Internships
February - April, 2010
​As an intern for Dr. Chap Kusimba of the Field Museum in Chicago, I traveled to the coast of Kenya, where I excavated tombs at an ancient Swahili site. Sixteen skeletal samples were recovered, and will be used to compare the DNA of these ancient Swahili to modern Swahili peoples. Field techniques included geographical surveying, archaeological methodologies, osteological and artifact analysis at the Fort Jesus Museum, Mombasa.
May, 2009 to December, 2009
​I worked with Dr. Firooza Pavri of the University of Southern Maine on a NASA grant for a remote sensing project. I helped to rewrite and maintain the lab material for the online Remote Sensing course that Dr. Pavri was teaching in the fall semester. I also worked as a class assistant (TA) during the class, and as a lab assistant to help students with their remote sensing classwork.
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Fall, 2009
I worked as a remote intern for the Smithsonian Institutions Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology, doing GIS work for an entomology project, where my goal was to map trees and insect populations in a small section of the Amazon basin in Ecuador.
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Summer 2007
​I worked as an intern for Dr. Robert Laughlin, Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, working on a digital archiving project, to digitize the photographic record of his work with the Maya of Mexico.
Field Work
Mtwapa, Kenya 2010
Working towards the expectation of a Master's Thesis in Geographic Information Science, I returned to Kenya to beginning compiling data on archaeological sites, in an effort to produce a comprehensive understanding of the settlement patterns of Ancient Swahili people using maps to detail how they were using their environment.
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Mtwapa, Kenya 2010
​As an intern for Dr. Chap Kusimba of the Field Museum in Chicago, I traveled to the coast of Kenya, where for two months I excavated tombs at an ancient Swahili site. Skeletal samples were recovered, and will be used to compare the DNA of these ancient Swahili to modern Swahili peoples. Field techniques included geographical surveying, archaeological methodologies, osteological and artifact analysis at the Fort Jesus Museum, Mombasa.
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Local Archaeology, 2009
I participated in local fieldwork in Maine: The William Ladd site, Minot Maine, and urban archaeology at two mill sites in Lewiston. Work included standard archaeological excavation techniques, which included use of a theodolite and other standard methods to establish an archaeological grid system.
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I also participated in an archaeological dig at a site known as the Field/Bickford site in Durham, New Hampshire, which included standard excavation methodologies.
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Koobi Fora, Kenya, 2008
I participated for two months in the Koobi Fora Field School, run by Rutgers University and the National Museums of Kenya. Work there included archaeological excavations, field and lab analysis of archaeological artifacts, ecological conservation methods, and botanical field surveys.
Other GIS-Related Projects and Presentations
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I presented at the National Conference for Geographic Education in Savannah, GA (October, 2010). Topic: Preliminary Spatial Analysis of Ancient Swahili Archaeological Sites in Coastal Kenya
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I presented my work with the Swahili in Kenya at an annual Knap-in event at the University of Southern Maine
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I was guest lecturer at the University of Southern Maine/Auburn campus on Sharia Law
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As part of my course in Global Positioning Systems, I participated in mapping Passamaquoddy petro-glyphs in Machias, ME, dating to the pre-contact period. Work included the use of Garmin hand-held GPS units, and Trimble units. Data was later updated into ArcMap.
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I worked on a project to analyze various infectious disease in border counties in the state of Texas.
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I used GIS and Remote Sensing software to analyze changes in the eco-system after dams were erected during the James Bay Project in Quebec affecting the Native Cree people living in the area.
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Food Mapping Project: Working with the students in the Department of Sociology, I worked on a project to map available food resources in the cities of Lewiston and Auburn Maine and analyzed the relationship between these food resources and available public transportation and low-income areas.
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