Vanessa Christman

Vanessa Christman is an experienced researcher and presenter with a Master’s in Library and Information Science and an undergraduate background in archaeology, focusing on ancient Latin America. At UC San Diego, she worked as a teaching assistant for Dr. Paul Goldstein, a specialist in Andean Archaeology, and as a lab technician in the South American Archaeology Lab. She participated in summer fieldwork at San Elijo Lagoon in San Diego County, contributing to the excavation of prehistoric sites and assisting archaeologists in uncovering thousands of years of human adaptation along the Southern California coast. Following the field season, she was hired by CRM firm ASM Affiliates to continue supporting the project with cataloging and research.

Vanessa’s background in archaeological research led her to a career in libraries, where she currently manages two divisions at the California State Library, overseeing government publications and legal and legislative research programs. She also participates in AI and social media interest groups. Additionally, she has held administrative positions in public and law libraries across California and was elected to the Board of the California Library Association.

Known for creating engaging and creative learning opportunities, Vanessa regularly presents at professional conferences and has delivered humorous, educational talks on Andean archaeology for Nerd Nite North Bay. Recently, she reconnected with her passion for archaeology through her volunteer work with the Maya Exploration Center, where she combines her expertise in research, writing, and technology to educate the public about ancient cultures. Based in Sacramento, California, Vanessa enjoys traveling with her family to visit archaeological sites.

Dr. Kirk French

Kirk French is an award-winning professor of anthropology and Emmy-nominated filmmaker at Penn State University. French began his career as a senior member of the Palenque Mapping Project (1998-2000) and spent the next 20 years conducting archaeological research in Mesoamerica focused on the interplay between humans and their environment, specifically as it relates to water.

His 2002 University of Cincinnati Master Thesis, Creating Space Through Water Management at the Classic Maya Site of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico (PDF) , documented dozens of newly discovered water features and presented compelling evidence that Palenque expanded its habitable land by controlling the flow of water.

French completed his PhD at the Pennsylvania State University. His dissertation, The Hydroarchaeological Approach: Understanding the Ancient Maya Impact on the Palenque Watershed (PDF) , introduced a new method for measuring the effects of human impact on the environment. Surprisingly, French concluded that the major cause for fluctuations in the water cycle at Palenque is landcover alteration (deforestation, urbanism, etc.) not climate change.

In 2010, Kirk co-developed and hosted the Discovery Channel series, American Treasures. He recently finished his first feature length documentary, Land and Water Revisited, which was nominated for an Emmy, took home several awards from international film festivals, and is currently available for streaming on PBS. He is currently working on his second film, A Century After Nanook, and is the director of the CORVA Studio Lab at Penn State.

At Penn State he developed the Anthropology of Alcohol (aka Booze and Culture), the largest anthropology class in the United States with over 700 students enrolled each semester. The success of the course and the impact it has had on the more than 7000 students who have successfully completed it led to French being honored with the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020.

Kirk lives in an 1860 home in Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania with his wife Laurel, daughter Viola, a damn good dog, two weird cats, and a few chickens that rarely lay. And for research purposes only, French converted the home’s summer kitchen into Texas Bar, where Lone Star is always on tap and Live at the Old Quarter and Tres Hombres are usually playing on the turntable..

James Eckhardt

A professional surveyor and an archaeologist with eight years of field experience, James Eckhardt is MEC's senior survey crew chief. He has particpated in multiple excavations in Northwestern Belize, including the excavtion of a royal tomb at the site of Dos Hombres. He has surveyed and mapped with teams at the Belizean ruins of Guijeral, Chan Chich and Ma'ax Na.

From 1998 to 2000 he was a senior member of the Palenque Mapping project. Since 2000 Eckhardt has been working as a crew chief for a professional survey company in Austin, Texas. His knowledge of professional survey methods and experience in the Maya region make him a key member of the MEC team.

Dr. Michael Grofe

A four-field Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department at Sacramento City College in California, Dr. Grofe serves as the current President of Mayas for Ancient Mayan (MAM), which helps Maya teachers and students learn the Classic Maya hieroglyphic script. He is a specialist in Maya hieroglyphic writing, archaeoastronomy, comparative mythology and cacao.

In his doctoral research at the University of California at Davis, Dr. Grofe explored a new astronomical interpretation of the Serpent Series within the Dresden Codex that incorporates precise measurements of the sidereal year. HIs primary research focus concerns calculations in deep time that incorporate the sidereal and tropical years along with lunar and planetary cycles, and how applied theoretical astronomy is interwoven with mythological narratives throughout Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. An experienced teacher, he has led multiple field courses with the Maya Exploration Center.

Lilia Lizama Aranda

Dr. Lilia Lizama Aranda is the Director of the Maya Heritage Center, a non-profit organization based in Georgia dedicated to the education and empowerment of Maya communities, particularly in the Yucatán region. With a strong commitment to preserving Maya heritage and promoting sustainable development, Dr. Lizama Aranda works closely with various institutions and communities to foster cultural understanding and support heritage conservation initiatives.

Lilia is an archaeologist with a PhD in Anthropological Sciences specializing in Archaeology. She was the founder and General Director of EMCSA, a Cultural Resource Management organization working towards convincing the Mexican government to allow a much needed contract archaeology industry. As part of that work, Lilia participated in multiple archaeological projects with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). She also led the Project of Registration and Diagnosis of cultural and archaeological places in the states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo, Mexico, which was recognized in March of 2004 by the Interamerican Development Bank as one of the eight best projects of Latin America and the Caribbean. That project promotes the protection of cultural heritage, creates jobs, and trains indigenous communities in strategies of self sustainable cultural development.

A champion of cultural preservation, Lilia has created workshops for children and the awareness-raising of cultural heritage in the community of Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo. She has gives lectures in the Mexico and abroad about responsible archaeological practices and the protection of cultural heritage. She has obtained local, state, national, foreign and private scholarships for her work and continuing education. As part of her quest to protect the cultural heritage of the Yucatan, Lilia represents the Fundaci�n sin Fronteras Civil Association of Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo in planning meetings with the Technical Committee of the Ecological Development of the Riviera Maya. Her proposals to the committee include a new system of registration for archaeological sites and a requirement that cultural resource management studies be conducted prior to any land development projects.

More recently, Lilia has been the director of two preservation projects, one with the National Commission for the Development of Native Pueblos and the Program of Cultural Development of the Interamerican Development Bank. Both of those programs focus on Puerto Morelos and surrounding communities with the goals of preserving the area's cultural heritage and protecting its people's social rights. The tourism industry is inevitably changing Puerto Morelos, but Lilia is working to make sure it does so with respect for both its people and environment.

Dr. David Hixson

David Hixson began working among the Maya in 1991 when he was only a teenager, volunteering in rural Maya villages with the NGO Intercambio Cultural Maya. He went on to receive his undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Latin American History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he exhausted every possible class on ancient and modern Mesoamerica.

With an interest in graphic design and multimedia communications in archaeology, he authored one of the first online photographic archives of Mesoamerican archaeological sites in 1996 (Mesoamerican Photo Archives - now hosted by Mesoweb). This began his longstanding association with online public education outlets, including the popular academic listserv Aztlan, which he helped revive in 2005 and now co-moderates with the help of his colleagues at FAMSI.

Hixson's graduate studies at Tulane University combined his interest in digital imagery with regional surveying techniques. With the aide of knowledgeable Maya farmers and hunters, he explored the uncharted back country of Yucatan. To cover as much ground as possible in the seasonal wetlands of western Yucatan, he pioneered the use of mountain bikes mounted with GPS units to expand his area of investigation and incorporate the use of remote sensing data. He applied for and received NASA funding for this data recovery project. His continued association with NASA led to experience with other technologies and ultimately his dissertation emerged as a study utilizing NASA remote sensing imagery (multispectral and synthetic aperture radar data) to locate previously undocumented Maya archaeological sites around the ancient city of Chunchucmil, Yucatan.

With over 20 years of experience traveling, working, and living among the Maya of Yucatan, David Hixson now uses his long track record of creating public education opportunities and his Ph.D. in Maya archaeology from Tulane to inspire students to explore the beauty of Yucatan. He believes that not just anthropologists and archaeologists can contribute to our knowledge of the Maya, but also students and scholars from many different fields. Dr. Hixson is Maya Exploration Center's resident expert on the Yucatan and he stands ready to work with students and travelers from a wide variety of disciplines, helping them to get involved and find ways to engage their skills in the quest to better understand the ancient and modern Maya.

Carol Karasik

Carol Karasik is a writer and editor who has worked on books and films in the fields of anthropology, art, ecology, and educational philosophy. As an educational consultant, she designed experimental programs for state and local school systems and the US Department of Education. During the past fifteen years in Chiapas, she has edited two books of photography, a collection of Maya women's poetry, as well as numerous books on Maya culture, including Maya Tales from Zinacant�n: Dreams and Stories from the People of the Bat; Living Maya; and Every Woman Is a World: Interviews with Women of Chiapas. She is the author of The Turquoise Trail, a popular book on cross-cultural communication between the Southwestern United States and Mesoamerica.

She has also worked as a writer on a variety of documentaries for the Smithsonian and National Geographic. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities award for her script on Maya civilization. Her poems have appeared in Grant Street, La Jicara, and Blue Light, Red Light. She recently completed a novel set in nineteenth-century Chiapas. Corazon abriendo, a multi-media dance piece based on Maya weaving, for which she wrote the text, is now being performed in the US and Mexico.

Carol received a B.A. in English Literature from The George Washington University in 1964, did graduate work in English and Irish Literature at New York University, and completed her M.A. in 1967 at The George Washington University. During graduate school, she studied with poet and novelist James Dickey. She participated in advanced seminars in Maya hieroglyphics under Dr. Linda Schele, University of Texas at Austin. She is currently working with a Maya women's theater group and conducting research on archaeoastronomy at Palenque.

Miguel Covarrubias

Born in Mexico City in 1965, Miguel Covarrubias grew up within a family of artists and anthropologists. With 21 years of experience, he's participated in several archaeological projects in Yucatan and the Basin of Mexico, most for the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), specializing in surveys, geomatics, remote sensing, emergency rescues and restorations. He has also collaborated for 10 years at the INAHÂ's Izamal Archaeological Project and 2 field seasons for the Sacbe Uci-Cansahcab Regional Project of the University of Kentucky.

He has been a speaker at different scientific and general public conferences and congresses in the US, Europe, Central America and Mexico and has published 28 articles concerning the Maya, historic sites and legal issues related to archaeology.

For the last several years he's been focusing on settlement pattern studies, developing a GIS Archaeological Atlas of the Yucatan peninsula. With all this experience, has been able to locate hundreds of previously unknown sites.

Dr. Christopher Powell

An archaeologist with 20 years in the field, Powell has worked all over the Maya world, both in the ruins and with the modern Maya people. After a decade of contract and research archaeology in the United States, Powell shifted his focus to Mesoamerica. From 1993 to 1996 he worked at Copan, Honduras with the University of Pennsylvania where he excavated the richly decorated tomb of Copan's lineage founder, Yax K'uk' Mo, the tomb of his queen, and the tomb of a sacrifical burial of a tlaloc style warrior. His work at Copan is featured in the December 1997 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

In 1996 he began working at Palenque, first as field director for the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute's PGC (Projecto Grupo de Las Cruces) and later as a supervisor for INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Historia). He was field director during the 1999 season when the PGC excavated Temple XIX and the finely carved throne of Akal Mo Nhab III, one of Palenque's final kings. Powell's 1998 University of Texas at Austin thesis entitled A New View on Maya Astronomy presented groundbreaking evidence regarding Maya calendrics and how they are mathematically based on multiple astronomical cycles.

His Ph.D. dissertation, The Shapes of Sacred Space, presents his revolutionary new theories regarding Maya geometry and explains how the Maya, both ancient and modern, incorporate the proportions of nature in their art and architecture. MEC is proud to support his ongoing research.