2022 Site Steward Program Conference Speakers
Nicole Armstrong-Best
Workshop: Arizona Project Archaeology
Nicole has been the Director of Pueblo Grande Museum since 2015. She previously served as the Chief of Community Stewardship at Arizona State Parks, which included responsibility for archaeology, collections, curatorial support, volunteer and non-profit engagement, and educational programming.
Nicole is currently the Arizona Site Steward Program Foundation Chairperson and a Project Archaeology Master Teacher.
Fred Croxen
Workshop: Fossil Resources – Lower Colorado and Gila Rivers - Arizona-California
Croxen has been a professor of geosciences for about 45 years. His research interests are in vertebrate paleontology of the lower Colorado and Gila Rivers - U.S and Mexico, and in groundwater investigations.
Jessica Han
Workshop: Federal Cultural Resource Law
Jessica has worked nearly 14 years in heritage preservation in the private sector, government, and academic settings. She has an extensive background in compliance under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act the Antiquities Act of 1906, The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act, The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and Executive Order 13007.
Gary Huckleberry
Workshop: How Geology Affects the Location, Visibility, and Preservation of the Archaeological Record
Gary Huckleberry is an independent consultant based out of Tucson who specializes in geomorphology, geoarchaeology, and soils. Much of his consulting work is in the Southwest for the cultural resource management profession where he collaborates with archaeologists in the investigation of ancient sites and past environments. Gary grew up in Phoenix and received his Ph.D. in Geosciences from the University of Arizona. He was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University in the late 90’s and early 00’s and served as the Co-Editor of the journal Geoarchaeology from 2008 to 2017.
Bryan Hughes
Workshop: Rattlesnakes! Working Safely and Feeling Better
Bryan Hughes is the owner of Rattlesnake Solutions, a rattlesnake-focused private conservation organization operating throughout Arizona. His group works with homeowners, businesses, and government agencies to solve situations where human development and rattlesnakes come into conflict. This includes improving outcomes of short-distance relocation of rattlesnakes, habitat and home-range modification, physical prevention, education, and research. In partnership with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the City of Phoenix, he is currently conducting research to better understand urban-island rattlesnake populations and coexistence with rattlesnakes in fully-developed areas. His organization’s data, collected from conflict situations over 12 years, is available to universities and social scientists to examine the nature of human/rattlesnake conflict. Information from these projects will be used to improve the understanding of sustainable mitigation practices and communication with those who fear snakes. Every day he is engaged in conversation with people who fear snakes, often justifiably. His depth of “front line” experience drives his perspectives on coexistence with rattlesnakes and how to do so safely.
Thomas Jones
Workshop: Useful Material Things: Identification and Documentation of Euroamerican Artifacts
Mr. Jones has more than 25 years of experience in archeological investigations, historical artifact analysis, historical research and National Register nominations, documentation for HABS/HAER, and historical building inventories. Mr. Jones meets the professional requirements for Historian under the Secretary of Interior Standards. He has contributed to all forms of archaeological reports and has authored and presented papers for professional and avocational audiences. He sits on the Historical Archaeology Advisory Committee (HAAC) and was a long-time member of the Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission and Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission. As a member of HAAC, Mr. Jones assisted the Arizona SHPO in the development of inventory forms for historical in-use structures, as well as a field guide for recording structures and preparing the forms. He is intimately familiar with the documentation and evaluation of historical in-use structures.
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Cristin Lucas
Workshop: SSP - Managing the Discovery of Human Remains
Cristin Lucas is the Repatriation Coordinator at the Arizona State Museum (ASM). She manages both state (ARS 41-844 and 41-865) and federal (NAGPRA) repatriation responsibilities for ASM. This role involves working with various agencies and Native American tribes to ensure the respectful treatment and repatriation of ancestral remains and funerary belongings. Cristin earned a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University with a focus in bioarchaeology. Over the course of her career in archaeology, Cristin has worked in Georgia, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Egypt, Sudan, Bolivia and Peru. She has found her most meaningful work at the Arizona State Museum as part of the repatriation team.
Robert Mark
Workshops: Four Southern Tribes Cultural Presentation
Robert Mark (Stanford University: Ph.D. 1972 Geology; MS 1969 Physics), retired from the USGS in 1997, and since has served as chief scientist at Rupestrian CyberServices. Please see http://www.rupestrian.com/robert-mark.html.
David McCormick
Workshops: Agriculture Water Conveyance Infrastructure of Yuma / Imperial Valley in the early 1900's
Dave McCormick is an agriculture engineer for a leading agriculture company in the Yuma / Imperial Valley for the past 30 years. He designs and builds fertilizer facilities in the US and Mexico. He is an avid industrial historian with a specific interest in agricultural water conveyance infrastructure. Mr. McCormick has been a member of the Yuma Region of the Site Steward program for 15 years.
Jill McCormick
Workshops: Identification and Recording Lower Colorado Buffware Ceramics
H. Jill McCormick is the Historic Preservation Officer for Quechan Indian Tribe. She conducts NEPA and NHPA review and Section 106 consultation for the tribe. She is a liaison between the Tribe and State and Federal agencies to address issues involving the preservation of the cultural materials and landscapes of the Quechan Indian people within their traditional lands. Mrs. McCormick has worked extensively with Colorado River Tribes obtaining and implementing grants that promote collaboration among the Tribes regarding traditional cultural properties, sacred sites and other matters of specific Tribal importance.
Kathryn Leonard
Workshop: Keynote Speaker
Kathryn Leonard is Arizona’s State Historic Preservation Officer. Kathryn is a professional archaeologist and historian who has worked in both the public and private sectors to provide expertise in National Register of Historic Places eligibility, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act compliance, and tribal government to government consultation. She is a graduate of Vassar College, and holds master’s degrees in anthropology and history from Arizona State University. Kathryn has over fifteen years of experience working in the field of cultural resources management, and prior to her appointment as SHPO, served as Operations Director of an Alaskan Native Corporation-owned environmental consulting firm. As a consultant, Kathryn has assisted federal and state agencies, municipalities and tribes with planning and consultation for complex multijurisdictional infrastructure projects. In her new role as Arizona’s SHPO, Kathryn seeks to promote historic preservation as a tool for economic development in both rural and urban areas and is working with state and federal agencies, municipalities, tribes and the development community to ensure that cultural resources are integrated into all aspects of short- and long-range planning.
Sergio Perez
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Jeri Meeks
Workshop: Arizona Project Archaeology
Jeri Meeks joined the site Steward Program after retiring from Arizona State University, where she served as the Associate Director of Finance for the Office of the Senior VP, Research.
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Jeri supports the Program and Foundation with her 30 years of not-for-profit business management experience, grant writing and website support skills. She is a lobbyist for the ASU Retirees Association and the Arizona Site Steward Program Foundation. Jeri is a Project Archaeology Master Teacher.
Sergio Perez
Matthew Podolinsky
Workshop: Site Signage: The Effect of Moral and Threat Appeals on Reducing Depreciative Behavior at Rock Art Sites
Matthew Podolinsky (he/him) is the Assistant Coordinator for the Utah Cultural Site Stewardship program with SHPO. Matthew grew up in Montana, where he became fascinated by Western history. He earned a B.A in History from the University of Montana, which propelled him to join the federal workforce as an Interpretive Park Ranger. For the last decade, Matthew worked seasonally for the National Park Service at Glacier National Park and Mesa Verde National Park, the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon and Utah, and the Bureau of Land Management in Montana.
Matthew moved to Utah and earned a M.S. in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism from the University of Utah in May 2022. His thesis “The Effect of Moral and Threat Appeals on Reducing Depreciative Behavior at Rock Art Sites,” is the first research on indirect management approaches on the protection of cultural resources in decades. He hopes that this research will influence land management agencies and managers to develop more effective signage at rock imagery sites.
​Jen Dierker
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Greta Rayle
Workshop: Useful Material Thinks: a Historical Artifact Identification Workshop
Greta is a senior project manager for North Wind Resource Consulting, LLC (North Wind), and has served as program director for the company’s historic preservation team for the last five years. She completed her M.A. research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she focused her research on carriage houses and how the function of these structures changed over time. Since relocating to Arizona in 2006, she has supervised archaeological excavations, architectural surveys and inventories, historic streetscape assessments, and historic preservation projects in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, as well as the U.S. Territory of Guam. She has also completed National Register of Historic Places nominations and determinations of eligibility and Cultural Landscape Inventories and Reports for ten National Parks. She is a skilled artifact analyst and is responsible for the in-field and laboratory analysis of historic artifacts recovered from all North Wind projects. Greta currently serves on the Historical Archaeology Advisory Committee (HAAC), an advisory body to the Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission (GAAC) which convenes on a quarterly basis to address issues related to the treatment of historic sites in Arizona. She is also vice chair of the City of Phoenix’s Historic Preservation Commission, an appointment she has held for the last two years.
Sergio Perez
Stacy Ryan
Workshop: Managing Disturbances of Human Remains: A Guide to Identification, Reporting, and Ethical Treatment
Stacy Ryan is the Assistant Repatriation Coordinator at the Arizona State Museum (ASM) and works to support the respectful treatment and repatriation of human remains and protected cultural materials. Stacy has worked in cultural resource management in the U.S. Southwest for over 15 years, gaining experience in fieldwork, lab processing and lithic analysis. She served as a staff member for five seasons at the University of Arizona-Archaeology Southwest Preservation Archaeology Field School in southwestern New Mexico. Prior to joining the repatriation team at ASM, Stacy worked at Archaeology Southwest responding to violations of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. She received her Master of Arts in Applied Archaeology at the University of Arizona.
Sergio Perez
Lyle Tanner
Workshop: Field Communications Technologies
Lyle Tanner is professional technology consultant, licensed ham radio and GMRS radio operator, outdoorsman, Overland Expo instructor, disaster relief volunteer for communications infrastructure restoration with a passion for communications technologies.
Dusty Whiting
Provider: Crime Scene Management: Footwear & Tire Impression Awareness
Dusty Whiting is a retired federal law enforcement agent. He is a commissioned Game Ranger for the White Mountain Apache Tribe and an active volunteer in the Arizona Site Steward Program. He works with Archaeology Southwest, monitoring archaeological sites with a history of having been looted in Indian Country, assessing damage to sites that have been looted and assists with the damage assessment process. He has extensive experience in teaching man-tracking courses and conducting various aspects of criminal investigations for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLECT) at Artesia, NM. He is a certified structure and wildland fire investigator.