Q: Where are you originally from?

A: Everywhere. I’m a vagabond. My dad was in the Marines so we moved all the time… every two to three years we had a new address. I was born north of Chicago, I moved to Seattle after high school. In addition to Illinois and Washington, I have lived in California, Nevada, Iowa and obviously Texas.

Q: What courses do you teach at UTSA?

A: Currently I teach Introduction to Archaeology, Introduction to Anthropology (4-field anthropology), and Material Culture Systems. Previously I have taught Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica. During the summer I teach field Course in Archaeology, a study abroad program in Belize, where students are taught archaeological field techniques and methods and learn about the culture of the ancient Maya.

Q: Where are some of the places you’ve been for your archaeological excavations?

A: In the three years between finishing my undergraduate degree but before starting graduate school, I worked in cultural resource management (CRM). As a CRM archaeologist, I worked in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Texas. A notable project that I worked on in Texas was as a volunteer on the La Belle shipwreck in Matagorda Bay. A coffer dam was constructed around the shipwreck site and pumps were used to remove the water so that it could be excavated like a land excavation even though it was in the middle of the bay. This was a unique archaeologist experience and I was fortunate to be able to participate. The significant archaeological work that I have done, though, has taken place in Belize, Central America, where I have worked every year since 1997 spending two--six months at a time searching for and investigating ruins of ancient Maya civilization.

Q: What is the craziest experience you’ve had?

A: The craziest thing that’s probably ever happened to me is having a botfly incubate  grow in my back. In 1998, I had a mosquito bite that wasn’t going away and appeared to be infected. On occasion, I also felt a squirmy-like sensation in the mosquito bite. Upon closer inspection, I came to discover that the larvae of a botfly had been planted inside of the mosquito bite, and I was feeling the little critter kicking inside.

Q: Did you ever think of becoming something other than an archaeologist?

A: As a child, I’ve always been interested in music. So, out of high school, I pursued that and worked for the music industry, both owning a record store and working for a music label. Eventually, I got tired of the music industry and decided to pursue something that really interested me as well as being intellectually stimulating. So, I turned music into a hobby, and archaeology my career.