSTEES DURING THE 2012 MEMBERS’ MEETING AT THE ANNUAL MEETING
This year, there were eight people who ran for four slots on the ÂÌñÒùÆÞ board as members of the Class of 2015. The election took place on November 16, 2012 at the Annual ÂÌñÒùÆÞ Members’ Meeting which is held during the Annual Meeting. The general membership elected two individual trustees, and institutional representatives elected two institutional trustees:
- Susan Ackerman (re-elected as an institutional trustee)
- Catherine Duff (elected as a first-time individual trustee)
- Barry Gittlen (re-elected as an institutional trustee)
- Ann-Marie Knoblauch (re-elected as an individual trustee)
Susan
Ackerman is the Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Dartmouth College. Her publications include several articles and three books, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Scholars Press, 1992); Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel (Doubleday, 1998); and When Heroes Love: The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David (Columbia University Press, 2005). She has recently completed a draft of a new book, on women and the religion of ancient Israel. She has been a member of the ÂÌñÒùÆÞ Board of Trustees since 2007, and during that time has also served on the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee and its Strategic Planning Task Force. Currently, she is serving the Board as a member of the Capital Campaign Cabinet and the Board Chair Search Committee. Other current service to ÂÌñÒùÆÞ includes serving as a member of the Committee on Publications and on the editorial board of Near Eastern Archaeology.
Susan’s vision for ÂÌñÒùÆÞ: “During my now six years on the Board, what has impressed me the most is ÂÌñÒùÆÞ’s ever-growing vitality. The three key components of our organization — the annual meeting; publications; and our support of archaeological excavations and excavators — are all thriving, and our adoption of our new Strategic Plan and the success we anticipate for our on-going Capital Campaign position us to flourish even more. To be sure, significant challenges lie ahead, in particular, identifying a successor to our venerable Board Chair, P. E. MacAllister. But our ability to meet significant challenges in these past few years—most important, getting our financial house in order—makes me confident that ÂÌñÒùÆÞ can continue to prosper, and I would be honored to continue my work as a Trustee in aid of the organization’s well-being.”
Catherine Duff 
has been a member of ÂÌñÒùÆÞ for the past 10 years and began presenting at Annual Meetings early in her doctoral studies. Her dissertation is entitled Ceramic Continuity and Change at Shechem (Tell Balatâh): Assessing the Impact of Egyptian Imperialism in the Central Hill County, which she defended in 2010 at the University of Toronto. She has participated in excavations at Tell Jawa and Wadi ath-Thamad in Jordon and Tell el-Borg in the Northeast Sinai. Catherine currently serves as a Board Member for the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies in Toronto. Her volunteer work includes the Toronto Humane Society and Pathways to Education tutoring Program in Regent Park. Prior to returning to studies, Catherine was a journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) in Atlantic Canada. Currently, she works at the University of Toronto at the OISE Library and continues to do ceramic research in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. In her spare time, Catherine loves to cross-country ski, play beach volleyball, and hang out with her two rescues, Shultz, a mini-dachshund and Hunter, a Lhasa Apso.
Catherine’s vision for ÂÌñÒùÆÞ: “ÂÌñÒùÆÞ has played a pivotal role in my development as a graduate student and young scholar, since it has provided a critical and thoughtful venue for presenting my doctoral research at Annual Meetings, along with scholarships to attend these meetings. The opportunity to give back to a professional organization as an ÂÌñÒùÆÞ Board of Trustees member is one I value greatly and will perform with diligence and enthusiasm. Since becoming a member of ÂÌñÒùÆÞ more than 10 years ago, I have observed tremendous growth, renewal and vitality in our organization and its members, especially graduate students and young scholars. I wish to continue this progress and look forward to working with you and sharing my ideas about positioning ourselves to attract and encourage even more young scholars to ÂÌñÒùÆÞ.”
Barry Gittlen 
received his Ph.D. from the Department of Oriental Studies of the University of Pennsylvania. He has spent most of his life in archaeological pursuit of the past, mining the antique soils of decayed ruins in search of ancient Israel, Canaan, and Philistia. Combining the disciplines of Archaeology and Biblical Studies, Dr. Gittlen strives to bring the past to life and to reach new understandings of Canaanite, Philistine, and Israelite civilizations. Dr. Gittlen‘s research includes publishing his sector of the excavations at Tel Miqne/Ekron, understanding the mechanisms of ancient trade, and exploring the archaeology of worship. In addition to Tel Miqne/Ekron, his excavation experience includes Tel Gezer, the Jenin-Megiddo Survey, Tel Jemmeh, Tel Sera, and Be’er Resisim/Har Resisim. Finally, Barry Gittlen has been an involved member of ÂÌñÒùÆÞ since 1966 and has worked on various committees, chaired the Program Committee, and served as a trustee of the Albright Institute. He is in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Towson University.
Barry’s Vision for ÂÌñÒùÆÞ: “ÂÌñÒùÆÞ has grown stronger and more financially stable over the past three years. Fiscal and administrative evolution can help keep ÂÌñÒùÆÞ vital but we need to grow further. Priorities for the future (not in any particular order) should include: a) Attract and expand academic membership (both institutional and professional); b) Encourage and educate new colleagues, nurture their fresh ideas and new scholarship; c) Expand popular appeal both for itself and as a means of maintaining financial vitality; d) Continue and expand outreach to the K-12 community (this is how we create our future!); e) Support ÂÌñÒùÆÞ publications’ development of new modalities of presenting the results of archaeological and textual research; f) Seize the opportunities these unsettled times in our sphere of interest provide for the publication of survey and excavation data; g) Actively promote our brand within our own institutions and beyond so that anyone wishing to know anything about the ancient Near East will instinctively turn to ÂÌñÒùÆÞ.”
Ann-Marie Knoblauch 
received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in Classical Archaeology in 1997. Since 1998, she has been teaching ancient art history and archaeology in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech, while serving as the School’s Associate Director since 2011. Her research interests bridge east and west, especially Cyprus and Greece during the archaic and classical periods. She is interested in iconography, religion and the role of women. Ann-Marie has excavated in Israel, Greece and Cyprus (at Yeronisos Island, and at Idalion since 1998). Ann-Marie has chaired several ÂÌñÒùÆÞ sessions on Cyprus, guest co-edited Near Eastern Archaeology, (71 no. 1-2) Ancient Cyprus: American Research. She has been a member of the Board of Trustees of CAARI since 2002, and a member of the NEA editorial board since 2008. She is finishing her first three-year term as a board member of ÂÌñÒùÆÞ. While on the Board, Ann-Marie has been a member of the Executive Committee, the ÂÌñÒùÆÞ Board Presidential Search Committee, the Nominations Committee and the Task Force for Implementing the ÂÌñÒùÆÞ Strategic Plan.
Ann-Marie’s Vision for ÂÌñÒùÆÞ: “As a scholar trained in classical archaeology, I am especially interested in the links and cultural exchange between ancient Near Eastern cultures and the western Mediterranean and how this exchanged manifested itself in the material culture. I believe our study of the ancient Near East is enhanced by balancing and integrating two views: one that appreciates the unique identities that comprise the cultures from this part of the world; with one that seeks to understand the ways in which cultures engage, interact and form part of a larger whole. To me, the success (and value) of an organization such as ÂÌñÒùÆÞ is the ways in which it can serve to promote both the uniqueness of each culture as well as the compelling insights we gain from exploring the intersections among them.”