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Ellen holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. A native New Yorker, she has worked for the last seventeen years as a consulting folklorist in many areas of upstate New York and western Massachusetts. Before taking the position as executive director of New York Folklore Society, Ellen held posts as director of the Schoharie County Historical Society/Old Stone Fort Museum (1990-1994), director of the Shaker Heritage Society (1986-1987), and assistant director of the Folklife Center of the International House of Philadelphia (1983-1985). A Fulbright Scholar, she received a Senior Fellowship to lecture at the Institute for Folklife Studies (Institutet for folklivsforskning) at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, from 1988-1989 and has taught folklore courses at the university level for Empire State College and for Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. She has published numerous scholarly articles and programmatic pieces about her folklore scholarship.

Ellen McHale is no stranger to the New York Folklore Society, having served on the Board of NYFS from 1987 to 1997, with a term as president from 1993-1996. Actively involved with the Society’s archives project from its inception, she was a major contributor to the New York Folklore Society’s publication, Working with Folk Materials in New York State.

Eileen Condon holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and has specialized in the study of popular religion, folksong, and folk music. Currently a Program Director at Manhattan’s Center for Traditional Music and Dance, Eileen previously worked as staff folklorist for the Dutchess County Arts Council in Poughkeepsie, following three years as a visiting professor at the University of Toledo, Ohio. She has served as a program consultant to the New York Folklore Society since 2005 and is a regular columnist for Voices. Eileen replaced Dr. Felicia McMahon who held the post from 2003-2008.

Ethnomusicologist Tom van Buren of Hastings-on-Hudson has been named as a Project Consultant with the New York Folklore Society’s technical assistance initiative targeting folk and traditional musicians in New York State. Tom Van Buren holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland. He has worked for over twenty years as an ethnomusicologist and folklorist with particular expertise in urban ethnomusicology, cultural migration, documentation and archiving. He currently serves as the Folk Arts Program Director for the Westchester Arts Council in White Plains, New York, as well as the archivist for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York City.

Folklorist Lisa Overholser has been hired to fill the position of folklorist for the New York Folklore Society and will begin work in November. While she will be involved in many of the New York Folklore Society’s projects, she will be directly responsible for the administration of the New York Folklore Society’s Mentoring and Professional Development Program, she will play an active role (along with Tom van Buren) in the work of the New York State Music Project and workshop series, and she will be conducting documentation within the Capital District of New York State. Lisa is a candidate for a Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from the University of Indiana. Originally from Kansas City, she has worked as a folklorist in Massachusetts, New Jersey and in Brooklyn, where she was instrumental in the start-up of the “Folk Feet Project” at the Brooklyn Arts Council while serving as a NYSCA-supported public sector folklore intern with Kay Turner. Her fieldwork has taken her to Hungary and she has worked specifically with Hungarian and Caribbean communities in the United States.

Sheri Englund lives near Ithaca in upstate New York, where she owns and operates Englund Literary Services, a freelance business serving university clients, nonprofit organizations, and authors of book manuscripts and articles. She is a seasoned publishing professional with fifteen years of writing and editing experience. After working in acquisitions at the University of Texas Press, Englund joined Cornell University Press, where she was the acquisitions editor responsible for Cornell’s distinguished list in American history, as well as lists in anthropology, gender studies, law, and the New York region. Englund holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Patti joined the New York Folklore Society in 1997, working as an administrative assistant in the Ithaca office through May, 1999. She has served as the Society’s website manager since its inception in 1998. With sadness, she left Ithaca, New York to accompany her family to Arizona in 2002, but happily continues her relationship with the Folklore Society through the joys of cyberspace.

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