Candidates and Voting

Dale Becker
Dale has served as President of the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society, President of the Trumpeter Swan Society, Board of Directors member of the Montana Wildlife Federation, Board of Trustees member of the Vital Ground Foundation, and a Tribal representative on several interagency wildlife and habitat working groups and committees.

His interests include visiting and learning about historical sites, with a strong interest in indigenous pictographs and petroglyphs, and he has visited numerous sites across several western states.  He values the historical contributions of these sites to our historical knowledge of the original peoples of these areas.

Amanda Castaneda
I have been an archaeologist for 15 years with experience in Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, and Montana, working in various settings (CRM, non-profits, academic projects, and state agencies). I have a B.S. and M.A. in Anthropology from Texas State University-San Marcos with a focus on ground stone technology. I worked for Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center for several years, helping to conduct multiple long term rock art documentation projects, and I now work for Versar Global Solutions out of El Paso, Texas.

Tim Dodson
Since 2023, Tim Dodson has served ARARA as a member of the Board of Directors. During this period, he served as the Education Committee Liaison and also lead the successful effort in ARARA becoming an affiliated society of the Register of Professional Archaeologist (RPA). Being an affiliated society of RPA will greatly benefit ARARA, spread its mission, and help draw attention to the protection and study of rock art. Prior to being on the Board of Directors, Tim has served as a reviewer for the Student Research Awards since their inception in 2019. From 2022-2023, Tim has served as Education Committee Chair which saw the Student Research Awards expand to offer Undergraduate, Masters and PhD level awards.
Tim has a M.A. in maritime archaeology from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom (U.K.) and a B.A. in biology from Carthage College. He currently is a regulatory archaeologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District.
If reelected, I look forward in continuing to represent and advise ARARA on how to continue and promote its’ mission. Additionally, I would look forward  the opportunity to continue to help ARARA expand its’ membership and influence.

Barbara Anne am Ende, Ph.D.
Education:  BS, MS, PhD, Geology
Employment:
1985-1989:  Geologist, Bureau of Land Management
1996-1998:  Lecturer (geology) University of Maryland
1999-2003:  Physical Scientist:  National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)
2003-2024:  Senior Engineer Specialist, The Aerospace Corporation

Archaeology Volunteering:
2023-present:  NM Friends of Archaeology Board
2024-present:  ARARA Board
2025: President, Albuquerque Archaeological Society

After living on the east coast for 27 years, I finally returned to my beloved New Mexico in 2016.  My excitement regarding all things southwest funneled into a passion for rock art.  My first (of 4) ARARA conferences was 2019 in Flagstaff (where I earned my MS at NAU decades earlier).  I was recommended for the Board of ARARA by an acquaintance, and am honored to serve.  I am (at the time of this writing) coordinating the vendors for the Visalia conference.  As I am ramping up the learning curve during my first year on the Board, I hope to be more productive in future years, should I be elected.

Fun Facts: 1) Before rock art, I was a passionate cave explorer.  I set the depth record for the deepest cave in the Americas (-1475 m), with the expedition leader, in 1994 and then was published in National Geographic magazine, 2) For my dissertation, I was lucky enough to take a submersible to nearly -750 m in the Atlantic to collect samples.

Aaron Wright
Aaron serves as a Preservation Anthropologist with the non-profit Archaeology Southwest, where he forefronts Tribal collaboration in his professional service. Aaron has worked with rock imagery in southern Arizona for over 20 years. He received a PhD in anthropology from Washington State University and later published his dissertation as the award-winning Religion on the Rocks: Hohokam Rock Art, Ritual Practice and Social Transformation (University of Utah Press 2014). Most recently he edited the collaborative volume Sacred Southwestern Landscapes: Archaeologies of Religious Ecology (University of Utah Press 2024), and he has published research findings in numerous academic journals, including American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Journal of Archaeological Research, and Journal of Social Archaeology.