President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and Commissions

WASHINGTON – Today, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to serve in key roles:

• Nancy D. Berman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
• Herbert Block, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
• Harley Lippman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
• Hershel Wein, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
• Alexandra Jones, Chair, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Alex W. Barker, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Andrew Lamarche Connors, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Michael Findlay, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Cynthia Denise Herbert, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Nii Otokunor Quarcoopome, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• Miriam T. Stark, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• William A. K. Titelman, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
• James R. Berman, Member, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
• Michael Trager, Member, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
The U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad was established in 1985 to ensure that sites important to populations impacted by Nazism, communism, and the Cold War would be preserved for future generations. The Commission’s mission is to identify, protect, and preserve cemeteries, monuments, and historic buildings in Eastern and Central Europe that are associated with U.S. heritage. The work recognizes that the population of the United States is mostly comprised of immigrants and their descendants, and that the United States has an interest in the preservation of sites in other countries related to the heritage of these Americans.

Nancy D. Berman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Nancy D. Berman is a community leader with a demonstrated record of service through volunteerism, board and committee memberships, and philanthropic leadership with a variety of affiliations and nonprofit organizations. Berman’s professional background is in marketing and her most recent endeavor is as the CEO and Founder of NANDANIE, a luxury fashion brand whose mission is to inspire confidence, build community, and empower women. Prior to launching NANDANIE, Berman applied her creativity as owner of an artisanal cakery.

Berman has served as the President of Yad Ezra, an organization that provides kosher food to vulnerable Jewish families in Southeast Michigan and was their 2021 dinner honoree along with her three children. She is also involved with Asra Kedisha, an organization for the preservation of Jewish cemeteries and gravesites throughout the world and has travelled to Cairo, Egypt to survey the restoration of the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Frankel Jewish Academy, is a founding member of Kehillat Etz Chayim in Detroit, and is a member of The International Society of Female Professionals, the Accessories Council, BasBlue Detroit, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Committee, AIPAC, and FIDF. Berman lives in Huntington Woods, Michigan.

Herbert Block, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Herbert Block is the Executive Director of the American Zionist Movement, a role he has served in since 2017. Block is the former Assistant Executive Vice President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, where he was responsible for the Government Affairs and Property Restitution portfolios at the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian organization. He has served on boards addressing Holocaust-era assets, property restitution, compensation for Shoah survivors, and the preservation of Jewish heritage sites and cemeteries in Europe and the United States. He was previously Assistant to the Mayor of the City of New York, Assistant Director of the New York City Independent Budget Office, and a Deputy Director at the Federal Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps). Block previously served as a Member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad from 2011 to 2019, to which he was appointed for three terms by President Obama. He received a BA from Columbia University and a JD from Brooklyn Law School.

Harley Lippman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Harley Lippman is the Founder and CEO of Genesis10. Since its inception in 1999, Lippman has grown the company into one of the largest IT consulting firms in the United States and is consistently named among the top 50 “Best CEOs” by USA Today. A dedicated philanthropist, Lippman has been the sole financial supporter of a Cambodian orphanage for more than 17 years and has funded efforts to explore an overlooked aspect of the Holocaust since 2009. Specifically, he works to find mass graves where Jews were murdered and buried and hosts memorials to honor and preserve their memory throughout the year. Lippman executive produced Safeguarding Memory, an award-winning documentary on mass graves in Poland, which appeared on PBS. Additionally, Lippman is a regular commentator on national and international television on issues related to the Middle East, workforce development, U.S. politics, and the economy.

Lippman received a MA in International Affairs at Columbia University, studied abroad in Poland on a Fulbright Fellowship, and received a scholarship to study at the Ukrainian Institute at Harvard University.

Hershel Wein, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad
Hershel Wein, an active member of the New York Jewish community, is an attorney who has practiced law for over 36 years. He is currently a partner and member of the Energy and Infrastructure group of Wilson Sonsini, with a specialty in tax law and renewable energy. Previously, he was a partner and member of the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG and a partner at the law firm Dewey Ballantine. Among his communal activities, Wein is a founder of one of the largest Jewish religious private schools in Long Island, NY, where he served on the board of directors. Wein graduated from the Columbia Law School in 1985 after attending Brooklyn College for his undergraduate studies. He currently resides in Long Island with his wife and children.

Cultural Property Advisory Committee
The Cultural Property Advisory Committee reviews requests for import restrictions submitted to the United States by foreign governments, considers proposals to extend existing agreements and emergency actions, carries out ongoing review of current import restrictions, and provides reports of its findings and recommendations to the Department of State.

The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act established the 11-member presidentially appointed Committee to ensure that the U.S. government receives advice from diverse public interests in cultural property matters. The Committee includes two members who represent the interests of museums; three members who are expert in archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, or related fields; three members who are expert in the international sale of cultural property; and three members who represent the interest of the general public. The Cultural Heritage Center serves as the secretariat for Committee and convenes and facilitates the Committee’s quarterly meetings.

Alexandra Jones, Chair, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Dr. Alexandra Jones, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Archaeology in the Community, is an education leader focused on community outreach and service. Jones is currently Professor of Practice in History and Archaeology at Goucher College. She worked for PBS’s television show “Time Team America” as the Archaeology Field School Director, where she directed field schools for junior high and high school students at each of the sites for the 2013 season. She obtained dual Bachelor of Arts degrees from Howard University in History and Anthropology in 2001 and a Master of Arts degree in History from Howard University in 2003. She then attended University of California, Berkeley for a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in Historical Archaeology in 2010. Jones serves on the Board for the Society of Black Archaeologists, the District of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Review Board, the Board of Directors of the St. Croix Archaeological Society, and is an Academic Trustee for the Archaeological Institute of America.

Alex W. Barker, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Alex W. Barker is a museum anthropologist and archaeologist focusing on issues of cultural heritage, iconography, and the rise of social complexity. A graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute, Barker serves as Director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and has previously held leadership positions at the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Natural History. He has experience in both domestic and international cultural property issues, served on the national Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee from 2011-2015, and coordinated an international antiquities documentation project in collaboration with the Capitoline Museum in Rome. He is a peer-elected Expert Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites International Scientific Committee on Archaeology and Heritage Management and the International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage. He has received national awards for research from the Society for American Archaeology and for service from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Alliance of Museums. Barker is a former President of both the Council for Museum Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association. Barker received a BA from Marquette University, MA from Wichita State University, and PhD from the University of Michigan.

Andrew Lamarche Connors, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Andrew Connors is currently the Director of the Albuquerque Museum, where he previously served as Curator of Art from 2009 through 2018. Connors’ former roles include Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Albuquerque Academy (2006-2009), Senior Curator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque (1999-2006), and Associate Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (1984-1999) where he developed collections and exhibitions on Hispanic, Latino, Native American, and Folk Art. He studied Art History and Architecture at Yale University and did his graduate work in Folklore and American Studies at George Washington University.  He has curated dozens of exhibitions, primarily in the areas of United States Latino Art, Colonial Art from Puerto Rico, Contemporary Art, and Graffiti. He recently completed an exhibition and book on the history of jewelry in New Mexico from prehistory to the present, the first exhibition in a series of medium-focused historical survey exhibitions on New Mexican art that will include ceramics and textiles. As a lecturer, guest teacher, and consultant, he has worked with numerous organizations including the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs, Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Chicano Studies Department at the University of California Los Angeles, Getty Center for Education in the Arts, and the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Michael Findlay, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Michael Findlay is a Director of Acquavella Galleries which specializes in Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War Contemporary Art and presents major exhibitions of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, James Rosenquist, Lucian Freud, and Wayne Thiebaud. Findlay directed one of the first galleries in SoHo in Manhattan in the 1960s, which pioneered the work of artists like John Baldessari, Hannah Wilke, and Sean Scully and secured portrait commissions for Andy Warhol. He was a Senior Director at Christie’s auction house and sat on the Board of Directors from 1984 to 2000. He has served on the Art Advisory Panel for the Internal Revenue Service since 2001, serves on the Board of the New York Foundation for the Arts and the British Schools and Universities Foundation, and is on the Advisory Council of the Appraisers Association of America. Findlay frequently lectures at museums and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He has published poetry and essays in journals, periodicals, and exhibition catalogues, as well as two best-selling books, Seeing Slowly—Looking at Modern Art and The Value of Art. He is married to the contemporary quilt artist Victoria Findlay Wolfe and has two children.

Cynthia Denise Herbert, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Cynthia D. Herbert, AAA, President of Appretium Appraisal Services LLC, is a Certified Member and past President of the Board of the Appraisers Association of America. She has appraised an extensive range of fine and decorative art, antiques, and residential contents/personal property. Herbert is an instructor at the Appraisal Institute of America and the Appraisers Association of America. Additionally, through The Appraisal Foundation, she is an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice). Herbert graduated with a BA from Georgetown University and an MA from New York University.

Nii Otokunor Quarcoopome, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Nii Quarcoopome is the curator of African art and department head of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Americas at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He received his doctorate in African art history in 1993 from the University of California, Los Angeles. After years of college teaching, he entered the museum field in 2000, beginning at Newark Museum before joining Detroit Institute of Arts in 2002. Between 2012 and 2016, Quarcoopome’s concurrent appointment at the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts made him the first shared curator in American history. His exhibition, “Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500-Present,” earned a National Endowment of the Humanities implementation grant and the American Association of Museums’ recognition for excellence. His academic record boasts several prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, including the Fulbright and J. Paul Getty.

Miriam T. Stark, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Dr. Miriam Stark, an anthropological archeologist, is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and has worked in Cambodia since 1996. With field experience in North America, the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia, Stark has published more than 100 articles and chapters on Southeast Asian and North American archaeology. A specialist in ancient ceramics, salient themes in her research include urbanization, ceramic production and distribution, and power relations in premodern Cambodia. Stark’s Cambodian archaeological research program integrates research with capacity-building in collaboration with Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and its various units. She has worked with nearly 100 Cambodian students, interns, and archaeological professionals since launching her first field-based project in the country, and continues to mentor early career archaeologists in Cambodia.  Stark became the Director for the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies in 2018 and is currently a Fulbright Senior Specialist and an Honorary Research Associate with the University of Sydney. Stark earned her doctorate in Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Arizona and held a postdoctoral fellowship in materials analysis at the Smithsonian. She has served as a board member for the Society for American Archaeology and currently serves on 13 editorial boards for archaeology and Southeast Asia-focused journals.

William A. K. Titelman, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
William Titelman has had a highly varied career, while maintaining a lifelong passion for art, history, archeology, anthropology, and antiquities. He received his J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law over a decade after his B.A. in philosophy and art history from Washington and Jefferson College and Brown University. In between degrees, he worked in senior executive capacities in Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp’s Administration and served as a civilian volunteer in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Titelman has always championed the rights of injured victims, consumers, workers, and shareholders. He served for a decade as Legislative Counsel to the PA Trial Lawyers Association, never losing a legislative battle. Titelman joined a business and commercial law firm, starting its Harrisburg office and its government affairs, legislative, and administrative law practices. He has spearheaded numerous legislative accomplishments, including the enactment of Pennsylvania’s Business Corporation Law, brownfields legislation, electric utility deregulation, and the state’s seatbelt law. He led a national campaign opposing a notorious anti-takeover bill. Titelman was a principal in developing the Commonwealth Riverfront Center in Harrisburg, served as Executive Vice President at one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains, and established the public pension fund and labor union practice for a plaintiffs securities litigation firm. He founded Pennsylvanians for Gun Control to support passage of the Brady Bill, was a founding board member of the Israel Policy Forum, and has served on numerous non-profit boards.

A Pennsylvanian, Titelman was born in Altoona, grew up in Pittsburgh, lived in Harrisburg for 30 years, then moved to Washington, DC, before retiring in Florida. During the last nine years he has also spent much of his time living and learning in Greece.

J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board supervises the Fulbright Program and certain programs authorized by the Fulbright-Hays Act and for the purpose of selecting students, scholars, teachers, trainees, and other persons to participate in the educational exchange programs. Appointed by the President, the 12-member Board meets quarterly in Washington, DC. The Board establishes worldwide policies and procedures for the Program and issues an annual report on the state of the Program.

James R. Berman, Member, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
James Berman was most recently a Principal at Select Equity Group, L.P., a global investment advisor managing more than $50 billion across public and private market strategies. Over the course of more than two decades at the firm, Berman held senior leadership positions as General Counsel, Chief Operating Officer, and the Executive Vice President, roles that included responsibility for global operations, legal and regulatory affairs, and long-term firm strategy. He served on the Management Committee, the Investment Committee, the Astor Place Holdings Investment Committee, and the boards of several portfolio and not-for-profit entities controlled by the firm. Berman also helped develop Aventine, a research institute that supports scholarship on how rapid technological advancements affect the ways we’ll live and work in the future. Prior to joining Select Equity, Berman was an attorney with White & Case, LLP concentrating on sovereign and corporate transactions in post-Communist countries. Before White & Case, Berman was a Program Officer at the Twentieth Century Fund, coordinating the think tank’s first projects in Russia and East/Central Europe.

Berman holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. In addition to serving as a director of a number of private companies in the U.S. and abroad, Berman also serves on the boards of several non-profit, educational, and cultural institutions. He lives in New York City with his wife, Lisa Rechsteiner, and their two children, Thea and Oliver.

Michael Trager, Member, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
Michael Trager, a Washington lawyer for 35 years, began his career as a United States government attorney. He is actively involved in the Washington community and has been an advocate and supporter of the rights of refugees and at-risk children, the survivors of DEA fallen agents, and the arts. Trager is the founding Co-Chair of the Securities Enforcement and Litigation Practice at the international law firm of Arnold & Porter, and he served in that position for approximately two decades as well as in other firmwide leadership roles while a senior partner. He is recognized and ranked nationally as a leading lawyer in his field. Prior to entering private practice, Trager served in the Division of Enforcement of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the Washington, DC Headquarters, and he has written and spoken on securities issues and governmental investigations.

Trager’s outside activities have included The Economic Club of Washington, Distinguished Practitioners Council and Board of Advisors of the SEC Historical Society, Board of Directors of the Middleburg Film Festival, Board of Directors of The Washington Ballet, The Phillips Collection, Refugees International, and Children’s Law Center. Trager earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law. While at Wesleyan, he studied abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He resides in Washington, DC and has been married to Mariella Trager for 35 years. They have two adult children, Nicholas and Alexander Trager.

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