Staff Update

While many use the summer to vacation and recharge, PHS has been as busy as ever. We've welcomed two new staff members and promoted another.

Our new Executive Director, Beth Hessel, began her work at PHS in June. Before arriving in Philadelphia, Beth successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis in History at Texas Christian University. She also holds a Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary, a Master of Arts in U.S. Women’s History from State University of New York at Binghamton, and a Bachelor of Arts in U.S. History from the University of California, Davis. She has relocated from Texas with her two children, Isaac and Lydia. Beth has wasted no time, hitting the ground running!

In August, our Reformatting Technician, Stephanie Becker, left PHS to pursue a Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from the University of Rochester; we wish her the best of luck! Our Archives Technician, Michael Carroll, has filled Stephanie’s position. As a recent graduate from Temple University, Michael worked as a Digitization Specialist in Temple University's Urban Archives and as a Digital Archives Assistant at Philadelphia's Institute of Contemporary Art. In his free time, Michael writes art reviews for theartblog.org.

We've also welcomed a new Cataloging and Metadata Librarian, Gabriela Zoller! Gabriela, who comes to us from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY, holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from Drexel University and a Master of Art in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Gabriela is thrilled to be back in Philadelphia and enjoys running and watching Project Runway with her cats. 

We wish a warm welcome to our new staff and look forward to working with them!