Charlene is a founding partner of Hess Roise and became the company’s president in 1997. Her education includes a master’s degree in Preservation Studies from Boston University and an undergraduate degree with majors in History, American Studies, and German from Saint Olaf College. She has worked around the country on a broad spectrum of cultural resource projects and loves to take on gnarly rehab projects, complex Section 106 reviews, the “new old” (our mid- to late twentieth-century legacy), and other challenges. As a board member of The Cultural Landscape Foundation based in Washington, D.C., she strongly supports the organization’s mission of connecting people to places.

Elizabeth holds an advanced degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia and completed her undergraduate work at Texas Lutheran University. Since joining Hess Roise in 2002, she has prepared National Register nominations for properties ranging from a World War II-era airfield to Cedar Square West (Riverside Plaza), a 1,300-unit housing complex that opened in 1973. She has traveled the country to document historic dams, bridges, and sewage treatment plants. Working with development teams on historic tax credit rehabs, she has helped transform the Plymouth Building from offices into the Embassy Suites–Minneapolis, revive a trio of derelict buildings in downtown Des Moines for commercial and apartment use, and return the abandoned Faribault Woolen Mill to production. She is a founder and former board chair of the non-profit Preserve Minneapolis and past board chair of the Minnesota chapter of DOCOMOMO US, a non-profit group that promotes the preservation of Modern properties.

Rachel earned her Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont after completing her undergraduate degree at the College of Saint Benedict. A fan of quirky buildings, Rachel has experience with a wide variety of property types, including historic prisons, funeral homes, and lumberyards. She has also worked extensively at Glensheen, one of Minnesota’s premier house museums, inventorying all of the three-dimensional artifacts in the collection and studying the historic landscape. Rachel has also worked with architects, engineers, and developers to reinvigorate historic buildings for commercial and residential use. Always looking to expand her knowledge, Rachel has recently worked on several compliance projects involving historic transportation corridors.

Jenna holds two degrees from the University of Minnesota, a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Master of Science in Architecture – Heritage Preservation and Conservation. During her graduate-level education, Jenna taught introductory architectural history courses to undergraduate students, interned at the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office, and worked as a Cultural Resources Assistant. Most recently, she studied Architectural History and Theory at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, where she received a Master of Science with Distinction. Jenna has professional experience with a broad range of cultural resource and historical consulting projects, but particularly enjoys Section 106 reviews and other compliance projects.

Kathryn received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Carleton College. She completed a Master of Arts and a Doctorate in American History at the University of Minnesota, with a special focus on material culture and the Early Modern Atlantic World. Her thesis explored the ways in which late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century young women formulated, shaped, and projected their adult identities through their material worlds. As a graduate student she worked as an academic technology consultant and served as a researcher for several historical projects, including an exhibit on the life and legacy of Governor Elmer L. Andersen. Prior to joining Hess Roise, she worked as a freelance historian, tutor, and contributing author to the MNopedia project. Her local history articles have also been featured in MinnPost. She is a member of the American Association of State and Local Historians, the Minnesota Association of Museums, and serves on the steering committee of North Star Connect.