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, M.A., RPA has over 15 years of professional experience in cultural resources management in the eastern United States, bringing her experience in both the private and public sectors. Leading with an emphasis on client success, she manages business development and client service for the firm’s eastern offices in Florida and New York. She is responsible for the development and successful implementation of business strategy in PaleoWest’s Eastern region. Since joining PaleoWest in 2018, Julie has overseen projects in 20 US States and territories. She is a noted expert in pre-Columbian watercraft research, particularly dugout canoes in precontact Florida. Julie has shaped industry regulation through advocacy 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, M.A., RPA, joined PaleoWest in 2009 and has over 14 years of professional experience in cultural resources consulting in the American Southwest and Midwest. Kye is responsible for business development, client services, and operations in PaleoWest’s Southwest region. He lends his responsiveness and solution-oriented consulting to PaleoWest’s Phoenix headquarters and ancillary offices. Kye has managed archaeological, ethnographic, and paleontological projects with a cumulative contract value of more than $9M, including large-scale excavations for the nation’s largest public archaeology project. He has also published articles in peer-reviewed journals.

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: 971.801.0677 | 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