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CYNTHIA BATES

Cynthia Bates brings an unusual combination of perspectives to SAFE as both an advertising planning director and a doctoral student in the archaeology of ancient Iraq. What these apparently disparate fields share is the study of human behavior and cultural trends-understanding "the consumer," whether in the contemporary context of modern brands and consumption, or in the historical context of reconstructing and understanding ancient patterns.

She was educated in Near Eastern languages, archaeology and anthropology at Harvard, Cambridge, and the University of Chicago. She earned her MBA later at the Harvard Business School in 1988 and entered advertising. In New York, she worked in strategic planning at Foote, Cone Belding, Kraft General Foods, J. Walter Thompson, and Bates USA, establishing her reputation as an expert in consumer trends and behavior. She moved to Chicago in 1997 to become chief planner of the Sears account at Ogilvy, inspiring creative material that earned five gold medals from the Retail Advertising Conference Awards in 1998 and 1999. As director of planning at Publicis & Hal Riney in Chicago, she established an impressive new business record.

She returned to the University of Chicago in 2001 to complete her doctoral studies in anthropology. As a student at the Oriental Institute, she followed the dedicated efforts of its professors to brief the Pentagon on the need to safeguard the Iraqi cultural heritage from looting. Through SAFE, she hopes to create public awareness of the incalculable value of the endangered heritage of ancient Mesopotamia and the need to protect it.

CHRISTINE BENES

Christine Benes has undergraduate degrees in special education and elementary education from the State University College of New York, Buffalo, and her master’s in education with a specialty in reading from Southern Connecticut State University. Her students have included those with learning disabilities and psychiatric conditions, teens at high risk of incarceration, adults in a literacy program, and students in South Korea and Japan; she continues to teach part time at the Borough of Manhattan College, City University of New York. Most recently, Christine developed a program with ARBOR Education and Training that teaches self-sufficiency skills in English, computers, and GED to low-income working parents. During her summer vacations, Christine travels through Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe. She contributes to SAFE as a project coordinator.

PAMELA ERSKINE-LOFTUS

Pamela Erskine-Loftus, a British citizen, has lived in New York since the summer of 2003, having spent the previous 5 years in San Diego working as the development coordinator for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Prior to that, she lived in Bahrain for 5 years, traveling extensively in the Middle East, northern and eastern Africa, and the Far East.

She was educated at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, in performing arts and then at New York University in arts administration, specializing in the visual arts. Throughout her professional career she has gained experience in collections management international relations and protocol, and Arabic language skills. She was also certified by the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection as an institutional protection specialist.

She is currently a post-graduate student in museum studies at the University of Leicester, England, where she is researching the loss of art from Kuwait and southern Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

CINDY HO

Born in Hong Kong, Cindy Ho has been working as a graphic designer/art director in New York City since 1976. Her professional work has won accolades from the industry, but it is her personal work that best shows her power of persuasion.

In 1995 and 1998, she received grants from the Asian Cultural Council in an effort to bring awareness to and preserve the unique collections of art and artifacts of the Naxi people in China, which she uncovered. In 1997, as a Sponsored Artist of the New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) and with grants from Arts International and the Puffin Foundation, she also completed a project entitled Trailing the Written Word: The Art of Writing Among China's Ethnic Minorities. In 2001, she contributed to WHO's publication of Tobacco & the Rights of the Child. NYFA and the Fundaçao Oriente (Lisbon) in 1998 and 1999 supported another project, entitled West of the East—A Journey Through Macau, Asia's First and Last Colony. An effort to safeguard the future of cultural heritage is in keeping with what feels closest to her heart. She conceived SAFE in response to the recent tragic loss of cultural treasures in Iraq.

JESS VAN NOSTRAND

Jess Van Nostrand earned her master's degree in art history at Richmond University, London, and has since worked in the marketing realm of the nonprofit sector for institutions such as OPERA America, Open Arms Housing, and De Melkweg in Amsterdam. Her articles about the arts have been published in Verge magazine, Transitions Abroad, Moxie magazine, and in Amsterdam's ABC Newsletter. Jess currently works in the marketing department of the Bellevue Art Museum in Washington while continuing to provide publicity services to artists and galleries in the Seattle area.

CAROLINE PUZINAS

Caroline Puzinas is a recent graduate in Near Eastern archaeology (M.A.- Near and Middle Eastern Civilisations, University of Toronto, Fall 2002). Projects she has contributed to in various capacities include: Wadi Ziqlab Project (lab volunteer for ceramics); Shechem Project (drawing/illustrating Bronze Age ceramics for eventual publication in the site report); Tel Madaba Project (reconstruction work on Roman/Hellenistic pottery); Paphos , Cyprus ( “salvage” archaeology on a burial site dated to the Early Bronze Age); Khirbet el-Qarn Project (crew member).

Conservation and ceramic analysis have been her main focus of study in the past. Her fieldwork experiences include excavation work in Jordan, Cyprus and Yemen, working on sites covering a range of periods and cultures, including the Early-late Bronze Ages, Roman and Islamic periods. Her future plans include further training in museum studies and incorporating her interests in the illegal trade in artifacts, which is what has led her to join SAFE.

LUCILLE A. ROUSSIN

Lucille A. Roussin is the founder and director of the Holocaust Restitution Claims Practicum at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, where she teaches a seminar, Remedies for Wartime Confiscation. She also teaches a course on "Art, the Law and Professional Ethics" at the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is an associate with the firm of McCallion & Associates and earned her law degree in 1996 from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was a Belkin Scholar. She was Deputy Research Director of the Art and Cultural Property Team of the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets and was an associate in the Art and International Law Practice Group at Herrick, Feinstein LLP in New York City. In 2001, she negotiated the first restitution of a rare Jewish ritual object to a private family in the United States.

REBECCA ANNE RUSHFIELD

Rebecca Anne Rushfield received an MA in art history and a diploma in art conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Currently a consultant specializing in research, writing, and editing in the field of art conservation, she has worked on projects for the Getty Conservation Institute, the Sherman Fairchild Center for Object Conservation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Intermuseum Conservation Association. She is the co-chair of the program committee for the 2004 annual meeting of the American Institute for Conservation, the chair of the Textile Conservation Group, the coordinator of the International Council of Museums Conservation Committee Working Group on the Theory and History of Conservation, and a member of the Services to Artists Committee of the College Art Association.

CHUCK SKORUPSKI

Chuck Skorupski has been in advertising business development for the past 8 years, beginning at Euro RSCG Worldwide. He began his career arranging emergency medical repatriations for American Express, where he developed a love of international communications.

A graduate of the American University in Washington, DC, he earned his B.A. in International Relations. He has worked for the Hospitality Committee for United Nations Delegations, organizing goodwill events for UN Delegates and their families. He recently passed the written portion of the Foreign Service Exam and aspires to work in the international nonprofit arena. His interests include history, obscure languages, and medieval Japanese literature. One of the original members of SAFE, he contributes as project coordinator.

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