Research Associates


Dedicated. Passionate. Resilient.

Collaboration with external researchers is an essential component for building multivocal, multidisciplinary projects. Many of our research associates have long-standing relationships with Crow Canyon, and provide specific areas of expertise.

Fumi Arakawa

Research Associate; 1998 Field Intern; Indiana University

Fumi is an archaeologist who studies southwestern archaeology, particularly the Mesa Verde and Mimbres regions.

Kari Schleher

Research Associate; 1999 Intern; Maxwell Museum and University of New Mexico

Kari is an anthropological archaeologist interested in material culture as a means of understanding past social relationships.

Kelsey Reese

Research Associate; 2013 Field Intern

Kelsey is currently a Postdoctoral Teaching Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and a Research Associate at the Santa Fe Institute.

Scott Ortman

Research Associate; 1993 Field Intern

Scott works on the initial formation of Ancestral Pueblo society, its transformation into the Rio Grande pueblos, and the practical value of archaeological findings for society today.

Lisa Nagaoka

Research Associate; University of North Texas

Lisa is a zooarchaeologist interested in archaeological method and theory,

philosophy of science, conservation biology, and biogeography.

Rich Wilshusen

Research Associate; Independent Researcher

Rich studies the earliest great house communities, Navajo ethnogenesis, and current issues in public archaeology.

Devin White

Research Associate; Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Devin leverages GIScience, big data, and high performance computing to explore large, complex archaeological questions.

Jonathan Dombrosky

2021–2023 Postdoctoral Scholar; Research Associate; 2015 Field Intern

Jon is a zooarchaeologist broadly interested in human-environment interactions from the past to the present.

Radek Palonka

Research Institute; 2005 Intern

Radoslaw (Radek) examines settlement structure and the socio-cultural changes around Sand Canyon Pueblo during the 13th Century.

Cailey Mullins

Research Associate; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Cailey is interested in the social and educational impacts of archaeology on K–12 students and communities.

Steve Lekson

Research Associate; University of Colorado at Boulder

Steve’s research focuses mainly on Chaco Canyon and Mimbres, and on archaeological method and theory.

Robin Lyle

Independent Researcher; Lab Volunteer

Robin is a poultry research scientist interested in ancient agriculture, turkey husbandry, and material cultures of the past.

William (Bill) D. Lipe

Board of Trustees; Research Institute Advisor

Bill is Professor Emeritus at Washington State University where he joined the Anthropology faculty in 1976. He is an archaeologist with expertise in the American Southwest, archaeological method and theory, and cultural resource management. Bill joined the Board in 1995 and lives in Moscow, Idaho.

Cynthia Fadem

Research Associate; Earlham College

Cynthia is a geoarchaeologist who studies the interaction between culture and natural materials, primarily soils and lithics.

Steve Wolverton

Research Associate; 1997 Intern; University of North Texas

Steve Wolverton is an ethnobiologist who specializes in environmental archaeology and animal ecology.

Stefani Crabtree

Research Associate; Utah State University & the Santa Fe Institute

Stefani uses the deep-time of archaeology to understand human resilience and vulnerability.

Karen Adams

Research Associate; Independent Researcher

Karen is a paleoethnobotanist focused on plants important in subsistence and for other daily needs.

Kristin Kuckelman

Research Associate; Independent Researcher

Kristin is an archaeologist whose research has focused on causes and effects of warfare in the U.S. Southwest.

Sarah Oas

Research Associate; 2010 Intern

Sarah is a paleoethnobotanist interested in the relationships between foodways and processes of social transformation.

James (Jim) Potter

Board of Trustees; Research Associate; PaleoWest Archaeology

Jim is an archaeologist interested in communal ritual and the organization of prehistoric communities.

Shanna Diederichs

Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants

Shanna is a Southwestern Archaeologists interested in the origins of Pueblo

Deb Martin

Research Associate; University of Nevada

Deb does research that investigates the origins

and evolution of violence in human history.

Michelle Turner

2020–2021 Postdoctoral Scholar; 2013 Field Intern

Michelle is an archaeologist who studies the relationships between Chaco Canyon and its outliers through architecture, ceramics, and other material culture.

Tim Wilcox

Research Associate

Tim Wilcox is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University with 30 years of experience in Southwest archaeology.

Donna Glowacki

Research Associate; 2003 Lister Fellow; 1994 Field Intern

Donna is an anthropological archaeologist studying transformation, disruption, and resiliency in Southwestern societies.

Timothy (Tim) A. Kohler

Board of Trustees; Research Associate

Tim is a Regents Professor of Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology at Washington State University. Tim applies method and theory from the study of complex adaptive systems to the study of prehistoric societies. He lives in Pullman, Washington, and joined the Board in 2019.

Laurie Webster

Independent Researcher

Laurie Webster is an anthropologist and independent scholar who specializes in the perishable material culture of the Southwest.

Jon Driver

Research Associate; Simon Fraser University

Jon has studied animal bones from archaeological sites in the Southwest for thirty years.