ACLS Welcomes New Additions to Program Team

01/12/2021

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce three key new hires to support its evolving portfolio of programs supporting the development and circulation of humanistic scholarship.

Alison Chang and Rebecca Hewett will join ACLS as Program Officers for US Programs, starting January 4, 2021 and December 14, 2020, respectively. Adriana Ortega will also join the US Program team as Program Associate starting December 14, 2020.

Chang, Hewett, and Ortega bring critical experience and capacity to ACLS’s strategic efforts to promote innovative, just, and equitable models of research support and development for humanities scholars. As part of the US Programs team, they will contribute to managing the design, implementation, and administration of peer-reviewed fellowship and grant programs including  the ACLS Fellowship, the Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowships in the History of Art, the Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs, the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships, as well as new initiatives like Leading Edge.

ACLS is also pleased to announce the promotion of Desiree Barron-Callaci to the role of Program Officer for Public Engagement. Barron-Callaci joined ACLS in summer 2019 as Engagement Manager and played a key role in connecting and supporting the growing networks of Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows and Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellows as they pursued work that demonstrates the public value of humanities scholarship. As program officer, she will continue these efforts and contribute to the overall direction of ACLS’s support for publicly engaged scholarship.

Alison Chang most recently served as Director of Communications, Marketing, and Membership at the College Art Association. She was also the President of the Association of Print Scholars from 2018-2020, an organization dedicated to the study of fine art printmaking. She holds a PhD and AM in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in English and French from Wellesley College. Her current scholarly interests include contemporary Scandinavian artists, critical race theory, and printmaking.

Prior to joining ACLS, Rebecca Hewett served as the executive director of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), where she led the organization’s programming and fundraising portfolios. Prior to leading SDCF, she was the senior program associate at The Shubert Foundation, where she advised prospective applicants, evaluated applications, and conducted site visits in support of the Foundation’s grants to non-profit theater companies nationwide. In 2011 she was named a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow, serving as a cultural programs specialist for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs managing grant-giving to arts and cultural organizations in New York City, performing data analysis, and provided technical assistance to grantee organizations. She earned her PhD in Theatre History and Criticism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010 and her BA from The College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Adriana Ortega previously served as a development associate with the Fortune Society, as well as a volunteer coordinator with Make the Road New York programs. She also interned with Bridge Refugee Services in Knoxville and Human Rights First in New York. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Learn more about all ACLS fellowship and grant programs.