Ashley is as a Principal Investigator, Project Manager, Tribal Coordinator, and Ethnographer. She joined Far Western in 2018, and has been working as an archaeologist and ethnographer in the Great Basin since 2007. She has worked in academic, governmental, and CRM settings throughout Utah, Nevada, and Northern California.
She received her M.S. in 2011 and her Ph.D. in 2018 from the University of Utah, with a research emphasis exploring how ecological variation influences resource privatization and territorial land claims among hunter-gatherers. Her current research focuses on contemporary pine nut harvest rates in Nevada, hunter-gatherer fire use as landscape modification practice, and how archaeological and ethnographic data can be utilized in contemporary indigenous land claims.
She has employed a variety of ethnographic methods in Nevada, California, and East Africa, that includes interviews (structured and semi-structured), participant observation, recording oral histories, and conducting archival and genealogical research. She has worked as an ethnographer for non-governmental organizations, state and federal agencies, and directly with tribal governments.
Ashley’s Featured Projects
- NAS Fallon Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey and Evaluations of Traditional Cultural Properties
- NAS Fallon Ethnographic Study
- LNC Thacker Data Recovery
- Historic Properties Treatment Plan for the Tule River Spillway Enlargement Project
- Bedrock Milling Features Context and Research Design for California Department of Transportation