Heritage Auction Galleries has named Jill Burgum director of Jewelry and Timepieces for the Dallas-based auction house.

A native of Lancaster, Pa., Burgum earned her BA in Art History from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After completing her degree, she attended Bowman Tech and Stewart’s International, both for training in bench jewelry manufacturing, then the Gemological Institute of America, where she completed degrees in both Graduate Gemology and Jewelry Design.

Burgum began her working career as an on-call preview worker for Sotheby’s Beverly Hills, Calif.. She then moved to San Francisco as a jewelry cataloguer for Butterfield & Butterfield Auctions in 1996, transferring to their Los Angeles Jewelry department in 1997 as lead specialist, which she eventually left to build two jewelry Web sites for start-up companies. She has also worked in retail jewelry sales and owned her own independent jewelry appraisal business. Burgum has been a guest lecturer for the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, Gem & Mineral Council, and appeared as a specialist on HGTV, KTLA, and CNN.

Burgum is actively seeking consignments for Heritage’s Winter Jewelry Auction. Prospective consignors and sellers of jewelry, gemstones, and timepieces are invited to contact Burgum at 1-800-872-6467, ext. 697; JillB@HeritageAuctions.com. Or visit www.HeritageAuctions.com and click the “Sell Now” tab.

JCK