Meet
The Team

Dr. Nesta Anderson serves as Office Principal for PaleoWest’s Austin, Texas, office. Nesta brings nearly 30 years of cultural resources management experience to clients. She most recently served as a Program Manager for Pape-Dawson Engineers and Atkins in Texas. Nesta is using her extensive private and public sector network to solidify PaleoWest as the leading cultural and heritage resources firm in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Contact Nesta: 512.394.7477 | nanderson@paleowest.com

Dr. Mike Cannon is an archaeologist with over 25 years of experience in research, cultural and heritage resources management, and operations management. Mike effectively manages projects for a range of government and private-sector clients throughout the Intermountain West. He has conducted project work in Nevada, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska, and Chihuahua, Mexico. Most importantly, Mike repeatedly brings clients the best solutions, remaining on budget, on schedule, and with excellent customer service. His research interests focus on understanding past environments and the ecology of prehistoric human subsistence in North America, particularly the Great Basin and the Southwest, as well as across the continent during the Paleoindian period.

Contact Mike: 801.203.4445 | mcannon@paleowest.com

Jessica DeBusk brings 17 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry. Her professional experience includes managing large, diverse projects and overseeing teams of cultural, paleontological, and natural resource professionals. Jessica’s areas of expertise include program development and leadership, business development, multidisciplinary project management, CEQA/NEPA analysis and compliance, and paleontology. As a professional paleontologist, she has successfully completed hundreds of paleontological resources inventory and monitoring projects throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. As Office Principal, Jessica manages operations in our Los Angeles office.

Contact Jessica: 760.271.6943 | jdebusk@paleowest.com

Julie Duggins carries 13 years of solution-centered research and consulting into PaleoWest from her experience in both the private and public sectors. She has managed surveys, testing, and data recovery projects to help applicants comply with Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, NEPA, and state and local statutes across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. She is a noted expert in pre-Columbian watercraft research, particularly dugout canoes in Florida. Julie serves on the board of the Panhandle Archaeological Society at Tallahassee, teaches college-level archaeology and anthropology courses, and is a leader in resource management through her work with the Florida Archaeological Preservation Association.

Contact Julie: 678.360.6243 | jduggins@paleowest.com

Steve Karacic, Ph.D., RPA has 15 years of experience practicing archaeology and has worked throughout the southeastern United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Steve leverages creative technological solutions to increase efficiency and provide clients with high-quality, digital deliverables. Having contributed to over 100 reports for State Historic Preservation Offices throughout the Southeast, he specializes in guiding clients through the regulatory processes of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act as well as state statutes and local ordinances.

Contact Steve: skaracic@paleowest.com

Kye Miller has over 13 years of cultural resources management experience, involved in several sizable, multi-year cultural resources projects across the midwestern and western United States. He has directed and coordinated multiple concurrent archaeological, ethnographic, and paleontological projects, including small- and large-scale survey, excavation, and construction monitoring projects. Kye is an expert on the archaeology of the Four Corners region, particularly with early Pueblo residential sites in northwest New Mexico. He has worked as a researcher and consultant in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, and Utah, managing successful projects in various market sectors with a solution-oriented approach. Kye has authored and edited dozens of technical reports and conference papers and is published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Contact Kye: 618.580.0701 | kmiller@paleowest.com

Garret Root is an experienced architectural historian and cultural resource manager with experience including managing complex, interdisciplinary projects under Federal, State and Local regulatory nexuses. The majority of Garret’s work has focused on water, infrastructure and utilities clients having documented hundreds of architectural history resources across Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, and California. Additionally, he is actively pursuing new and innovative ways to integrate technology into documentation and interpretation.

Contact Garret: groot@paleowest.com

Chris Sims brings over 12 years of experience practicing archaeology in 22 states and four countries and several years of work on significant sustainability projects. He earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Appalachian State University and his master’s degree in anthropology from University of Louisville, where he used GIS to test ecological models of human behavior in periods of significant climate change. Chris has demonstrated success on projects in Section 106, Section 110, large infrastructure projects, and large wetlands reclamation programs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is also very active with public archaeology outreach and education projects in the Portland, Oregon, area. Chris is currently the office principal for PaleoWest’s Portland office, coordinating projects throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Contact Chris: 502.645.3116 | csims@paleowest.com

Matt Tennyson has 18 years of experience in historical and prehistoric archaeology in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Since 2009, Matt’s work has focused on the renewable energy sector, serving as principal investigator and project manager for major projects. He expertly helps clients navigate the complexities involved in permitting and compliance on multi-year and multi-phase projects. Matt is an expert in building and managing teams that complete projects with a creative and efficient approach to cultural resources management.

Contact Matthew: 949.981.5862 | mtennyson@paleowest.com

Dr. John Williams is an archaeologist and cultural and heritage resources principal investigator and project manager with over 20 years of research and consultancy spanning the Rocky Mountain region, High Plains, Great Basin, Four Corners, American Bottom, Eastern Woodlands, Middle East, and Europe. His areas of interest and expertise include prehistoric and historic archaeology, hunter-gatherer interaction with ancient environments, human population expansions and colonization events of foragers and early horticulturalists/pastoralists, social and economic changes from hunting and gathering to early farming/pastoralism, lithic and ceramic technologies, historic archaeology, regional systems, and public archaeology. John has ample experience as a project manager and principal investigator, successfully obtaining contracts and grants to perform archaeological fieldwork for various agencies and successfully managing over 30 projects from start to finish.

Contact John: 720.980.1933 | jwilliams@paleowest.com

Greg has 30 years of experience as a program director, project manager, and senior archaeologist. He excels at leading multidisciplinary teams to ensure compliance with all federal, state, and municipal cultural resources regulations. He has managed hundreds of archaeological surveys and archaeological data recovery excavations for a variety of projects and clients throughout the Southwest, Northwest, Great Basin, and Plains regions.  When Greg takes a break from being an archaeologist, you will find him mountain biking, paddleboarding, sailing, or learning Spanish.

Contact Gregory: GBrown@paleowest.com

Justin Castells is an architectural historian who exceeds the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards in architectural history and history. Justin has over 13 years of professional experience in historic preservation and cultural resources management and has worked on projects throughout the United States. He has completed assessments for properties based on the California Register of Historic Resources, National Register of Historic Places, and local criteria. He has prepared technical reports in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the California Environmental Quality Act and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, including environmental impact studies/environmental impact reports; California Department of Parks and Recreation 523 series forms; Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Documentation; historic preservation plans; and cultural landscape reports. Justin has completed work for various federal, state, and local agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, California High Speed Rail Authority, California Department of Transportation, as well as numerous private clients.

Contact Justin: 619.548.3798 | jcastells@paleowest.com

Dr. James Potter has been with PaleoWest since 2011 and now serves as a Principal Archaeologist and Principal Investigator on projects throughout the western United States. Prior to coming on board with PaleoWest, he directed the Animas-La Plata reservoir project in southwestern Colorado, the largest public archaeology project in the country at the time (2001–2010). Since joining PaleoWest, he served as Principal Investigator for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project in northwest New Mexico and the Benton Project at the Santa Clara Mission in Santa Clara, California. He has also worked extensively with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado, including a large-site survey and photogrammetry project in the Ute Tribal Park. He is widely published in American Antiquity, Journal of Field Archaeology, Kiva, and the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology and is the editor of the book entitled The Social Construction of Communities, published by AltaMira Press. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the PaleoWest Foundation, a non-profit corporation that supports archaeological research and education globally.

Contact James: 720.339.4313 | jpotter@paleowest.com