As a member of the Class of 1996, I arrived at Colgate in the midst of seminars, film festivals, and symposia marking the quincentennary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. I decided to take the first-year seminar taught by Gary Urton, formerly a Colgate professor, entitled Spain and the Americas after 1492, and I soon found myself signing up to double major in Sociology and Anthropology and Native American Studies. Throughout the next four years, I had the privilege of studying with exceptional professors such as Tony Aveni, Chris Vecsey, Mary Moran, Carol Ann Lorenz, John Ware, and Jordan Kerber. I took courses ranging from Comparative Cosmologies to Field Methods and Interpretation in Archaeology, and I worked as both a teaching assistant and an assistant field director for the Oneida Archaeology Workshops. During the fall of my senior year, I participated in Colgate's Native American Studies Study Group in Santa Fe, NM and had the unique opportunity to intern at the Museum of New Mexico's Office of Archeological Studies. When I decided to continue my studies in archeology as a graduate student at Cornell University, I discovered that Colgate had provided me with a solid background in archeological theory and methodology and had thoroughly prepared me for the intensive writing, fieldwork, and critical thinking that would be required of me throughout my four and a half years of graduate studies and research. I completed my doctoral dissertation, Cultural Change and Adaptation Among the Oneida Iroquois, AD 1000-1700, in January of 2001, and am now thrilled to be working as an archeologist and preservation officer for the Maryland State Historic Preservation Office. As a preservation officer, I help to protect the State's archeological resources in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, I help to coordinate a variety of public outreach programs including the Archeological Society of Maryland's annual field session, and I assist with surveys and excavations that are being conducted throughout the State. I have also had the opportunity to teach An Introduction to Archeology for Johns Hopkins University, allowing me to introduce new students to the joys of archeology, just as I was introduced to the field at Colgate nearly ten years ago.

Selected Bibliographic References

2003 Book Review: The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast. Northeast Anthropology , in press.

Summer 2003: "Thinking Beyond the Salt Pork." Paper presented at the 5th World Archeological Congress, Washington, D.C.

2002 Book Review: Grave Undertakings: An Archaeology of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology, Volume 18.

Spring 2002: "Stewards of the Past and Future: Archaeology and the Oneida Indian Nation of New York." Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, CO.

2001 Cultural Change and Adaptation Among the Oneida Iroquois, AD 1000- 1700. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca.

Fall 1997: "Archaeologists and Native Communities." Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, Washington, D.C.