About Cornerstone

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 Administrative Director 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 primarily in administrative and customer service roles. Madeleine’s hobbies include tie dying, fiber arts, social dancing, and backpacking. In 2022, she and her father completed their 16+ year long project of section hiking the length of Grand Canyon.

Mike Pitts was 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.

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.

Born and raised in Glendora, CA, Sean moved to Flagstaff in fall of 2021 after earning a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He first fell in love with the southwest after volunteering with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Archaeology Southwest's field school in the Summer of 2019. After moving to Flagstaff, Sean completed a MA in archaeology from NAU in the spring of 2023. He has conducted undergraduate research on Mealing Bins in the Mogollon during the Pithouse to Pueblo transition, in addition to a graduate thesis on T-shaped Doors in the state of AZ (The Tau of Doors: The Footprints of the Past). Sean's individual archaeological interests are T-shaped Doors, Interconnectivity and Trade in the Southwest/Mexican Northwest, Indigenous Archaeology, Public Archaeology, and Preservation. Sean's personal hobbies include Baseball, Reading, Birding, watching any kind of Sportsball, and being outside (when not already in the field).

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.

Emmeline received her B.A. in history from the University of Tennessee in 2023. While attending UT, she minored in anthropology, and after completing a field school centered on historic moonshine stills in Lowcountry South Carolina, has pivoted to archaeology. Since starting her professional archaeology career, she has worked across the Continental US, including New England, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest. Emmeline’s research interests include colonial domestic lifeways, clandestine economies, religious practices and associated migrations and settlement, and archaeological practices and ethics.

Born in Washington state, Carson was used to cloudy and rainy weather before he moved down to Prescott, AZ for college. He received his Bachelor of Science in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, along with a GIS certificate. While in college, Carson started a club that worked with local government agencies such as the Prescott National Forest and Arizona Game and Fish Department to provide forestry metrics such as tree height, count and more. Upon graduating, he moved up to Flagstaff where he found a great combination of sunny days, beautiful green trees, and fall colors. Carson has a special passion for collecting forestry metrics via LiDAR and other forms of remote sensing, specifically collection via (UAS). Carson’s hobbies include snowboarding, hiking, weightlifting and connecting with community and friends.

Born and raised in Arizona, Ash received a B.A. in Anthropology, with an emphasis in Archaeology and a minor in History, from Northern Arizona University in 2022. While studying at NAU, Ash volunteered at the historic archaeology lab, identifying, cataloging and organizing artifacts. With research interests in zooarchaeology, urban development, and how interpersonal relationships in Colonial America affect modern intergovernmental relations, Ash excavated, collected, and identified historic artifacts from a French fur trade post bone midden at Western Michigan University’s Fort St. Joseph Field School. Ash’s personal hobbies include cooking, weightlifting, antiquing, and outdoor adventures.

Born and raised in Littleton, Colorado, Logan moved to Flagstaff in 2020 where he received his B.A. in anthropology from Northern Arizona University. While at NAU, Logan worked in a historic archaeology lab studying labor towns along historic railroad routes through Northern Arizona. Logan fell in love with the Arizona landscape and decided to stay after graduation, beginning his archaeological career in 2023. Logan is most interested in groundstone, lithic production, and historic labor camps. Logan’s personal hobbies include running, hiking, backpacking, and swimming.

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.