M.A. Washington State University
B.A. University of California, Santa Barbara
Certified Appraiser, American Society of Appraisers
Santa Rosa Junior College Faculty,1979 to present.
Adjunct Professor, Washington State University 1976-1977.
Adjunct Instructor, Santa Barbara City College 1974-1975.
Teaching has always been the central focus of my professional life and I take great pride in my classes. My academic emphasis has been in three areas: traditional Native art, Native American environmental management, and human evolution and the fossil record. In addition to my instructional responsibilities I am the Museum Director of the Jesse Peter Museum where I have built a collection of 3,000 examples of traditional art by American Indian artists as well as Latino, Asian, and African artists. I am a published author in my field with several monographs and articles in the fields of Native arts and environmental science. I am also the Coordinator of the Native American Studies Program for the Behavioral Sciences Department. I also serve as a museum consultant and I am one of ten appraisers in the United States who are certified by the American Society of Appraisers in the field of Native American Art.
These are but a few: Native American systems of environmental management, the lifeways of western North American tribal people, Native American material culture, museum science, precolumbian cultures of Mexico and South America, cultures of the Amazon rain forest, history of the Sephardic Jewish immigrants in the American Southwest, the Spanish Inquisition, human cultural ecology, primatology, human evolution and the fossil record, the history of rock and roll, sea kayaking, nature photography.
I am a frequent speaker for both public and private institutions on a variety of topics. (see academic interests)
Note that the Jesse Peter Museum has changing exhibits and multicultural events which feature the diversity of cultures at SRJC. I invite instructors from all departments to work with me to develop Museum-linked curriculum that is tailored to their students' learning needs.
From Straw Into Gold. Occasional Papers of the Jesse Peter Museum. A monograph which documents twenty six traditions of North American Indian basketry.
The Ethnobotany of Amazon Palms. With John H. Bodley. Occasional Papers of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Washington State University. Pullman. The results of a year of research with the Shipibo Indians of the Amazon Basin. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
Stilt Root Walking of an Iriartiod Palm. Biotropica. Authored with John H. Bodley. Documents of the discovery of a "walking" palm which has the capacity for relocation.
Through my consulting practice I am a frequent speaker to public and private groups and institutions on a variety of topics and issues.