Mentorship Program |
Mentoring is a powerful tool in passing on historical and technical knowledge and promoting leadership, career, and personal development. Participating in a mentoring relationship is an investment and creates a relationship that may last a lifetime. The AAC is pleased to launch a such a program and asks for your participation.
How the Program Works Below are professionals, along with their bios and contact information, who have agreed to mentor current students and new professionals in the field. If you are a student or new professional, review the posted bios and contact the person you think might be a good fit for your needs. Mentees work with their mentors to develop an appropriate schedule and plan to accomplish established goals. The following are some considerations mentees should think about before contacting a potential mentor:
Finally, if you reach out and begin working with a mentor but feel you are not getting what you need from the relationship, it is ok to explore other options.
What Mentoring is NotA mentor is not your boss. Mentees are responsible for focusing the direction of the relationship by seeking advice or feedback and by asking questions. The professional conversations between Mentor and Mentee are confidential and will not be violated. Benefits for ParticipantsMentoring programs benefit both parties in the relationship. Mentors share knowledge and skills, helping others succeed. All a mentor needs is a passion for archaeology and a willingness to spend time developing a mentoring relationship. While mentoring programs are designed primarily for the benefit of mentees, mentors enjoy rewards as well. These rewards include, but are not limited to, the following:
Mentees are encouraged to begin the relationship with specific goals and expectations. Mentees gain invaluable insight beyond education and experience, and they can gain an edge with the support and guidance of a mentor. Whether an employee needs advice or a sounding board, a mentor can inspire and guide. Benefits may extend far beyond what is expected and may include the following:
The increase in confidence, self-awareness, and skills allows mentees to look at each new opportunity with a different perspective. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mentors |
Eric S. Cox, M.A.Regional Principal InvestigatorEric S. Cox is a Regional Principal Investigator (Southwest) for PaleoWest, LLC (dba Chronicle Heritage) and has over 25 years of archaeological experience in the Southwest, including over 21 years in Cultural Resource Management, and a decade of work along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Cox has served as a Principal Investigator or Project Director for over 400 different archaeological projects including multiple large-scale cultural resources surveys and data recovery projects, including excavations within the sites of Las Canopas, Crismon Ruin, La Ciudad, Cemaimagĭ Ki (formerly known as East Pueblo Blanco), and La Plaza, among others. Mr. Cox is a permitted Principal Investigator for the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, and Texas, directing archaeological projects across these states and beyond. Mr. Cox has also worked extensively with the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, and the Hopi Tribe on projects such as the Amity Pueblo Damage Assessment and Mitigation, as well as excavations at Wide Ruins on the Navajo Nation. He also worked with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Ak-Chin Indian Community, Tohono O'odham Nation, and Chemehuevi Indian Reservation. Mr. Cox earned his Master’s degree from Northern Arizona University, and his interests include prehistoric ceramics, earth ovens, and public archaeology. Margaret Hangan, M.A.Forest Project ArchaeologistOriginally from California, Margaret has worked as a professional archaeologist for over 30 years. She earned her B.A. in 1989 from Pitzer College and completed a Master's Thesis at California State University, Bakersfield in 2003. She started out in private industry working in the Great Basin and California for 10 years, was a graduate student intern with the BLM in the Mojave Desert for 5 years and has worked with the Forest Service for over 20 years in both California and the Southwest. Her research interests are in the area of Historic Archaeology and African American History of the West. Margaret's strongest mentoring areas will be around career development including the job application process, technical experience with land management laws and plans, wildfire archaeology, and multiple aspects of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and other preservation laws. Bruce G. Phillips, M.S.President and OwnerThrough BGP Consulting LLC, Bruce G. Phillips offers geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical services to the Cultural Resource Management community. For over 20 years, he has worked with more than 35 clients on more than 300 varied projects across the American Southwest. His is an expert in climate and landscape reconstructions, prehistoric canals operations, and subsistence studies. His skills include archaeology, palynology, archaeobotany, micropaleontology, Quaternary sedimentology, geomorphology, limnology, paleoclimatology, report writing and editing, project and personnel management, and data management. Frequently his investigations require coordination with additional scientific consultants, resulting in interdisciplinary syntheses. He regularly presents papers and posters at professional meetings and has authored hundreds of technical reports. Mr. Phillips routinely visits archaeological field projects across Arizona, gathering information about the landscape. Using techniques from various earth sciences, he helps reconstruct the past landscapes of frequented by peoples of the project area. This provides contexts for archaeologists and their findings. Often his research involves interpreting the histories of Hohokam canal segments and how this technology sustained people for centuries in the Phoenix Basin. Ongoing palynological research in Tularosa Basin, New Mexico, will lead to a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the time when the humans first entered the Southwest in the Pleistocene. Mr. Phillips is an NAU alum and current affiliate. Caitlin Stewart, M.A., RPADirector and Co-Owner
Caitlin received a B.A. in Anthropology from Western Kentucky University and a M.A. from University of Mississippi. During her graduate career, she focused on methodological approaches to determining the minimum number of individuals in complex bioarchaeological contexts. Throughout her eighteen-year career, she has conducted archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery efforts primarily in the Southwest including Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Currently, Ms. Stewart is the Director of Cornerstone Environmental Consulting, LLC, a cultural resource management firm located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Gavin Wisner, M.A., RPAArchaeologistGavin is a registered professional archaeologist with more than 7 years of experience. He has spent much of his life enjoying the beauty of the Colorado Plateau. He attended Northern Arizona University where he obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in anthropology. He has served in supervisory positions for the past 4 years and is currently an archaeologist at Logan Simpson. He has worked throughout the Southwest and Central Americas an archaeologist and faunal analyst. His cultural resource management experience includes conducting Class III pedestrian surveys, Phase I data testing, Phase II data recovery operations, analyses, and damage assessments: serving in both field director and crew chief capacities. Additionally, he has served as a staff member for two archaeological field schools in Belize. His early research centered on the use offauna in Central Belize by the Maya from the Archaic to the Postclassic periods.His most recent research has expanded into Southwest faunal analysis focused on bone tool manufacturing and use wear, prehistoric dogs, taphonomy, and taxonomic diversity. His other research has focused on Ancestral Puebloan archaeology in the Kayenta area and Cohonina chronology and settlement patterns. He has administered artifact analyses, archival research, database construction, and co-authored research designs, reports, analytical articles, and technical chapters. |
To find a mentor or become a mentor, contact AAZ@azarchaeology.org (RE: Mentor). |