Expert Guides

Don Keller, an MA in Anthropology, has spent the last 30 years in field archaeology on the Colorado Plateau.

Kristin Gunckel has a M.S. in Geology, and has worked as an earth science teacher in Albuquerque as a lead teacher for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History's Sandia Mountain Center.

Kristin also has a Ph.D. in science education from Michigan State University. Kristin has a remarkable ability to produce a creative and fun learning environment

Michael "Mick" Robins, M.A. Mick is an archaeologist specializing in lithic (stone tool) analysis. He works for various in cultural resource management projects, including the Grand Canyon Project through the Museum of Northern Arizona. He is also involved with the Butler Wash Rockshelter Project, a cooperative project between Northern Arizona University and the BLM, that investigated looted rockshelters in the Butler Wash/Comb Ridge area. In addition to having published articles about archaeology and rock art in this region, Mick is an accomplished flintknapper.

Rebecca Stoneman is Curator of Education at Edge of the Cedars Museum, has a MA in anthropology from Kent State University, and can act as lab director. Previously she was the archaeologist and education program director for Cibola National Forest in New Mexico. Rebecca is responsible for planning and implementing museum programs for adults and children at the museum. She develops and manages the museum's temporary exhibitions and the annual Four Corners Indian Art Market, and tour programs, and works with Elderhostel groups from Cedar City and other locations in the western U.S.

Sally Cole received a B.A. in English and Philosophy, and an M.A. in Anthropology (Archaeology) from Vermont College. She is author of Legacy on Stone: Rock Art of the Colorado Plateau and Four Corners Region. Cole has spent more than 25 years systematically documenting thousands of rock-art images at sites in the Four Corners area of the United States. With the help of Earthwatch teams she has been able to work remote canyon areas where ancient rock art is threatened by increasing vandalism and recreational use.  She is a consulting archaeologist and researcher with the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City. 

Steve Semken is an associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.  He is an ethnogeologist who works at the intersection of geology, geography, and cognitive science. He studies cultural and affective influences on geoscience teaching and learning, including sense of place and place-based education, American Indian and Latino ethnogeology, geologic interpretation in National Parks, and strategic recruitment and preparation of K-12 science teachers.  He also researches and teaches on Southwestern regional geology and geography.  Semken has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a past-president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

Dr. Tamsin McCormick has been a Moab resident for ten years.  Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she came to the US in 1977 to pursue graduate studies at the University of New Mexico and Arizona State University.  She received a Ph.D. in Geology from ASU in 1984, with primary research interests in mineralogy/crystallography and volcanology. She was Research faculty in Geology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, until 1994.  She also served for several years on the Geological Society of America Technical Program Committee and as Associate Editor of American Mineralogist. A professional river guide, scientist and educator, she has taught numerous field-based college courses and led middle and high school educational programs in natural resources since 1994 and conducted trainings in geology for the National Park Service and Colorado Plateau River Guides since 1999.  She has been Adjunct Faculty in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University since 1996.