Faculty Members

	Dr. Charles R. Page, II is the Academic Dean of the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration. He was raised in Tennessee, but his soul has always been in the Middle East. Since 1968, he has been excavating, spending a good portion of the year in Israel. Charles has taught thousands of students in courses in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, and Turkey. He has led or participated in excavations at Tel Arad, Beersheva, Beth Shean, Bethsaida, Har Karkom, and Kursi/Gergesa. In his youth, Charles was a professional musician. His first major in college was conducting and he planned a career in music. After his freshman year in college, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in the Middle East. It was during this period in his life that he discovered archaeology, or it discovered him. The rest is history. When he returned to the United States, Charles attended the University of Tennessee where he concentrated his studies in the Bible, anthropology, and Middle Eastern studies. In graduate school and seminary, he also focused his studies on the Bible, archaeology, and anthropology. Finally, his Ph.D. concentration was Biblical Archaeology. Charles and his wife. Judy, have three children and six grandchildren.
	The Rev. Dr. Sam Morris, President of the Jerusalem Institute, has served in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky as Lead Pastor, Youth Pastor and Director of the United Methodist Hour radio and television ministry. Under his leadership, many men and women entered pastoral vocations and serve the church across the world. He is known for story-telling style of preaching and insight into the biblical narrative. Currently, Dr. Morris serves as Lead Pastor of First United Methodist Church, Columbus, MS and instructor for the Mississippi Course of Study for part-time local pastors in the United Methodist Church. Sam and his wife, Judy, have three children and one grandchild.
	Dr. Paul McCracken, Associate Dean of the Jerusalem Institute, is a native of Birmingham, Alabama and a graduate of Auburn University. Like several other faculty members, he is a musician, having played professionally with the Auburn Knights Orchestra. Paul’s passion is bringing the biblical text alive through a better understanding of the physical world of the Bible (the Land), the cultural world of the Bible, and the world in which the biblical drama took place. He has excavated at Bethsaida and at Kursi/Gergesa, where he is the Associate Director of the excavation project. Paul has written several articles for various publications and is the author of "The Man from Nazareth and His Ministry". His wife, Nancy, is a physical therapist and he has three children.
	Rev. Bert Gary is the author of Jesus Unplugged, an outstanding new book from FaithWalk Publishing, that offers a challenging yet refreshing new look at Jesus of Nazareth. Currently he is writing Heaven for Skeptics, due out the end of 2008 also from FaithWalk.Bert directs our United Methodist pastoral programs through their Division of Ordained Ministry. His passion is teaching creative connections between archaeological dig reports, historical documents, scripture, and Christian theology. Bert handles our groups who need a naturalist, and specializes in ornithology (birds). He has taught numerous college groups, pastors' groups, and church groups in Israel, Jordan, Greece, and Turkey. Bert has undergraduate degrees in psychology and music, and a graduate degree in theology all from Emory University. He is 49-year-old ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Bert and his wife, Kathy, live in Mississippi.
	Dr. Alan D. Hix is the Chairman for the Department of Religion and Philosophy and Associate Professor of Religion at Shorter College, in Rome, GA. Before coming to Shorter (also his alma mater), Alan taught in the area of Biblical Studies for Louisiana College, Truett-McConnell College, and William Carey College. For 12 years, he taught Biblical Archaeology, Biblical Studies, and Christian History on the graduate level for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Alan received his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. from New Orleans Seminary in Biblical Studies, and has done graduate work in archaeology with NOBTS and the University of South Florida. Alan served as an Area Supervisor for the University of South Florida’s Excavations at Sepphoris, and is currently an Associate Director of the Excavations at Kursi/Gergesa. He has participated in leading groups to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey. In addition to his academic work, Alan has served as both a pastor and as a minister of music in Baptist churches in Georgia and Louisiana. Natives of Rome, he and his wife Kathy, have one daughter, and like several of the JIBE faculty, is a musician who enjoys writing and arranging Christian music.
	Brian Kvasnica has been teaching in the Land of the Bible since 1998. He has a B.A. from Houghton College (NY) and an M.A. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Early Christianity and Judaism. He is a Ph.D. student at Hebrew University, works part-time with the Home for Bible Translators and teaches Hebrew with the Biblical Language Center. Brian is an associate member of the Jerusalem School for Synoptic Research. Brian’s MA thesis was reworked with Randall Buth and was published as a 90 page essay, "Temple Authorities and Tithe-Evasion: The Linguistic Background and Impact of the Parable of the Vineyard Tenants and the Son" in Jesus' Last Week: Jerusalem Studies on the Synoptic Gospels, (Leiden: Brill, 2006). Brian’s "Shifts in Israelite War History: Early Jewish Historiography and Ethics of Plundering” is to appear in a 2008 SBL volume entitled Writing and Reading War. Since moving to Jerusalem in 1995, Brian has worked for the Orion Center for the Dead Sea Scrolls, Narkis Street Congregation, and Shevet Achim. He helped organize four seasons of the Kursi/Gergesa excavations in the Galilee with fellow JIBE faculty. Brian is married to Shoshanna and they have three children.
	Dr. James M. Pitts recently retired from Furman University, Greenville, SC, where he served as Chaplain to the University and holds the academic rank of professor of religion emeritus. At Furman he taught “Introduction to Biblical Literature,” “Archaeology and Geography of the Biblical World,” and “The Nature of Ministry.” A native of Washington, DC, Jim is a graduate of Furman University, Southeastern Seminary at Wake Forest, NC, and Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. An experienced pastoral counselor, he has worked in both congregational and hospital settings. His professional expertise includes crisis counseling, substance abuse intervention, and career guidance for persons in ministry. His sermons and essays on biblical and pastoral themes are published in books, magazines and on NextSunday.com. One of the founders of Smyth & Helwys Publishing Company, Jim has served as Chairman of the Board for the past 14 years. He serves as the editor of NextSunday-Worship, and is currently developing an on-line pictorial resource on Archaeology and Geography at www.NextSundayGallery.com Jim and his wife Nancy have two adult sons and two daughters-in-law: Stewart and his wife Kelley, and Jonathan and his wife Jackie. They are the proud grandparents of two grandsons, Will and Jon.
	Dr. James R Sawers is a retired, ordained United Methodist pastor who has traveled to and led groups to the Holy Lands many times. He has served as pastor in charge and associate pastor as well as on local, conference (state), and national level boards both within his denomination and with ecumenical organizations. He is the author of more than 80 papers and patents as well as 5 books. He is currently working on a comparative study of the Gospels which has reached 500 2-column pages. Jim is a member of the Society on Biblical Literature. He teaches extensively on Biblical subjects. In addition to his religious background, he holds a PhD degree in nuclear physics from Duke University, has spent 19 years with DuPont in a variety of management positions including holding world-wide, bottom-line responsibility for several product lines. In 1985, he founded an international consulting firm that specializes in knowledge management in highly hazardous industries.
	Joe Zias recently retired from the Israel Antiquities Authority after serving as Senior Curator of Archaeology/Anthropology for twenty five years. He has twenty-eight years professional experience in the field of Medical/ Physical anthropology, he is a renowned Lecturer to universities, international conferences and medical schools and has over 70 articles in peer reviewed medical and scientific journals. He is a member of the Science and Archaeology Group at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This group is composed of scientists from various disciplines, attempting to bring diverse fields of scientific inquiry to archaeology, anthropology and research on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Joe is well known throughout the archaeological world because of his extensive field and laboratory experience in excavation and research conducted on ancient human skeletal remains. He has served as scientific consultant and advisor to museums, universities and medical congresses throughout the world.
	Ann Roberts is JIBE's Program Coordinator and Laison to the Christian Community in Israel and Palestine. She was born in Memphis and grew up in Jackson, TN. where she was an active member of the First Baptist Church. She has a baccalaureate from Radcliffe College in Islamic History and Law, a Master’s Degree in Arab Contemporary Society from the American University of Beirut, and a Masters of Science in Public Health from the University of Mass at Amherst. She worked for almost 30 years in international public health programs in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.Anne has spent almost ten years over this period in the Holy Land, and has grown to love the people, the land and the opportunities for learning and growing as a Christian here. Over the past decade she has become particularly interested in the problems facing the indigenous Christians in the Holy Land, those who remained here after the time of Christ, and the many who made their way here in the first centuries after Christ. Anne feels that time is running out for the local Christians, and that it is important for their Christian brothers in the west to support their Mother Church.