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Staff

Executive Director
Angus R. Quinlan, PhD, RPA

Angus Quinlan was born and raised in the United Kingdom where his early interest in history developed into a lifelong passion for historic preservation and the archaeology of prehistoric social systems. He is an established Great Basin researcher and an internationally recognized rock art specialist who has presented and published widely, including the 2007 edited book “Great Basin Rock Art: Archaeological Perspectives” (University of Nevada Press), as well as articles in journals such as American Antiquity, the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, American Indian Rock Art, and the California and Great Basin Journal of Anthropology. 

He has led archaeological inventories of major Nevada rock art sites in a variety of settings and is knowledgeable in protocols for site documentation, conservation, and restoration. Dr Quinlan has extensive experience in archaeological analysis and modeling, writing syntheses of archaeological and anthropological data, as well as editing archaeological texts, and has worked as a research assistant, university lecturer, and consulting editor. He completed his doctoral research on the archaeology of religion and domestic ritual contexts in Bronze Age Minoan Crete at the University of Southampton, UK in 1993. His research interests include Great Basin rock art, prehistoric religion and ritual, and social archaeology. Professional memberships include: the Society for American Archaeology, Register of Professional Archaeologists, Australian Rock Art Association, and the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations.

Board of Directors

President
Pat Barker, PhD

Pat Barker was born in Reno and grew up in Southern California.  He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1982 from the University of California, Riverside.  He became an archaeologist for the Bureau of Land Management in 1986 and from 1988 to his retirement in 2006 Dr. Barker was the State Archaeologist for the BLM in Nevada.  His archaeological research experience includes work in Southern California, the Mojave Desert, Eastern California and the Central Great Basin.  His ethnographic experience includes work in Samoa, Southern California and the Great Basin.  Long-term archaeological interests in the Great Basin include prehistoric land management; fire/human ecology; political evolution, and prehistoric sandals and other textiles.

Vice President
Darla Garey-Sage, PhD

Darla Garey-Sage holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno. Prior to that, she earned a post-graduate Publications Certificate from George Washington University. She began working with the Nevada Rock Art Foundation in 2008, both as a Board Member and as the volunteer editor of the Foundation’s quarterly newsletter. She has edited numerous newsletters for non-profit institutions, worked as a copy editor for academic and popular publications, and designed and edited fiction books for a small press.

Treasurer
Craig King
Craig King is the Chief Operating Officer for ChaseInternational Real Estate, and, among hisother skills, has over 25 years of experience streamlining, facilitating company growth,andexpanding the technological capabilities of multiple companies.Craig joined the NRAF Board of Directors as a Director in August 2007, and has served as the Treasurer since 2008.

Secretary
Alice Baldrica, MA

Alice Baldrica was Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for Nevada for 20 years, ending with her retirement from state service in 2010.  Prior to working for the state, she was an archaeologist at the Desert Research Institute and for the U. S. Forest Service.  Alice earned her M.A. and B.A in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno with an emphasis in the study of prehistory and history of the western Great Basin.  Her concern over the decades has been with the protection of archaeological sites but in recent years, she has devoted more time to public archaeology and historic preservation, helping develop Nevada’s Archaeological Awareness/Historic Preservation Month celebrated every May, and Nevada’s site stewardship program. It is her belief that protection of archaeological and historic sites can be better achieved through education and active involvement by members of the public, not solely through the enforcement of laws.  Ms. Baldrica serves on the board of Preserve Nevada and previously served as the state’s representative on the board of the Nevada Archaeological Association. 

Director
Anne Higgins, MA

Anne Higgins was born in California and raised in Oklahoma.  She received an MA in contemporary European history from the University of California at Berkeley. Over the years her interest has morphed  into a fascination with prehistory and archaeology, especially of the North American west and Mesoamerica.  She worked for the North American Mortgage Co. as a programmer/analyst where she specialized in relational databases using Standard Query Language.

She has been a volunteer with the Nevada Rock Art Foundation, training in 2005 with Alannah Woody in rock art documentation at The Kitchens in Dry Lakes.  She took part in the projects at Lagomarsino, Sloan Canyon, Lincoln County, and Grapevine Canyon among other sites.  Recently she has been active in developing several databases for the Foundation designed to monitor fieldwork and to support future research of the rock art of Nevada.

She also volunteers at The Living Room, a daytime drop-in center for women and children who are experiencing homelessness, the Cloverdale Historical Society, the Meso-American Research Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and most recently with the Institute of Archaeology in Belmopan, Belize, all doing database development and maintenance work.

Director
Dianne Jennings, CPA

Dianne Jennings has served on the Nevada Rock Art Foundation Board of Directors since 2006.  She is a Certified Public Accountant in private practice in Minden, Nevada.  She earned the MBA degree from University of Southern California and Bachelor of Arts (economics) from Humboldt State University.  She was one of the first Hidden Cave tour guides in the 1980s and served as an officer of the Nevada Archaeological Association in the 1980s.  She currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Suicide Prevention Network of Douglas County.

Director
Kevin Rafferty, PhD, RPA

Kevin Rafferty was born and raised in upstate New York, outside of Albany, New York.  He came to Nevada in 1980 to take a job with the Bureau of Land Management, Las Vegas District as a Resource Area archaeologist, a job he held from 1980-1983.  During this time he received his Ph.D. from SUNY-Stony Brook in 1982.  In 1983 he became Director of the Division of Anthropological Studies (now the Harry Reid Center) at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  In his six years there he conducted and/or directed numerous survey and excavation projects in southern Nevada, southern California, western Arizona, and southwestern Utah involving sites ranging in age from the Lake Mojave period (ca. 10,000-7500 B.P.) to recent historic material (1920s-1930s).

In 1989 he became the first full-time anthropologist hired at the Community College of Southern Nevada (now the College of Southern Nevada) and has taught a wide range of freshman and sophmore level courses.  He is now chairman of the Department of Human Behavior at the college.  He also ran his own archaeological consulting business until joining Knight & Leavitt Associates as part-time Senior Research Associate in 1993.  Rafferty has pursued research in the southern Nevada/southern California region during this time, with his most recent research centering around Valley of Fire State Park, where he became interested in rock art almost out of self-defense.  His other research interests include hunter-gatherer studies, CRM law and its implementation, and trying to examine religion and religious ideas embodied in the archaeological record.

Technical Advisor
Mark Boatwright, MA, MEM

Mark Boatwright serves as a non-voting technical advisor to the Nevada Rock Art Foundation's Board of Directors. He holds two Master’s degrees, one in Anthropology from Ball State University and the other in Environmental Management from Duke University.  He has worked as a professional archaeologist for over 25 years, and is currently the National Conservation Area Archaeologist for the BLM’s Las Vegas District. Mark is most interested in issues related to historic preservation and conservation of all cultural resources, including rock art.