About Cornerstone

Josh Edwards’ professional development has roots in archaeology as well as geology and has taken him throughout the American Southwest. During his graduate career he obtained specialized interdisciplinary academic training in soil geomorphology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and faunal analysis, among others, and his thesis focusses on the effects of the eruption of Sunset Crater on prehistoric agriculture in the Flagstaff area. His twenty-six years of experience with archaeology of the Southwest ranges among archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery efforts at prehistoric and historic sites throughout Arizona and western New Mexico, and includes projects in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Texas. This experience is augmented by international experience in Mexico, Germany, Northern Ireland, and Peru. Josh is an experienced geoarchaeologist, analyst, and project manager with technical experience in soil-geomorphic and geologic research, and faunal, flaked stone, and ground stone analysis and reporting. More recently, he has been involved in multiple historic preservation and forest restoration projects in northern Arizona.

Caitlin received a B.A. in Anthropology from Western Kentucky University and a M.A. from University of Mississippi. During her graduate career she focused on methodological approaches to determining minimum number of individuals in complex bioarchaeological contexts. Throughout her fifteen-year career, she has conducted archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery efforts primarily in the Southwest including Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Archaeological experience outside of the Southwest include a variety of locales including portions of the Southeast, Marshall Islands, Belize, Guatemala, and Scotland. Areas of technical experience include bioarchaeology, faunal analysis, mortuary practices of the southwest, groundstone analysis, project management, and reporting.

Madeleine Bryant is the Office Manager and HR specialist at Cornerstone Environmental. Madeleine received a BA in Liberal Arts from Brenau University and an M.S. in GIS from NAU. For her master’s practicum, she studied social trail growth in the Mount Elden/Dry Lake Hills area of Flagstaff collecting data and comparing it to a similar project conducted 10 years prior. In her professional career, Madeleine has worked in administrative and customer service roles.

Mike Pitts was recently hired as a Senior Project Manager for Cornerstone Environmental. Mike received a B.A. in Anthropology from Central Washington University and a M.A. in Experimental Archaeology from the University of Exeter. Mike’s graduate research and thesis focused on the identification of external stimuli affecting bone taphonomy in archaeological contexts. Mike’s 14-year professional career has included all aspects of archaeological fieldwork including archaeological survey, testing, excavation, data recovery and mitigation, site damage assessments, and archaeological monitoring efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. Mike has conducted cultural resource management projects in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Through the EXARC program, he also participated in teaching and sharing ancestral skills, including traditional hide tanning, flintknapping, and textile and ceramic production at open-air archaeological museums in England, Wales, Sweden, and Denmark. Areas of expertise and interest include lithic and faunal analysis, groundstone analysis, and reporting.

Jack has worked across the U.S. Southwest and Great Basin since 2014 in the context of archaeological survey, excavation, and historic preservation, with specific focus on survey in northern and central Arizona. His experience has focused on ancestral Indigenous groups including the Cohonina and Sinagua, as well as the archaeology of European-American westward expansion, including activities related to aviation, logging railroads, and homesteading. As a project manager he has been responsible for permitting, compliance, communication, field methods, and final reporting including clearance recommendations. He has also taught archaeology to students, staff, and clients, in both academia and the private sector. He received an M.A. in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University, where his research examined prehistoric landscape relationships in northern Arizona using GIS boundary effects analysis. He received a B.A. in Archaeology from Dickinson College where he focused on classical archaeology and languages. His training included excavation and ground-penetrating radar at the citadel and lower town of Bronze Age Mycenae.

With roots in Colorado, Tara is new to Arizona residency and the Cornerstone team. She spent the early years of her professional archaeological career highly mobile; conducting surveys and data recovery in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Minnesota, and Kansas. She received both her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Colorado Denver. Her M.A. degree had a dual focus in archaeology and biological anthropology. Her graduate research centered on cranio-facial morphology of Middle Pleistocene hominins using virtual technologies, including geometric morphometrics. She has conducted academic fieldwork at the human origin sites of Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania. Tara is a hobby artist, who has always enjoyed mixing her love of scientific drawing and with he work in archaeology and osteology.

Samuel received a B.A in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.A from Northern Arizona University. During his academic career he participated in field schools in Southern California and Belize where he assisted in pedestrian survey, site recordings and excavations. A Los Angeles native, Samuel moved to Flagstaff in 2017 to begin his Master’s program at NAU and decided to stick around, beginning his professional archaeology career in 2019 shortly after graduating.  His academic and professional interests include LiDAR assisted survey, and historic artifact analysis. Personal hobbies include painting and cooking.

Edlin earned a B.S. in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology from the University of California, Riverside. Her academic career included field schools in Southern California and Belize where she assisted in conducting pedestrian surveys, site recordings, and excavations. Originally from Southern California, Edlin moved to Flagstaff in 2018 where she began her professional archaeology career. Since then, Edlin has been an Archaeological Field Technician with several companies throughout Arizona, including Cornerstone. She was recently hired on to the company as a permanent Crew Chief and occasional Field Director. Her research interests include Pre Colombian Indigenous communities of West Mexico and trade routes between Mesoamerica and the American Southwest.

Sarah received a B.S. in Environmental Studies & Global Sustainability with a minor in Parks and Recreation Management from Northern Arizona University. Sarah’s academic career focuses extensively on water policy and conservation on the Colorado Plateau with a research background that includes Traditional Cultural designations for public lands and sovereign nations of Arizona, as well as IUCN endangered species of the Sonoran Desert.

Centered around the outdoors, Sarah’s career spans across field biology, field archaeology, conservation management, and guiding recreational kayaking and hiking trips. Sarah began working for Cornerstone in 2020 as an intern field technician. During her free time, Sarah enjoys rafting, throwing ceramics, embroidering, baking, and dancing. 

Sydney received a B.A. in Rhetoric, Ethics, & Social Justice with a minor in Philosophy from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Sydney’s academic career focuses extensively on sociocultural anthropological studies across the globe with a research background that includes an ethnography on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in the Indian Himalayas conducted on-site, a systematic study of Uyghur cultural genocide, and communicative artifact analyzation in Western Civilization.

Centered around data analysis, inventory management, systems management, and community building, Sydney’s professional career spans across various fields, including healthcare and education. Sydney relocated to Flagstaff in 2021 and began working for Cornerstone in 2022 as a field technician. During free time, Sydney enjoys volunteering, playing hacky sack, and petting dogs.

Rio received a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University. During his graduate career, Rio used experimental archaeology as a means of examining the extent of PaleoAmerican petrified wood heat-treatment in the Petrified Forest region, Arizona. Rio has conducted archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Rio is an experimental archaeologist at heart, who enjoys a host of activities such as flintknapping and bow and arrow crafting.