Matthew Adams received his Ph.D. in history from the Pennsylvania State University in 2007, specializing in Egyptology and Near Eastern Archaeology. He is currently director of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, a long-term, multidisciplinary survey and excavation project investigating the history of human activity in the Jezreel Valley. He is also a staff member of the Pennsylvania State University excavations at Mendes, Egypt, and the Tel Aviv University Megiddo Expedition. He serves as president of the nonprofit organization American Archaeology Abroad. As of June 2014, he took over the directorship of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.