President - Lisa Sonnenburg
Lisa has been studying submerged archaeological landscapes in the Great Lakes since 2004 and has managed to work on projects related to four of the five Great Lakes. Her goal in the next five years is to add the last Great Lake (Michigan) to the list. She first became interested in submerged landscapes during her undergraduate degree at Lakehead University, when she found out that a stone tool was recovered off the coast of Haida Gwaii. This led to her learning about fluctuating global water levels, deglaciation and isostatic rebound and the rest as they say, is history. She was fortunate to pursue submerged landscape archaeology research during her graduate degrees at McMaster University, working on the Rideau Canal and Rice Lake. She then received a SSHRC Postdoctoral fellowship which enabled her to work with Dr. John O’Shea on submerged caribou hunting structures in Lake Huron. She then spent five years at Stantec Consulting as a project archaeologist and research coordinator before joining Parks Canada in 2020.
Currently, Lisa is the Cultural Resource Management Advisor for Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area and is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at Lakehead University. She first fell in love with Lake Superior’s north shore in a past life as a figure skating instructor over 25 years ago and is very happy to be back living and working on this beautiful landscape on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people.
As a member of the Ontario Maritime Heritage Committee and Save Ontario Shipwrecks, Lisa is hoping to work towards more collaborations between those working in the maritime and terrestrial realms of archaeology as she begins to learn more about her role as President-elect. She currently lives in Nipigon with her partner Ken and two cats, Emmett, and Kellie.
Past President - Jill Taylor Hollings
Currently, Jill is an adjunct professor and postdoctoral fellow in the Dept. of Anthropology at Lakehead University, as part of the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak SSHRC partnership grant project centred in Manitoba Rocky Cree communities and the University of Winnipeg. Since moving to NW Ontario in 2001, she has been working for Lakehead in different capacities and has been on the OAS Thunder Bay Chapter executive since 2007.
Jill is passionate about studying, protecting, and promoting Canada’s heritage. Her PhD (University of Alberta, 2017) focused on archaeological research with Lac Seul, Little Grand Rapids, and Pikangikum Anishinaabe communities and Ontario Parks personnel along the Miskweyaabiziibee (Bloodvein River) in Woodland Caribou Provincial Park, which is now part of the Pimachiowin Aki UNESCO World Heritage site. She also completed a Masters of Arts at the University of Saskatchewan and Bachelor of Arts Honours at Brandon University in archaeology. Her research interests include precontact pottery, Indigenous archaeology, and lithic raw material studies. She has over 25 years of academic, CRM, and museum experience in four Canadian provinces and Tasmania.
When not working, Jill enjoys raising champion Standard Long-haired Dachshunds and replicating traditional crafts such as pottery, textiles, and beading. Her other passion is drivable artifacts, as she owns a rare 1969 Acadian 350 SS car. She is married to Peter Hollings, who is a geology professor at Lakehead University. Jill has a mixed Euro-Canadian and Indigenous background, originally hailing from southern Manitoba.
Vice President - Peter Popkin
Treasurer - Penny Young
Penny is currently a Senior Cultural Heritage Specialist at Archaeological Research Associates Ltd. Penny has been involved in cultural heritage management, land use planning, environmental assessments and archaeology with provincial and municipal governments, local historical sites and archaeological consulting firms for many years working in Ontario, England and Mexico. Her government experiences include working as a Regional Archaeologist with the MTO, the Archaeological Data Coordinator with MTCS and with the cities of Burlington, Brampton and Mississauga. She volunteers at the School of Restoration Arts at Willowbank as an instructor and project archaeologist and was with the Toronto Chapter of the OAS as president and vice-president/program convenor.
She is very proud to say she has received her OAS 25 year pin. Her MA and BA in Anthropology are from McMaster University. When not working, Penny is an avid reader and enjoys everything outdoors including canoeing, biking, skiing and Ultimate frisbee. She lives with her sons Sam and Max and husband John.
It is an honour and pleasure to be part of the OAS Board and to work to help conserve and protect our fragile and irreplaceable archaeological heritage
Director of Education - Jake Cousineau
Jake currently works for the Lands and Resources Department of Mississauga First Nation. He graduated with an M.E.S. at Lakehead University and a B.A. in archaeology at Laurentian University. His previous research focused on archaeobotany and zooarchaeology in Northwestern Ontario and recovery bias. He previously worked for the OAS assisting in the training of First Nation archaeological monitors. Although the majority of his current work focuses on modern land use and geomatics, his side projects include initiatives to build archaeological capacity within the community and maintaining a spatial database of traditional land use values to aid the Nation in protecting their traditional territory. When not working he enjoys cooking, gardening, kayaking in the summer, and snowshoeing in the winter.
Director of Membership Services - Sarah Clarke
Director of Outreach - Breanne Reibl
Breanne currently works as an archaeobotanical specialist for TMHC in London, ON. She began her studies at Western University, earning a BSc. Hon. Specialization in Biology before discovering her passion for archaeology. She completed a post-degree major in Bioarchaeological Anthropology at Western before deciding to pursue further studies in archaeology. She was able to combine her interests in biology and archaeology while pursuing her MSc. at The University of Toronto, where her research focused on the palaeoethnobotany of a Late Woodland village site in Ontario. Breanne joined the TMHC team in 2018, where she has enjoyed working both in the field and in the lab.
Breanne currently lives in London, ON with her partner and their two cats, Biscotti and Cannoli. In her spare time, she enjoys playing board games with friends, reading contemporary fiction and exploring hiking trails throughout southwestern Ontario. Despite her proficiency working with archaeological plants, she struggles to keep extant plants alive.
Director of Heritage Advocacy - Lara Wood
Director of Publications - Greg Braun
Director of Chapter Services - Susan Dermarkar
I am currently a research associate at Trent’s TUARC and the University of Toronto’s Archaeological Resource centres. I completed my PhD in Iroquoian ceramics and social network analysis at U of T in 2019. My 1985 master’s degree from Trent University in Mayan archaeology investigated two Postclassic Colonial era residential platforms at Tipu, Belize. I received by B.A. in Iroquoian archaeology from Wilfrid Laurier under Dean Knight and have been involved in both academic and CRM field research in Ontario, British Columbia, Belize, and Greece since my first dig at the Seed-Barker site in 1977.
I have lived and raised my children in the small hamlet of Burketon on the Oak Ridges Moraine since the late 1980s and have been the Commissioner of 1st Enniskillen Scouts for over 25 years. My passions include canoeing, hiking and travelling both across Canada and internationally.