Dear Friends of CAORC:
After 18 years of unmatched service, Maria ‘Ria’
deJ. Ellis is retiring as Executive Director of the American Institute of
Yemeni Studies (AIYS).
Ria has served in her capacity as Executive Director
since 1994, when a grant from the Department of Education allowed for the
creation of an administrative structure for AIYS. As Executive Director, she
oversaw the opening of the Center’s new location in Sana’a, a major
reconstruction project at the medieval Amiriya madrasa in Rada’, supported numerous
fellowships for US and Yemeni scholars and students and intensive Arabic language study programs in
Yemen, and facilitated archaeological, anthropological and media projects
inside and outside Yemen’s borders. She also oversaw the
State-Department-sponsored Critical Language Scholarship Program in Yemen.
In addition to her critical support of the research
center in Yemen, Ria played an integral role in the management of CAORC’s Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access
grant from the Department of Education (TICFIA). Under the auspices of this
program, CAORC and AIYS launched the Digital Library of International Research
(DLIR) to catalog and digitize photographic, ethnographic, archaeological,
cartographic, and other scholarly research support materials from a variety of
international locations. Under Ria’s leadership, DLIR has expanded to offer
more than 265,000 catalogued materials from 13 AORC libraries.
We will forever be grateful for Ria’s years of dedicated
service to AIYS and the larger CAORC network, and we wish her every happiness
in retirement.
Thank you,
Dr. Mary Ellen Lane
CAORC Executive Director
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