I began my undergraduate studies at the University of Arkansas in 2001, earning a BA in Anthropology (2004). I enrolled in my first archaeological field school during this time (2001), which investigated the homes of enslaved and free African Americans at the site of Van Winkle’s Mill. In addition to supporting two successful Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF), this experience motivated my earlier interest in the archaeology of race and racialization leading to a Fulbright Scholarship to study Chinese Diaspora communities in New Zealand and elsewhere. My interest in digital technologies – geographic information systems (GIS), geophysics, remote sensing, and 3D modeling – led me to an MS in Industrial Archaeology at Michigan Tech (2005) for work in Spitsbergen, Norway. My dissertation expanded on these earlier interests in digital technologies, history, and social justice. Research focusing on the 1923 Rosewood Massacre form the basis of my MA (2008) and PhD (2011) degrees from the University of Florida.
I began as an Assistant Professor of Archaeology and GIS at Monmouth University following my PhD in 2011, where I directed the GIS and MA in Anthropology programs. My partner and I relocated to Florida in 2015 for personal reasons and after working in the private sector for 1.5 years I became a Lecturer at the University of Central Florida until 2022 when I moved to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where I currently work as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology.