Biography
Since the Fall of 2016, I have had the privilege of teaching two courses for the Archaeology program at Willamette University. Recently I completed my PhD in Applied Anthropology, with a concentration on historical archaeology, at Oregon State University, where I also completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. As a result, my archaeological field work experience and research interests have remained regional, and are primarily focused on the establishment and development of French Prairie over the course of the 19th century. My Master’s degree concentrated on one of the first French Prairie settlements and included the re-analysis of an archaeological collection from the site of St. Joseph’s College, the first boys’ boarding school in the Oregon Territory, located in St. Paul, Oregon. In addition, since 2011, I have completed and helped lead archaeological excavations at both the Robert Newell Homestead, located in Champoeg State Park, as well as at Fort Yamhill, a Civil War-era site now a State Heritage Area, as part of the Oregon State University Historical Archaeology Field Schools led by Dr. David Brauner. Currently, as the basis for my dissertation, I researched and analyzed a previously excavated archaeological collection from Block 4 within the Champoeg townsite, which was a significant trade center during the first half of the 19th century and the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country in 1843.