I was born and raised in a small town in central Alberta.  My interest in archaeology took me to Red Deer College after high school and then to the University of Calgary, where I finished an honours degree in Anthropology.  I spent a couple of years after graduation working in the Cultural Resources Management industry exploring sites in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut.  

I returned to school to do a Masters at the University of Western Ontario focusing on pottery from Early-Late Woodland sites and then moved onto McGill University for my PhD.  My doctoral research was an ethnoarchaeological project that studied the relations between potters and their consumers in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali.  

After my PhD, I returned to field archaeology and became a collaborator in the Chihuahua Archaeology Project, directed by Jane Kelley at the University of Calgary.  My current research draws out of this collaboration.  Starting in 2010, I began the Santa Clara Archaeology Project, which is based at the University of Lethbridge.  We have completed one year of excavation and will be returning to do an additional 7 years of archaeological survey and excavation at Casas Grandes sites in central Chihuahua.

In addition to archaeology, I enjoy cooking, camping and fly fishing, playing guitar, and sampling fine craft ales and cheap wines.  I live with my wife Deanne and two nasty cats in Lethbridge.