Our Staff

Justin Carlson
Project Director

Justin received a B.S. in Anthropology and a B.A. in History from College of Charleston in 2011, an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 2015, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 2019. He has participated in archaeological field and lab projects in the Southeastern United States, Turkey, France, Peru, Italy, Mexico, and Germany and has led projects in Kentucky. He utilizes geoarchaeological methods derived from soil sciences to study landform histories in relation to climatic change and Native lifeways throughout the Holocene. His recent work has been focused on human and ecosystem responses to the warming and drying trends of the Middle Holocene Climatic Optimum 8000 to 5000 years ago and the role of Archaic hunter-gatherers in creating anthropogenic environments such as the Big Barrens grasslands through fire between 5000 and 3000 years ago in Kentucky.

A. Gwynn Henderson
Survey Education Director

Gwynn received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Delaware 1975, her M.A. in Anthropology in 1982, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1998. Gwynn has carried out field research in Kentucky, the Ohio Valley, Tennessee, and Mexico. She is particularly interested in researching the lifeways of the ancient Native farming cultures of the middle Ohio Valley and the history of mid-18th century indigenous groups in that same region. Gwynn works with archaeologists, teachers, and museum educators to develop content, lessons, booklets, video programs, and workshops that make information about Kentucky’s archaeological heritage accessible to a wide audience. Her book for adult literacy students, Kentuckians Before Boone, is also used in elementary school classrooms. An award-winning freelance writer of children’s nonfiction, her articles have been published in dig Magazine, Dig Into History Magazine, and Cobblestone Magazine.

Bruce L. Manzano
Project Director/Faunal Analyst

Bruce received his B.A. in Anthropology from the Ohio State University in 1978 and his M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee in 1986. He has over three decades of archaeological experience with a concentration in zooarchaeology. He has worked on faunal assemblages from Native American and Historic sites from the Allegheny River Valley southward to the Everglades with a concentration of sites specifically within river valleys in Tennessee and Kentucky. His interests include 3-D scan and geomorphic morphometric bone analysis, taphonomy, environmental archaeology and settlement/subsistence patterns, bone tool technology, and excavation methods.

David Pollack
Director

David received his B.A. in Anthropology from Beloit College in 1977, his M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1998. He worked for the Kentucky Heritage Council (State Historic Preservation Office) from 1982 until 2008, as a Staff Archaeologist and the Site Protection Program Manager. Since 1996 he has been the Director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey. He has over forty years of experience in Kentucky archaeology and has conducted archaeological research at sites throughout the Commonwealth. He has published extensively on Kentucky archaeology, with an emphasis on indigenous village farmers.

Lori Stahlgren
Project Archaeologist

Lori received her B.A. in Photojournalism from Western Kentucky University in 1990, a Law Degree from the University of Louisville in 1993, and a M.A. in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University in 1999. She specializes in historical archaeology and is particularly interested in the archaeology of plantations and slavery and public archaeology. She has previously worked at the Kentucky Heritage Council as the Archaeology Review Coordinator for Section 106 projects in the state of Kentucky. She is also interested in historic preservation issues and serves on the Louisville Metro Landmarks Commission.

M. Jay Stottman
Assistant Director

Jay received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Louisville in 1992, his M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 2016. For over 30 years he has worked on historic period and Native American archaeological sites throughout Kentucky. He specializes in historical archaeology with an interest in studying urban neighborhoods, plantation outbuildings, and farmstead landscapes. He also has taken an interest in helping communities and landowners locate, define, and map historic family cemeteries and has a passion for working with the public. For more than 20 years he has designed and directed public archaeology programs and educational activities, such as the Building Blocks of History field trip program for kids at Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing. He is an advocate for sharing archaeology with the public and using it to benefit people and communities in the present.