Officers, Board Members,
& Volunteers
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David Lee, Treasurer
David Lee is an independent rock art researcher focusing on the function and context of Native American rock art of western North America and the rock art and associated traditional knowledge of northern Australia. He is a founding member of Western Rock Art Research, a non-profit organization located in Bishop and dedicated to the study and management of rock art. He has documented rock art in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Australia, and has co-authored several papers and reports on the Mojave Desert, eastern California, and Australia. Between 2005 and 2017 he and his wife Charlotte worked with the Wardaman People of the Northern Territory to document their rock art sites and associated traditional stories. During this time they also visited several other areas with concentrations of rock art and assisted Australian researchers on projects in two other regions of the Top End of Australia.
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Charlotte Anderson
(in memoriam)
Charlotte Anderson was a founding member of both the Mojave Rock Art Workshop (1997-2016) and Western Rock Art Research, and an integral part of both. She brought her infectious, upbeat, ‘can-do’ attitude and her careful attention to detail to every day, every job, and every project. After a lifetime of exploring various countries and careers, she returned to her roots in the Owens Valley in 1985 and was a cook at the University of California’s Barcroft Station (at 12, 242 ft.) for eleven years. While working there she renewed her childhood interest in Native American cultures and began yet another career as an Archaeological Technician and rock art recorder. She participated in many survey and recordation projects for Federal and State land managers in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Idaho from 1996 to 2016. From 2005 to 2015 she also worked with the Wardaman People of northern Australia to document their rock art sites and associated traditional knowledge.
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Don Christensen, MA, Member
Don Christensen has documented and completed surveys for archaeological sites for 32 years (1985-2017) for the Bureau of Land Management in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, for the United Forest Service Forest Service in California and Arizona, and for the National Park Service in the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Joshua Tree, Mojave National Preserve, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Canyonlands, and Zion. He has worked on excavations for a number of cultural resource companies on Archaic and Late Prehistoric sites in Orange and Santa Barbara Counties, California, and on Basketmaker pithouses and a Chaco Great House and Great Kiva in Petrified Forest. He has produced 48 publications and reports as the primary author or as a co-author and one book (Rock Art of the Grand Canyon Region with Jerry Dickey and Steve Freers). He has also edited three volumes of anthologies. The major focus of his research has been on the Mojave Desert, the Patayan of the Lower Colorado River region, and the Ancestral Puebloan of the Colorado Plateau. This was all accomplished as a secondary and a part time avocation while from 1967 until 2001 he was a social science instructor at high schools, a community college, and the University of California at Irvine.
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Carol Ormsbee, Vice President
Carol graduated from the University of Montana with a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology, and holds a professional certificate in Human Resources Management from the University of California in San Diego. Having attained credentials in recordation from the Arizona Archaeological Society in 1999 and 2000, she has been active in recordation as well as teaching recordation since that time. Carol has helped administer rock art sites in Arizona, Nevada, California, and Australia.
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Brian Birdsall, Secretary
Educated in engineering and business, Brian became interested in rock art while attending a site stewardship class in 2003. He received training as a volunteer archaeological site steward in Mojave National Preserve that same year, and began active participation in the annual Mojave Rock Art Workshop (MORAW). In 2006, Brian traveled to Australia with David Lee and Charlotte Anderson to assist with recording rock art sites in the Northern Territory. Since returning from that trip, he has worked with David Lee to produce a series of site records for the rock art of Wardaman country. Brian is interested in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and has completed a GIS Certificate at California State University, Northridge. He is currently responsible for Accounting and GIS systems at WRAR.
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Janet C. Niessner, President
Janet is a registered professional archaeologist (RPA), with a B.A. in Archaeology from George Washington University and an M.Sc. in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology from Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the UK. Janet joined the efforts of WRAR in early 2012, contributing her skills in field recordation, GIS survey and mapping, and report writing. She was elected as President of WRAR in January of 2015, and has since taken on company administration, grant writing, and public outreach. She is also employed as an environmental scientist and curatorial specialist for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians.
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Jon Harman, PhD, RPA
Jon Harman has spent over twenty years pursuing rock art as a serious hobby. He is a member of the Bay Area Rock Art Research Association (BARARA), the Society for California Archaeology and the American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA). He has traveled throughout the United States as well as to Mexico, North Africa and France in search of petroglyph and pictograph sites. Jon earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1980 from the University of California in Berkeley. With this background, he enjoyed a lengthy career in the field of medical imaging. He worked for a CT manufacturer and an ophthalmology device manufacturer, specializing in the design of algorithms used in creating medical images and in analyzing structures in the images.
Jon is also the founder of DStretch. Jon has presented papers on the use of DStretch at meetings of the Museum of Man in San Diego , the Society for California Archaeology, ARARA, the Nevada Rock Art Foundation, the Nevada Archaeological Association, the Bi National Meeting of Balances and Perspectives on the Anthropology and History of Baja California and the Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia.
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Leigh Marymor
Leigh Marymor has been actively pursuing rock art interests for over 30 years. He is particularly interested in rock art site conservation and protection issues, and in the literature of rock art studies. Leigh is also the founder of the Rock Art Studies Bibliographic Database.
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Michael Kuhn, PhD
Michael received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught at San Jose State College from 1966-67 and at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1967-1974. He was later in charge of Environmental Planning for the City of Simi Valley between 1974-2003.
Michael has had a life long interest in archaeology, including recording of archaeological and rock art sites in the Mojave Desert and in the Transverse Ranges of California and elsewhere. Beginning in 2004, he periodically worked for W & S Consulting on archaeological surveys and excavations.
Michael has authored hundreds of articles and professional papers relating to geography, anthropology, ethnography, local history, and natural history.
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Jeffrey F. LaFave
Jeff has been involved in rock art research for over 25 years and has visited rock art on all 6 continents that have rock art. He has authored several publications and given numerous presentations on rock art related subjects.
By day, Jeff is an environmental attorney in San Diego, but he spends virtually all of his other time focused on rock art. He has also been involved with rock art documentation and site monitoring in the United States, Australia and Africa, including helping with projects for the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, Archeoimagery, and CASSP.
In recent years, Jeff has focused on rock art photography and he won the 2017 Oliver Award from the American Rock Art Research Association for "Excellence in the Art & Science of Rock Art Photography.” He just published his comprehensive work in, Rock Art of the World.
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Courtney Smith
Courtney enjoys backcountry exploring, hiking, backpacking, and photography. In 1990, he began visiting rock art sites during many of his days off and vacations and this inquiry slowly pulled him into the field of rock art research. This has led him to volunteer to record rock art sites in several states and eventually write or co-author scholarly papers on the rock art of Eastern California and Nevada for the Southern Nevada Rock Art Enthusiasts newsletter, the American Indian Rock Art publication of the American Rock Art Research Association, the Rock Art Papers of the San Diego Museum of Man, and in the Proceedings from the 2001 Millennium Conference. In addition, he has given presentations on a variety of rock art topics to various organizations that include: the Eastern California Museum, Audubon Society, University of California White Mountain Research Station, and the Mojave Rock Art Workshop.
In 2011, he was awarded the Mark Oliver Award from the American Rock Art Research Association for "Excellence in the Art & Science of Rock Art Photography.”
Courtney worked for Inyo County as a Planner and Transportation Planner before his retirement in 2018.
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Steve Schwartz, PhD
Steve served as a Federal archaeologist for over 30 years beginning with the Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles in 1980. There he worked a variety of assignments throughout southern California working the full spectrum of cultural resources issues: archaeology, historic sites, historic buildings, bridges, dams, and shipwrecks. Beginning in 1989, Steve moved to the Navy at Point Mugu which has responsibility for San Nicolas Island, until his retirement in 2013.
During his time with the Navy, Steve oversaw the excavation of dozens of archaeological sites spanning several thousand years of island occupation. He developed the Navy’s archaeology program for the island which made extensive use of local universities. He facilitated the successful archaeological field school program which brought hundreds of archaeology students to the island over the years, and has been the recipient of two Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation-1998, 2011. Most notably, he lead the team that discovered the cave where the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island had lived; which had been lost over the years.
Steve continues his research interest in the story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and provides volunteer support to a variety of archaeology and rock art recording projects.
A special thanks goes out to the volunteers and contributors that share our passion, and help us in all this project work. We are a community in these goals, and we couldn’t do this without you.
Karen Anderson
Ann Batum
Margaret Berrier
Jill Breedon
Amy Brooks
Liz Caplun
Lynn Dyer
Nancy Evans
Dawna Ferris
Paul Gray
Robert Hafey
John Hansen
Jon Harmon
Chris Kalashian
Jeff LaFave
Brian Lee
Janet Lever Wood
Leigh Marymor
Lorraine Masten
Daniel McCarthy
Ann Phillips
Edward Piwowska
Carol Roberts
Sandy Rogers
Gary Schlageter
Patricia Sheppard
Georgette Theotig
Ron Weldy
Dick & Sue Conn
Lynne & Walter Hester
Jane & Norman Punneoo
Barbara & Mary Roper
Susan & Glyn Thickett
Bryce & Wilma Wheeler
Bay Area Rock Art Research Association
Grant County Archaeology Society
Marin Community Foundation
San Diego Rock Art Association