Staff
(In order of appearance…)
At Preserving The Past, LLC, we believe that by preserving our cultural heritage we are doing our part to contribute to society ensuring artifacts that represent a moment in time are available for future generations of students, educators, researchers, historians, businesses, creators and families, as a collective repository. Our founding principle is to offer museum-quality services for private collections at affordable prices. To this end, we adhere to preservation standards in archiving to make accessible and preserve obsolete and deteriorating media.
We accomplish this with a clear vision and the able assistance of our highly professional and dedicated staff that brings together education, skill, technology, talent, creativity and innovation.
Taylor Whitney
President and Founder
After many years working in Hollywood, California in film production, post-production and film preservation, launching Preserving The Past, LLC, then pursuing a Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management, Taylor has shifted her responsibilities at Preserving The Past, LLC from hands-on archival work to focusing on managing day-to-day operations. Running offices in Rochester, New York and Los Angeles, California with frequent travel to Toronto, Canada, she is the face of the company, working closely with clients, prospecting, project management and overseeing her staff. Doing what she loves to do keeps her excited to work as many hours a week as she can.
Jodie Roffers
Graphic and Web Design
With Preserving The Past, LLC from its inception, Jodie brought extensive experience from her long career as a typesetter, graphic designer, web-designer and content producer to design and produce marketing materials including print and online content. Working from her Los Angeles, California offices her continued optimism, expert advice, foresight, talent and skill have transitioned Preserving The Past, LLC from humble beginnings to professional, contemporary and fresh branding. (RIP 09/24/57-05/9/16)
Craig Richards
Creative Director/Film Producer
An award-winning film producer, screenwriter, director and web innovator from Los Angeles, California, Craig most recently worked with Preserving The Past, LLC from his Tampa, Florida offices. Responsible for creative and technical input on everything from marketing materials to online content, he also assisted with photo restoration, film editing, titling, visual effects and videography. Also a veteran actor for more than forty years, Craig served on many film restoration productions offering narration and voiceover talent through our film production entity, Home-Movie-Classics. (RIP 11/05/55-05/29/16)
Antonio Scarpitta
Editor
Antonio is an accomplished filmmaker, writer and editor with 20+ years of experience editing independent films, features, commercials and documentaries including the Academy Award® nominated “The Garden.” He works for Preserving The Past, LLC from our offices in Los Angeles, California on our film restoration projects contributing his editing, titles, animation, motion graphics, special effects talent and skill. Always loyal and committed to “figuring out how to do what Taylor has promised clients, ‘We can do that!’” Antonio is a refreshing and valued member of our staff.
Andrew Marshall
IT
Andrew is responsible for our computer infrastructure on-sight, and virtually, at our Rochester location. He consults on all computer related technology purchases, installs hardware and software, manages software upgrades and updates, and networks all computers for easy access to files across departments. He is also responsible for the RAID back-up network, technology, scheduling and workflow ensuring our technology is up-to-date, optimized and keeps us connected.
Michael Sikora
Graphic Designer
Working primarily in our book design and publishing division, PTP Design and PTP Publishing, Michael brings us 30+ years of experience in graphic design. His vision, skill and talent in page layout and design for clients and marketing materials for Preserving The Past, LLC makes him an invaluable asset.
Ray Tiede
Security
Ray Tiede brings his expertise to Preserving The Past as our Security Manager. He is responsible for maintaining security at the studio, liaising between the building management and Preserving The Past. He works closely with other tenants in the building and with upper management to ensure the safety of our equipment, office space and client assets. Ray also interacts with customers and staff ensuring all is on track for deliverables, efficiency and productivity.
Yorgo Durmisovski
Logistics Coordinator
Yorgo “George” has been instrumental in helping Preserving The Past with moving collections to our Rochester studio for processing. He is careful, meticulous and friendly. He assisted in the packing of over 1600 film cans from the University of Rochester Film and Media Studies Department in preparation for shipment to our cold storage vaults. He also facilitated moving approximately 40 linear feet of cultural heritage materials from the Brighton Fire Department to our East Avenue offices.
Suzanne Lee
Interviewer, Copy Editor/Proofreader
An accomplished personal historian, Suzanne is an experienced oral history interviewer, transcriptionist, copywriter, print editor and proofreader. She works with Preserving the Past, LLC to finalize and polish works-in-progress such as memoirs for our book design and publishing division, PTP Design and PTP Publishing, proofing titles for film restoration projects, interviewing clients on their business or personal life stories and contributing to online content.
Peter Thomas
Imaging Specialist
After earning his degree in Imaging and Photographic Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY, Peter worked over 10 years in printing technology followed by 9 years at Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories in various roles including Image Scientist and Researcher before joining Preserving The Past, LLC. Peter brings expert level experience and skills to digitizing cultural materials, digital restoration, digital asset management, indexing, OCR scanning and 3-D/oversized object photography. His steady manner, professionalism, time management and attention to detail demonstrate his ability to work with upper management and colleagues equally well.
Tom Murray
Chief Engineer
Tom has an impressive background as a professional-grade engineering technician for commercial & broadcast audiovisual equipment and industrial electronics. After almost 20 years at Post Central in Rochester, NY, Tom is responsible for the installation and continued maintenance of our broadcast-quality “legacy” equipment such as Digital Betacam, Betacam SP, ¾” U-matic, Betamax, VHS, DAT and cassette decks, which he aptly synced to our Grass Valley Canopus Advanced Digital Video Converter and Blackmagic HyperDeck for capturing audio and video. Tom’s position is instrumental to our success ensuring that our equipment is always maintained, accurately routed to the analogue-to-digital converters and that those converters are properly connected to our MACPro enabling high-resolution capture of audio and video footage via Thunderbolt using Blackmagic capture deck and DaVinci Resolve software.
Patrick Harney
Videographer/Editor
Patrick began work at Preserving The Past, LLC as an intern in his senior year of earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Journalism from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. He has since gained an impressive amount of experience working for local production companies including the Rochester, New York public television station, WXXI. Patrick is an esteemed team member utilizing personable style and enviable ambition to cultivate his editing and production skills working on film restoration projects, personal history video shoots, and editing new footage.
Charmaine Bynoe
Assistant Archivist
Charmaine is a graduate of the Photographic Preservation and Collections Management Masters Program, offered by Ryerson University in Toronto and George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film (now George Eastman Museum) in Rochester, New York. She works with Preserving The Past, LLC to process collections from the initial stage of Intellectual Order to the final stage of preparation for cold storage. Her experience working at George Eastman Museum as Researcher and Object Preparator, with the Frederick Douglass Resource Center in Rochester, New York and the Black Cultural Archives in London, England offer a unique and diverse perspective when working with collections of various ethnicities and cultures. Including offering voiceover talent, Charmaine assists in curating exhibitions, managing staff on larger projects and interacting with clients to assess their business objectives.
John Centrone
Composer
John holds degrees in Music, Electronics and Marketing. With a passion for putting music to picture, John works with Preserving The Past, LLC to write music for new video productions including personal video histories, restored films, and online video content. He recently scored a feature length silent movie originally shot on Super 8 film, unfinished and locked away for 40 years that was resurrected, completed and restored by Preserving The Past, LLC. John has scored dozens of short, documentaries and feature-length films for local filmmakers in the Rochester, NY area.
Ivey L. Barker
Archivist
Ivey earned her Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from George Eastman Museum and the University of Rochester (a dual institution program.) She has an undergraduate degree in Art History with an emphasis in Museum Studies and work experience at a variety of museums as a Photographic Research Assistant, Curator, Costumes and Textiles expert and Paper Conservator. At Preserving The Past, Ivey excels in preparing objects for scanning, scanning, collections management, metadata gathering and input, database management, client relations and re-housing materials. Ivey has demonstrated excellent leadership qualities and works extremely well with staff and upper management alike. Ivey’s interests lie in handling of original objects, capturing stories, curating exhibitions and administration such as grant writing, procedural manuals and workflow management.
Amanda Kiesl
Archivist
Amanda completed her Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from George Eastman Museum and University of Rochester (a dual institution program) in May 2017. She earned her MLS from the University of Buffalo and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History with a minor in Visual Arts and New Media, Arts Administration from SUNY Fredonia. At Preserving The Past she is enthusiastic to be applying her education, archival skills and talent to a variety of cultural collections lending expertise in all aspects of processing, such as collections management, digitization, cataloguing, digital asset management, re-housing and physical arrangement. Amanda is also spearheading our web-development and social media initiative. Amanda demonstrates leadership qualities in project management and staff involvement.
Sheryl Smith
Assistant Archivist/Project Manager
Sheryl earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, before launching a 23-year career as a film and video Producer/Director for Time Warner Media in Rochester, NY. Inspired by her work at Preserving The Past, LLC, she applied for, was accepted and now is a graduate of the 2017 class of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. She lends her enthusiasm, expertise and people skills to Preserving The Past, working alongside other Team PTP staff to process collections, including archiving, collections management, film and video inspection and prep, digital asset management, preservation and re-housing. Her attention to detail, eagerness to enhance her already impressive skill set and optimistic attitude is a wonderful addition to the team.