Kirsten Paulson

I discovered my passion for archaeology while taking anthropology classes at Oregon State University. As soon as I learned that archaeology was a subset of anthropology, I switched majors and began looking for every job opportunity I could find. In 2018, I landed my first archaeological position at the Archaeological Laboratory at Oregon State University. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in 2020 during COVID and went straight into my master's program online, finishing in 2023. Throughout this time, I kept working in the same lab, doing the same things. I've been working in the public sector for 3 years now. Currently, I work as an Associate Project Archaeologist for SWCA Environmental Consultants, where I've been in this position for a year and a half. As a field director, I lead crews of 8 people or less, and we do a lot of groundwork and ground truthing work. This involves a lot of walking, hiking, and quite a bit of digging. Most recently, I've been working on a really huge transmission line project in Nevada, working out of Las Vegas, where we walk for miles and miles every single day. My most significant professional achievement has been finishing my master's thesis, which was 160 pages of writing and the biggest body of work I've ever written.