She received her Ph.D. from Boston University in 2007 and now directs the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project in Belize, examining the deep history of the eastern Belize Watershed from Preclassic to Colonial times. Her research focuses on the Classic Maya “collapse” period and subsequent Spanish conquest, two periods of major cultural transformation throughout Mesoamerica. Her research interests include social identity and power, divine kingship, religious ideology, and technical and stylistic studies of architecture and material culture. Recent publications include her edited volume, “Power and Identity in Archaeological Theory and Practice: Case Studies from Ancient Mesoamerica” (University of Utah Press, 2012) and several recent articles in the journal American Anthropologist (2012 and 2014) and the journal Ethnohistory (2014).