Board of Directors

Chair: Catherine Long, Lawrenceville

Ms. Long received her Masters degree in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, specializing in Historic Archaeology. She also holds a Museum Management Certificate from the University and is currently the Education Program Coordinator at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. She started her career as a field and laboratory technician at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and later worked for Atlanta-based TRC and New South Associates. Through her membership with SGA, the Archaeological Association of South Carolina, Society for Historical Archaeology, and Gwinnett Archaeological Research Society where she serves on the Board of Directors, Ms. Long has assisted with numerous outreach events and presentations at conferences.

Robert Moon, Augusta

Rob is a graduate of Georgia Southern University with a BA in Anthropology and received his MA in Historic Archaeology from the University of West Florida. Since graduating, his main focus has been on outreach and compliance archaeology with a research interest in Industrial Archaeology. In 2000, he joined the field crew at the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program before becoming the Outreach Coordinator later that year. As Outreach Coordinator he developed and presented education programs throughout Georgia and South Carolina reaching up to 5000 students and adults annually. In 2007, Rob moved into his current position as a compliance archaeologist with the SRARP. Previously, he has served on the Board of Directors of Historic Augusta, as a Commissioner and Chair of the Augusta Historic Preservation Commission, and as Webmaster and Newsletter Editor for the Southeastern Archaeological Conference.

Kevin Kiernan, St. Simons Island

Kevin Kiernan is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, where he taught for 35 years. As a medievalist he has written books and articles based on international archival research; as a specialist in humanities computing he has edited an electronic edition of Beowulf and has directed or co-directed several projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2005, Kiernan retired to St. Simons Island, where he has worked with Fred Cook on several prehistoric and historic sites, including what is now 9GN343, a long-occupied prehistoric Indian site in the Mayor of Brunswick’s backyard. He has also taken the Fernback field school, working with Dennis Blanton on the Santa Isabel de Utinahica project. Kiernan presented his first archaeological paper, on ‚“Polynomial Texture Mapping and Image-Based Encoding for Archaeological Projects,” at the August 2008 meeting of SOGART in Douglas, Georgia.

Lynn Marie Pietak, Atlanta

Dr. Pietak received an M.A. in Anthropology from New York University and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. Her dissertation examined early historic period Delaware Indians in the Middle Atlantic. She worked from 1995-2003 as a Senior Archaeologist at Garrow & Associates, and later, TRC, in Atlanta. Dr. Pietak now heads Edwards-Pitman Environmental’s Archaeology Department. Edwards-Pitman has recently completed a large-scale data recovery at 9CK1, the Long Swamp site on the Etowah River. Public involvement was a key component of this project, which was undertaken for GDOT. Dr. Pietak has been a member of SGA since she came to work in Georgia, but looks forward to taking a more active role in the organization. She is also a member of SEAC, SAA, and the American Society for Ethnohistory.

Sammy Smith, Atlanta

Sammy began doing archaeology as an undergraduate in the mid-1970s, and worked part-time at her school’s museum. Since then, she’s done contract archaeology in many states east of the Rockies, including field, laboratory, and archival activities. She arrived in Georgia in the early 1980s and eventually received her PhD in anthropology from UGA. Subsequently, she’s primarily been self-employed at her firm, Archaeofacts. Sammy has broad experience with many facets of archaeology, and works near-daily with information technologies and the internet. She is a member of SGA’s Greater Atlanta chapter and once was a member of the (now-defunct) Athens chapter. She established SGA’s first website, helped produce The Profile for some years, conceived of and contributed to the 2001 “Resources at Risk” issue of Early Georgia, and is a past President of the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists.

Leslie Perry, Atlanta

Ms. Perry graduated from Georgia State University with a BA in Anthropology and from Fort Hays State University, Kansas, with an MA in Social Science focusing on SE Native American History and Archaeology. She has archaeological and museum experience in GA, NM, and SC and is an active member of the Atlanta and Gwinnett chapters of SGA. She is a member of the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists.

Matthew Newberry

Matthew Newberry graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2010 with a BA in Anthropology and marketing minor. He is currently enrolled in the Masters of Arts and Social Sciences program at GSU. Newberry’s academic interests include coastal and lowland plantation archaeology, ceramic analysis, and incorporating laser scanning technology into research. His most recent project has been working on the Camp Lawton research project. Newberry is the logistical coordinator for the Camp Lawton/Magnolia Springs project and he assisted with the archaeological survey and test excavations of the site. Newberry is the president of the Georgia Southern Anthropological Society and holds memberships in the Society for Georgia Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology, South Eastern Archaeological Conference, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. After completing his masters degree, he plans to work in cultural resource management.

Inger Wood, Athens

Inger Wood received a BA in Anthropology and History and a Certificate in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Georgia. While in school she worked at the Georgia Archaeological Site File and participated in the Student Association for Archaeological Sciences. Since graduating she has worked in contract archaeology with various companies in Georgia and other states in the Southeast. She is currently pursuing an MA in Historic Preservation at the University of Georgia.

Donald Thieme, Valdosta

Dr. Thieme has a PhD in Archaeological Geology from the University of Georgia and an MA in Conservation Archaeology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He teaches geomorphology and soils in the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geosciences at Valdosta State University. His active field projects include a collaboration with Dennis Blanton and Frankie Snow on the Ocmulgee River floodplain in the vicinity of the Glass site (9Tf145), a collaboration with Marvin Smith and Dan Elliot on urban house lots in Valdosta, and a collaboration with Stephen Hammack on his Ocmulgee River Basin Archaeological Project (ORBAP). Dr. Thieme worked for more than a decade as a consulting geoarcheologist with Geoarcheology Research Associates beginning in 1994. His first archaeological field experience was during the 1970′s with the Tennessee Division of Archaeology in the Nashville area while he was in college.

Ex-officio, Dennis Blanton, Atlanta

Dennis is Curator of Native American Archaeology at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta. He’s an ex-officio board member because he’s the immediate past president of the SGA.

Officers

President: Catherine Long, Lawrenceville

(Biography above.)

Vice-President and President-Elect: Tammy Forehand Herron, Edgefield, South Carolina

Mrs. Herron has a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Anthropology from Georgia Southern University. She currently serves as Curator for the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program (SRARP), a position that she has held since late 1997. Prior to being hired as an Archaeological Field Technician with the SRARP in the early 1990s, Mrs. Herron was employed as a Field Technician with the USDA Forest Service in Gainesville, Georgia where she conducted fieldwork in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. Aside from her duties as Curator, she has been conducting research of the George Galphin site at Silver Bluff Plantation in Aiken County, SC. The site is revealing interesting details of colonial life in South Carolina and Georgia, as Galphin later established another trading post near present-day Louisville, Georgia. Mrs. Herron is long term member of the Augusta Chapter of SGA.

Secretary: Pamela J. Baughman, Griffin

Ms. Baughman graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Georgia and, while a student, worked for the Georgia Archaeological Site Files. Following graduation, she was employed by the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program as a field technician/field crew chief on archaeological survey and testing projects. She has worked in Curation for the Augusta Museum of History and other historic sites, and is an active member of numerous local, state, and regional archaeological societies/organizations. Ms. Baughman received her M.A. from the University of Alabama and is currently employed as an archaeologist with the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Treasurer: Rick Sellers, Atlanta

Rick has made a career of banking but also studied anthropology at the University of Georgia, and attended field school at the King Site in northwest Georgia.

Other Officials of the SGA

Parliamentarian: position unfilled

Environmental Review Coordinator, Georgia Historic Preservation Division. MA Anthropology, University of Georgia. Past President, the Society for Georgia Archaeology.

Managing Editor, Early Georgia: David Hally, Athens

Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia. PhD, Harvard University.

Editor, Early Georgia: M. Jared Wood, Athens

University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology, 110 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30605.

Editor, The Profile/website content: Kelly Woodard, Atlanta

Kelly Woodard graduated 2010 from Georgia State University (GSU) with a BS in Anthropology and a minor in History. She is a McNair scholar and her undergraduate research includes documentation and mapping of the Flat Rock African-American Cemetery in Lithonia, Georgia, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Her ongoing involvement with the Flat Rock archaeological project since 2008 has allowed her the opportunity to work closely with the Flat Rock Archives and descendent community to preserve the community’s history and create an online presence which will allow the general public the opportunity to engage in their past. Also, while working as an intern at Fernbank Museum Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia, she began working with Dennis Blanton to reexamine the Hernando De Soto Expedition through the use of new archaeological evidence found throughout Georgia. She plans to continue her education and strives to earn a PhD.

ArchaeoBus Manager: Rita Elliott, Rincon

Rita is past President of the SGA. She originated and developed the idea for the ArchaeoBus and made it happen.