diff --git a/webapp/config/web.xml b/webapp/config/web.xml
index ef04d81c1..7f9ae5be7 100644
--- a/webapp/config/web.xml
+++ b/webapp/config/web.xml
@@ -132,6 +132,10 @@
     </listener>    
 -->
 
+  <listener>
+    <listener-class>edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.auth.permissions.PermissionSetsLoader</listener-class>
+  </listener>
+ 
   <listener>
     <listener-class> edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.auth.policy.bean.PropertyRestrictionPolicyHelper$Setup
     </listener-class>
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/auth/permissions/PermissionSetsLoader.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/auth/permissions/PermissionSetsLoader.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..501215d99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/auth/permissions/PermissionSetsLoader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
+package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.auth.permissions;
+
+import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
+import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
+import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.ontology.OntModel;
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Property;
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Resource;
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.shared.Lock;
+
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.config.ConfigurationProperties;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.VitroVocabulary;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.jena.ModelContext;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.servlet.setup.AbortStartup;
+
+/**
+ * Load the initial configuration of PermissionSets and Permissions.
+ * 
+ * The UserAccounts model must be created before this runs.
+ * 
+ * For now, we just use the four hard-coded "roles".
+ */
+public class PermissionSetsLoader implements ServletContextListener {
+	private static final Log log = LogFactory
+			.getLog(PermissionSetsLoader.class);
+
+	@Override
+	public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
+		ServletContext ctx = sce.getServletContext();
+
+		if (AbortStartup.isStartupAborted(ctx)) {
+			return;
+		}
+
+		try {
+			String ns = ConfigurationProperties.getBean(ctx).getProperty(
+					"Vitro.defaultNamespace");
+
+			OntModel model = ModelContext.getBaseOntModelSelector(ctx)
+					.getUserAccountsModel();
+
+			ModelWrapper wrapper = new ModelWrapper(model, ns);
+			wrapper.createPermissionSet("1", "Self Editor");
+			wrapper.createPermissionSet("2", "Editor");
+			wrapper.createPermissionSet("3", "Curator");
+			wrapper.createPermissionSet("4", "Site Admin");
+		} catch (Exception e) {
+			log.error("could not run PermissionSetsLoader" + e);
+			AbortStartup.abortStartup(ctx);
+			throw new RuntimeException(e);
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {
+		// Nothing to tear down.
+	}
+
+	private static class ModelWrapper {
+		private final OntModel model;
+		private final String defaultNamespace;
+
+		private final Property typeProperty;
+		private final Property labelProperty;
+		private final Resource permissionSet;
+
+		public ModelWrapper(OntModel model, String defaultNamespace) {
+			this.model = model;
+			this.defaultNamespace = defaultNamespace;
+
+			typeProperty = model.createProperty(VitroVocabulary.RDF_TYPE);
+			labelProperty = model.createProperty(VitroVocabulary.LABEL);
+			permissionSet = model.createResource(VitroVocabulary.PERMISSIONSET);
+		}
+
+		public void createPermissionSet(String uriSuffix, String label) {
+			String uri = defaultNamespace + "permissionSet-" + uriSuffix;
+
+			model.enterCriticalSection(Lock.WRITE);
+			try {
+				Resource r = model.createResource(uri);
+				model.add(r, typeProperty, permissionSet);
+				model.add(r, labelProperty, label);
+				log.debug("Created permission set: '" + uri + "', '" + label
+						+ "'");
+			} finally {
+				model.leaveCriticalSection();
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/UserAccountsDao.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/UserAccountsDao.java
index d0baff184..ab4ab022e 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/UserAccountsDao.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/UserAccountsDao.java
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public interface UserAccountsDao {
 	PermissionSet getPermissionSetByUri(String uri);
 
 	/**
-	 * Get all of the PermissionSets in the model.
+	 * Get all of the PermissionSets in the model, sorted by URI.
 	 * 
 	 * @return a collection which might be empty, but is never null.
 	 */
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/UserAccountsDaoJena.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/UserAccountsDaoJena.java
index 512c80b81..06f677691 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/UserAccountsDaoJena.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/UserAccountsDaoJena.java
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.jena;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Random;
 
@@ -79,10 +81,11 @@ public class UserAccountsDaoJena extends JenaBaseDao implements UserAccountsDao
 		}
 
 		String userUri = null;
-		
+
 		getOntModel().enterCriticalSection(Lock.READ);
 		try {
-			StmtIterator stmts = getOntModel().listStatements(null, USERACCOUNT_EMAIL_ADDRESS,
+			StmtIterator stmts = getOntModel().listStatements(null,
+					USERACCOUNT_EMAIL_ADDRESS,
 					getOntModel().createLiteral(emailAddress));
 			if (stmts.hasNext()) {
 				userUri = stmts.next().getSubject().getURI();
@@ -90,7 +93,7 @@ public class UserAccountsDaoJena extends JenaBaseDao implements UserAccountsDao
 		} finally {
 			getOntModel().leaveCriticalSection();
 		}
-		
+
 		return getUserAccountByUri(userUri);
 	}
 
@@ -263,6 +266,8 @@ public class UserAccountsDaoJena extends JenaBaseDao implements UserAccountsDao
 			getOntModel().leaveCriticalSection();
 		}
 
+		Collections.sort(list, new PermissionSetsByUri());
+
 		return list;
 	}
 
@@ -286,4 +291,11 @@ public class UserAccountsDaoJena extends JenaBaseDao implements UserAccountsDao
 				+ errMsg);
 	}
 
+	private static class PermissionSetsByUri implements
+			Comparator<PermissionSet> {
+		@Override
+		public int compare(PermissionSet ps1, PermissionSet ps2) {
+			return ps1.getUri().compareTo(ps2.getUri());
+		}
+	}
 }