L. Jeffrey Selznick School Certificate Faculty
George Eastman Museum Staff
Justin Aungst, Document Scanning Technician - Leo Hurwitz Collection
Justin was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona before moving to Rochester in 2021 to attend Rochester Institute of Technology. There he received his MFA in Photography and Related Media while working in both the RIT Archives and the Cary Graphic Arts Collection. Justin joined the Moving Image Department in the summer of 2025 where he digitizes the Leo Hurwitz papers collection.
Peter Bagrov, Senior Curator
Peter Bagrov joined the Moving Image Department in 2019. He started his career in Russia as a film historian. In 2011 he received his PhD from the Institute for Cinema Studies in Moscow. Since 2005 he has been teaching film courses at various universities, curating retrospectives, giving talks and publishing articles on a variety of film-related subjects. In 2013-2017 he was the Senior Curator at Gosfilmofond of Russia, the Russian state film archive. In 2013-2019 he served as the artistic director of the archival film festival “Belye Stolby.” He has been serving on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in 2017-2018 and since 2021, in 2023 he was elected president of FIAF.
Graham Brown, Preservation Officer
Graham joined the George Eastman Museum in 2021 after graduating from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation earlier that year. On the digital preservation team, his duties primarily encompass the digitization, restoration, and grading of moving image collection materials. Prior to moving to Rochester, he worked at Negativeland Motion Picture Laboratory in Ridgewood, NY, processing and scanning 8mm, Super8, and 16mm film. He holds a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University.
Jared Case, Curator of Film Exhibitions
A 2002 graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, Jared curates the nightly program of film exhibitions in the Dryden Theatre, oversees daily operations of the theatre, and acts as a department liaison for moving image-related exhibitions and film programming related to current exhibitions. He has appeared on Turner Classic Movies and The History Channel and has spoken at festivals and conferences around the country.
Chris Crouse, Preservation Officer
Chris is a 2019 graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, and he joined the museum as a Preservation Officer in 2021. He previously worked as a projectionist at a number of archives and museums including The Museum of Modern Art and Anthology Film Archives. In 2016 he helped found The Metrograph, a new cinema in Manhattan, as their Technical Director. Chris is originally from the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York.
Erica Jones, Project Film Specialist
Erica holds a BA and MA in Music from U of R and The Eastman School of Music and received her PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Riverside in 2017. Interested in South Asian cinema, media and culture, she completed The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation program in 2020 and was hired in December 2020 as a Project Film Specialist. She currently applies her knowledge of South Asian cinema to her position of processing the Museum’s extensive collections so they are identified, inspected, and made available for future access.
Nancy Kauffman, Archivist, Stills, Posters, and Paper Collection
Nancy holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Arizona State University and a Master's in Library Science from Emporia State University. She worked as a paralegal for sixteen years in Portland, Oregon, before attending The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2004-2005. Nancy was hired as a curatorial assistant in the Moving Image Department in 2006. In 2007, she was promoted to archivist of the Stills, Posters and Paper Collections, where she manages, catalogs, and provides access to a collection of more than one million
objects and over 600 linear feet of manuscripts and research materials. As faculty of the Selznick School, she teaches collection management and cataloging.
Anthony L'Abbate, Preservation Mannager
Anthony L'Abbate is a 1999 graduate of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, after graduation he worked for two years at the Cinema Arts Laboratory, in Angels, Pennsylvania, as their contact printer. He returned to the George Eastman Museum in the fall of 2001 as the stills archivist. Since March 2007, he has worked in preservation.
Sophia Lorent, Assistant Archivist, Stills, Posters and Paper Collections
Sophia Lorent is a native of Wisconsin, where they received their BA in History at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse in 2012. As an undergraduate, they worked for the UW-L Oral History Department digitizing oral histories as well as completed an internship at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. After moving to Rochester, Sophia graduated from The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2014, and completed their MA at the University of Rochester in 2015. They joined the staff of the Moving Image Department in 2015 as Curatorial Assistant and managed research and access requests as well as assisted with cataloging the department’s collections. In January 2022, Sophia became the Assistant Archivist, Stills, Posters and Paper Collections (SPP), where they now assist with managing and cataloging the many objects in the SPP collections and continue to provide research and access assistance.
Kirk McDowell, Assistant Collection Manager
Born and raised in Mound, Minnesota, Kirk is a 2018 graduate of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. After spending two years working in the nitrate vaults and copyright processing unit of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA, he returned to Rochester in 2021 to join the George Eastman Museum’s collection management team. He holds a BA in Film from the University of Wisconsin and an MA from the University of Rochester.
Gordon Nelson, Assistant Curator, Digital Collection
Gordon holds a BFA in Cinema from Edinboro University and he is a 2015 graduate of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. His professional background includes working as a filmmaker, educator and curator. His films have been screened at many venues, including MoMA and Anthology Film Archives. He has taught film and video courses at MassArt, Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the University of Rochester. He programmed 35mm film screenings for the Carnegie Museum of Art and he helped establish and operate Jefferson Presents, a Pittsburgh-based experimental microcinema collective active from 2000-09.
Beth Rennie, Head of Information, Research and Access
Beth joins the museum from Ontario Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Honors degree in Classics and Music from Queen’s University and a Masters of Information (Library Science/Archiving) with a special focus on special collections from the University of Toronto. An internship with the film archivist at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF led her to join The L. Jeffrey Selznick School class of 2008-2009. After graduation she worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and then spent 7 years working in client care and information management with the Canadian Armed Forces. Beth joined the Moving Image Department in 2022 where she works with researcher inquiries, loan and footage requests, and database management and cataloging.
Sheryl Smith, Chief Projectionist
Sheryl Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a 2018 graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Immediately following graduation Sheryl began working as projectionist at the Dryden Theatre. She has also worked as a projectionist at The Little Theatre and KODAK Center. In 2019 Sheryl was promoted to Dryden Theatre Manager and in 2022 promoted to Dryden Theatre Chief Projectionist. Her prior career includes 23 years as an advertising producer/director for Time Warner Media.
Kirk Stevens, Assistant Collections Manager
Kirk Stevens was born and raised in Rochester, NY. After receiving his BA in Media Studies from University at Buffalo in 2011, he worked with various cinemas, film festivals, and distributors in New York City and Philadelphia. He graduated from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2024, and worked as a Project Archivist at Visual Studies Workshop before beginning with the Moving Image Department at GEM in 2025. Outside of the museum, Kirk also plays music and teaches improv in the Rochester area.
Deborah Stoiber, Collection Manager
Deborah Stoiber received her BA in economics from California State University, Fresno. After graduating from The L. Jeffrey Selznick School in 1998, she worked at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, assessing their 16mm collection. Returning to Rochester, she was the assistant vault manager of the William K. Everson Collection at the George Eastman Museum, from 1998 to 2000 and the nitrate vault manager of the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center at the museum from 2000 to 2010. In 2010, she became the collection manager of the Moving Image Department’s film and video collection, holdings of more than 100,000 reels in nitrate and safety stock. As an instructor in the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, she teaches the identification, storage, and inspection of motion picture film.
Jeffrey Stoiber, Assistant Curator, The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation
Jeff Stoiber has both his BA in Media Studies (1993) and his Masters of Library Science (1997) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, his hometown. While completing his MLS he interned at both the American Film Institute and the George Eastman Museum. The Eastman Museum internship led to his employment as the Administrator of the Selznick School a position he has held since 1997.
Timothy Stueve, Dryden Theatre Manager
Timothy grew up in Bend, Oregon where he worked with BendFilm Festival. He received his BA in English Literature and Philosophy at Concordia University Irvine in Southern California. He then received his MA at the Selznick School from 2023-24. He was hired as the Dryden theatre manager in the summer of '24.
Patrick Tiernan, Associate Collection Manager
Patrick Tiernan is a Rochester native and a 2002 Film Studies graduate of SUNY College at Brockport. He has been projecting films at the The Little Theatre, The Cinema Theater and The Dryden Theatre since 2011. As Associate Collection Manager he helps manage the Museum's collection of motion picture films and film equipment. Since 2022, he has served as Nitrate Projection Supervisor in the Dryden Theatre.
Tyler Wallace, Administrator
Tyler Wallace became the Administrator of the Moving Image Department in 2023. He grew up in the Hudson Valley in downstate New York and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Film from Brooklyn College in 2014. He graduated with the class of 2021 from the Selznick School and completed his MA at the University of Rochester in 2022. He has a background in digital film exhibition and video editing.
Caroline Yeager, Associate Curator, Administration
Caroline Yeager has been a staff member since 1998, when she graduated from The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. After 25 years in the MID, she retired from her formal administrative duties and now works on a project to research, scan, and annotate the department’s historical records. She has 25 years of experience in the performing arts, an MFA from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, and a BS from SUNY Brockport, NY. As associate curator, she oversaw grant writing and administration to support the department’s collections; developed exhibitions for public access; taught curatorial management in the Selznick School; been an Assistant Director of the Nitrate Picture Show, and the Responsible Officer for the museum’s Exchange Visitor Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. She is a member of AMIA and SEAPAVAA and co-chaired AMIA’s Advocacy Committee for eight years.
Joshua Yocum, Preservation Officer
Josh was raised in Rocky Hill, CT and received his BA in Film and Philosophy from Clark University. He graduated from The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation in 2014 and completed the MA portion of the program in 2015. Since graduating, Josh has worked at Wesleyan University's Davison Art Center and Northwestern University Library's Repository and Digital Curation Department where his work focused on digitization and digital preservation. Josh joined the Museum as a Preservation Officer in 2022.