PaleoWest was founded on the principle of providing the very best cultural-resource consultants to our clients. We pride ourselves on being the most creative team of problem-solvers in the business.
Following is highlighted the expertise of our most senior and valued staff members. Full vitae of these professionals are available upon request, as is additional information on the remainder of PaleoWest’s extensive stable of technical and administrative support staff.
Tom Motsinger, M.A., RPA
President and Senior Archaeologist
Tom Motsinger founded PaleoWest after he spent 25 years providing archaeology consulting services. He carries an unsurpassed understanding of national cultural regulations and how to apply them to meet our clients’ needs. Tom has successfully managed some of the largest and most complex archaeology projects in the U.S. His direct experience in archaeology and regulatory consulting has been extensive in the Four Corners states, Nevada, Wyoming, and California, though he also carries expertise in other western states, Hawaii, and overseas.
As an archaeologist, Tom has published scientific articles in professional archaeological journals such as Kiva and Journal of Field Archaeology, contributed chapters to edited volumes for major publishers, and co-edited such volumes himself. This combination of scientific credentials, business acumen, and proven success in solution-oriented consulting were poured as the foundation of PaleoWest and continue to guide the firm’s approach.
Tom currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Cultural Resources Association, the national trade organization for cultural-resource firms.
Douglas R. Mitchell, M.A., RPA
Vice President – Southwest Region
Before joining PaleoWest as a Principal and Partner in 2008, Doug Mitchell had served as the Director of Arizona Cultural Resources at Phoenix-based SWCA Environmental Consultants, where he had spent 16 years building their Phoenix and Arizona-wide archaeology programs.
A Registered Professional Archaeologist and noted expert on the prehistoric cultures of Arizona and the American Southwest, Mitchell has authored numerous articles for scientific journals such as American Antiquity, Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Science, North American Archaeologist, and Kiva and has contributed chapters or served as editor for several books on the archaeology of the Southwest. From 1985 to 1992, he directed archaeological projects for Soil Systems, Inc., including important ones at Pueblo Grande and other large Hohokam villages along what is now Phoenix’s Loop 202 Freeway.
A past President of the Arizona Archaeological Council, Mitchell serves as Vice President – Southwest Region for PaleoWest in our Phoenix, Arizona headquarters.
Kevin Thompson, M.A., RPA
Vice President – Rocky Mountain Region
Kevin Thompson brings more than 30 years of high-level experience in cultural resource management across the western United States and the Pacific to PaleoWest’s Denver office. He has focused on complex, multi-year, multi-state projects demanding substantial managerial oversight. His lengthy record of success for clients includes the $14 million Animas-La Plata Water Storage Project in Colorado, the Entrega/REX pipeline and the Exxon LaBarge Project across Wyoming, and several large environmental impact statements.
Before joining PaleoWest as a Principal and Partner in 2010, Kevin served in senior roles for 11 years at SWCA Environmental Consultants, including Corporate Director of Cultural Resources, Energy Business Line Corporate Principal, and Managing Principal for the Rocky Mountain Region. The Denver/Rocky Mountain Region of SWCA grew from Kevin’s founding of it to an $8 million annual operation during his tenure.
Kevin has authored scientific articles, technical documents, and professional peer-reviewed papers concerning the archaeology of the Northern Colorado River Basin and the Intermountain West. Thompson has been an instructor for classes in anthropology and archaeology in both field and laboratory settings for the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Colorado College, and Western Wyoming College. He has also served as the Executive Director of Western Public Research, a not-for-profit entity overseeing the operation of the Natural History Museum, the Archaeological Repository, and the Herbarium at Western Wyoming College.
Kevin now serves as Vice President – Rocky Mountain Region out of our Denver, Colorado office.
Cory D. Breternitz, M.A., RPA
Principal and Senior Archaeologist
Cory Breternitz is the founder and former President of Soil Systems, Inc (SSI). Its staff and expertise absorbed into PaleoWest in 2009, SSI was a 25-year-old archaeological consulting firm that enjoyed one of the finest reputations for scientifically outstanding archaeology in the American Southwest. Under Cory’s direction, SSI’s projects included paradigm-shifting excavations across the Hohokam core villages in Phoenix, including Pueblo Grande, La Lomita, La Lomita Pequena, and Grand Canal Ruin, as well as the comprehensive East Papago Canal Study that rewrote our understanding of North America’s largest ancient irrigation system. Cory’s and SSI’s work also ranged across other Four Corners states, including the multi-year Ute Mountain Ute Excavations in southwestern Colorado.
Author of a multitude of professional publications centered on various aspects of archaeology, Cory has been a Board member and Past President of the American Cultural Resources Association, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for American Archaeology. Following the merger of SSI into PaleoWest, Cory serves as Senior Archaeologist in our Phoenix office.
Dr. Todd Bostwick
Senior Research Archaeologist
Prior to joining PaleoWest in 2010, Dr. Bostwick served for 21 years in the prestigious position of City Archaeologist for Phoenix, the city whose very name references its prehistoric past. In his post at Pueblo Grande Museum, he created and administered a comprehensive, city-wide archaeology compliance program while serving as the National Park Service’s coordinator for the Pueblo Grande National Historic Landmark.
Dr. Bostwick has served as Faculty Associate at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University in recent years. He has authored and co-authored a host of professional articles and books on Southwestern archaeology, archaeoastronomy, and history. Dr. Bostwick also served as the general editor for more than 25 volumes of the Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers and Occasional Papers series of Hohokam-focused publications.
Dr. Bostwick’s work on Pueblo Grande’s prehistoric platform mound earned him two awards from the National Park Service. His service also twice garnered him the Phoenix City Manager’s Excellence Award. And in 2005, he was singled out for the Arizona Governor’s Award in Public Archaeology.
Dr. James Potter
Senior Research Archaeologist
Holding a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. fromArizona State University, Dr. Potter came to PaleoWest from SWCA in 2011,where he had served as a Principal Investigator since 1997. Among his research and managerial accomplishments was his success as the Principal Investigator of the complex and archaeologically high-profile Animas-La Plata Cultural Resources Project in southwest Colorado. The 7-year, $14 million NHPA compliance project included the excavation of 73 archaeological sites, NHPA and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act consultation with 26 Native American tribes, extensive public outreach, and Native American student internship and archaeological training programs. The project was completed on-time and on-budget in 2010.
Dr. Potter has authored and coauthored numerous book-length monographs. Besides publishing the multi-volume ALP report series, he has also published articles in American Antiquity, Kiva, and the Journal of Field Archaeology,
and is co-editor of The Social Construction of Communities: Structure, Agency,and Identity in the Prehispanic Southwest, published by AltaMira Press in 2008.
Dennis Gilpin, M.A., RPA
Senior Archaeologist, Ethnographer, and Historian
Dennis Gilpin carries more than 30 years of experience with all phases of archaeology. He has directed archaeological testing and data recovery at Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Pueblo, Navajo, and Euroamerican sites. He is particularly adept with Archaic period archaeology, Pueblo architecture, prehistoric agriculture, and historical archaeology. He is well known for his discoveries of early maize in the Chinle Valley, his research on the Chacoan system and the transition to modern Puebloan settlement, and his studies in Navajo archaeology and history.
Also a highly regarded applied ethnographer, Dennis has conducted ethnographic research among the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Yavapai, and Tohono O’odham. He has conducted ethnographic and tribal consultation with the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, Hualapai, Havasupai, Southern Paiute, Colorado Ute, and Yavapai-Apache tribes. He was principal investigator for a cultural affiliation study for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument that entailed consultation with 25 Native American groups in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. He also served as Project Historian, Historical Archaeologist, and Ethnographer on the enormous Animas–La Plata Project in southwestern Colorado, helping develop a historic sites research design, a consulting tribes plan, a tribal involvement plan, and a cultural affiliation study, while also directing historic sites research for the project.
Since joining the PaleoWest staff in 2009, Dennis has served as Senior Archaeologist, Ethnographer, and Historian in our Flagstaff, Arizona, office.
Ted Roberts, M.A., RPA
Project Director – Director of Field Procedures
A seasoned archaeologist with expertise across the U.S. and Latin America, Ted Roberts serves an important dual role at PaleoWest, acting both as our senior-most Project Director and as the firm-wide Director of Field Procedures. Before joining PaleoWest, Ted was a Project Archaeologist for SWCA Environmental Consultants and as a National Park Service Archaeologist. In this latter role, he played a central role in managing the Cultural Resource Division at Navajo National Monument,including the development of that Park’s successful Condition Assessment Program.
As Director of Field Procedures, Ted has headed up the development and implementation a near-paperless system for survey and site recording based on the use of the iPad tablet computer. The now-well-tested and refined system allows PaleoWest archaeologists to collect data, render digital field maps, and produce report-ready site narratives ready for upload to our server in near-real time.
Stephanie Sherwood
Director of Cartography and GIS
Among the very best in the business, Stephanie Sherwood has worked wonders with cartographic and GIS aspects of PaleoWest projects since the firm’s beginning. The founder and owner of Compass Rose Technical Services, Stephanie assumed her PaleoWest staff role in 2010. A priceless blend of a GIS specialist, graphic designer, and expert in archaeological cartography who is also an outstanding archaeologist, Stephanie brings outstanding attention to detail, timely responsiveness, and aesthetic excellence to PaleoWest’s project work products.
