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.

Sebastian Renfield is an architectural historian with over ten years of experience in documenting, evaluating, and researching historic buildings and structures. He holds a Master of Science degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont. Prior to joining Hess Roise in 2021, he evaluated historic roads and bridges across the U.S., including Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. In addition to his work on industrial architecture and forays into the history of rolled‐asphalt imitation‐brick siding, one of his particular areas of interest is the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to identify and analyze historic resources and understand changes in the built environment.

Phyllis received her Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of Iowa in 2019, and her Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Management from Johns Hopkins University in 2023. Her past experience is in historical interpretation, but growing up in the Midwest instilled an appreciation for the built heritage and culture of small towns in the corn belt. Though new to this field, she is interested in how historic preservation and rehabilitation can promote sustainable development and recovery across the country.

Eric is a historian who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Indiana University South Bend, and a Master of Heritage Studies and Public History degree from the University of Minnesota. Before joining the Hess Roise team, he worked on various historic contexts related to transportation projects in the Upper Midwest. Growing up and living in Midwestern cities informs his interest in the preservation of the built environment. Outside the realm of historic preservation, Eric has written MNopedia digital encyclopedia entries and worked on various public history and digital humanities projects, mostly related to history in the Twin Cities.

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. 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.

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 member of the Stewardship Council of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., she strongly supports the organization’s mission of connecting people to places.