Candidates and Voting

President: Karen Steelman 
Professionally, I serve as Science Director at Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center, where I lead scientific research on the rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. I use radiocarbon dating and spectroscopic techniques to study pictographs with a focus on understanding and preservation. I have been an active member of ARARA for many years and presently serve on the ARARA Board as Secretary (2020–2026). 

ARARA is a unique organization that brings together people from diverse backgrounds who share a common passion for studying, preserving, and appreciating rock art. It has provided me with lasting friendships, professional connections, and opportunities to learn from individuals whose knowledge and dedication I deeply respect.

As President, I hope to strengthen member engagement, increase participation, and grow our membership while ensuring that ARARA continues to serve both its members and the broader mission of cultural heritage preservation. I am committed to supporting the educational, research, and preservation activities that make ARARA such a valuable organization.

I am proud to be a member of ARARA and would be honored to serve as President.

Vice President: Tim Dodson
I have a M.A. in maritime archaeology from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom and a B.A. in biology from Carthage College. Currently I am a regulatory archaeologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District. I have eighteen years of professional archaeological experience, covering over 12 states, Canada, the U.K. and the Middle East. I have been employed by both state and federal government agencies and have extensive experience in Cultural Resource Management. I have been an active member of ARARA for many years and have been serving as Member-at-Large on the ARARA Board since 2024. Prior to that I served as a member of several committees and was Chair of the Education Committee from 2022 through 2023.

If elected, I hope to focus on expanding ARARA’s membership to include more younger academics, members of Native American Tribes and bring its awareness within the field of archaeology, setting ARARA up for future success. As Vice President, I would look to strengthen and continue to support ARARA’s mission through the sharing of new ideas, respect, preservation, education, stewardship and organizational continuity.

Treasurer: Aaron Wright
I've been involved in the study, appreciation, and conservation of rock imagery since 2006, when I accepted a fellowship from Archaeology Southwest (formerly the Center for Desert Archaeology) to conduct a doctoral dissertation project on the petroglyphs in the South Mountains of south-central Arizona. Completed in 2011, the dissertation led me to stay on with Archaeology Southwest, where I presently serve as a preservation anthropologist with a focus on Indigenous cultural landscapes in the Sonoran Desert, of which rock imagery is a major component. I prioritize Indigenous voices, perspectives, and concerns in my research and advocacy work. I've been a member of ARARA since 2008 and have served as a Member-at-Large on the ARARA Board since 2024.

My goals as a member of the ARARA Board are threefold: 1) to better integrate Indigenous perspectives and participation in the organization; 2) to strengthen awareness of ARARA among heritage professionals; and 3) to facilitate ARARA's transition from its founding generation to a new generation witnessing rapid changes in ethics, technology, and publishing. I will continue pursuing this goal as Treasurer, with added focus on expanding readership of and access to American Indian Rock Art, ARARA's premier publication.

Secretary: Peter Anick
As a computer scientist, most of my published research has been in the fields of computational linguistics and text search. But archaeology and rock art have been life-long avocational passions. I attended archaeological field schools hosted by the New Hampshire State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP), with whom I participated in digs at PaleoIndian sites in northern New Hampshire and at the Gault, Texas Clovis/pre-Clovis site. My rock art studies have ranged geographically from home base in New England to Algeria’s Tassili n’Ajjer, with a growing interest in the finely-incised abstract styles found throughout the American southwest.

Over the past eight years, I have served on the ARARA board as Director and Vice President. My personal focus has been on member outreach both online and in-person. To this end, I served as technical host for ARARA’s online lecture series, which began as an effort to keep membership engaged during the pandemic and continued over the next five years. I created and currently manage ARARA’s YouTube channel, home to over fifty videos and attracting more than 800 subscribers. I have also organized newcomer breakfasts at conferences to help first-time attendees feel more welcome. As secretary, besides serving the formal role of recording and reporting ARARA’s business, I hope to continue to seek ways for ARARA to remain relevant, vital, and rewarding in a future with ever-increasing competition for people’s time and attention.