WHO WE ARE
ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives is an international, collaborative effort to respond to the destruction of cultural heritage in North Africa and the Middle East. To date, our work has focused on Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, the Maghreb, and the Sahel. Most recently, ASOR has focused on education and stewardship programs that foster understanding between people across ethnic, religious, and geographic boundaries. The following list includes our co-directors, project managers and consultants, and volunteer advisors. ASOR CHI has been successful because we have so many volunteers from many different countries, and we are grateful for their service. We are actively seeking more volunteers. Please contact us if you are willing to help.
Principal Investigators
Andrew G. Vaughn
ASOR Executive Director and ASOR CHI Co-Director
ASOR
executive-director@asor.org, 703-789-9229
ASOR Executive Director and Co-Director of ASOR CHI, Dr. Vaughn has served as ASOR’s Executive Director since 2007. Prior to 2007, he was Associate Professor and department chair at Gustavus Adolphus College. He received the Ph.D. degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1996 in the area of Hebrew Bible.
Will Raynolds
Co-Director of ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives
ASOR
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).
Managers and Coordinators
Darren P. Ashby
Cultural Heritage Programs Manager
ASOR
Dr. Darren P. Ashby has served as ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Programs Manager since March 2024. He previously worked at ASOR from 2017 to 2019 where he reported on threats and damage to cultural heritage and led a project to document the current condition of Jewish cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria. Darren received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 2017 with a specialization in the archaeology, art, and history of Ancient Mesopotamia. Prior to his current position, he was Program Manager of the University of Pennsylvania’s Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program (IHSP) where he worked from 2019 to 2024.
Hanan Charaf
Director for North African Cultural Heritage Projects
ASOR
In addition to her work with ASOR CHI, Dr. Hanan Charaf is associate professor of art and archaeology at the Lebanese University. She has been a member of ASOR since 2000 and previously served as the series editor of the ASOR Archaeological Reports Series. She received her Ph.D. degree from 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, and directed three projects in Lebanon. She has overseen cultural heritage preservation, awareness, and outreach projects in Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
Alia Fares
Manager for Sahel Cultural Heritage Projects
ASOR
Alia is an archaeologist and cultural heritage consultant passionate about preserving and promoting the cultural and natural heritage around the globe. She has a master’s degree in history of architecture and archaeology from the University of Bonn, and is finalizing a PhD at the university of Cologne in Roman Architecture. Currently, she works as a heritage consultant for ASOR on the Sahel region, Africa. She founded Herigatech, a heritage management company, as well as the HEP – the Heritage Education Program – to foster heritage awareness in rural and urban communities. Her passion resides in supporting the Lebanon Mountain Trail Association in promoting and preserving a 480km single distance hiking trail in Lebanon. Her mission is to build bridges between cultural heritage and local communities, decetralizing the process of protection and empowering communities with the right tools and knowledge to protect and celebrate their ancestral heritage.
Aida Ejroushi
Post-doctoral Cultural Heritage Fellow
ASOR
Dr. Aida M. Ejroushi, an architect from Libya, obtained her doctoral degree in Land Use, Planning, Management, and Design with a specialization in historic preservation from the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University. Dr. Ejroushi’s research revolves around historic preservation planning, planning history, international planning and development, critical theory, uneven development, and Science and Technology Studies. She examines the intersection between historic preservation and urbanization.
Ahmad Emrage
Professor, University of Benghazi, and ASOR Libya Programs Manager
ASOR
As ASOR’s representative for heritage activities in Libya, 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
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).
Regional Contractors and Volunteers
- Aboutou Konate, Heritage Contractor for Mali
- Jean-Paul Koudougou, ICOM-Afrique
