ASHA is run by a committee of volunteers comprised of members from across Australasia who are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting.
President – Dr Siobhán Lavelle OAM
Dr Siobhán Lavelle OAM is an Historical Archaeologist, Historian, and Heritage Consultant who has worked in cultural heritage management for four decades across the community, public, and private sectors. From 1990-2004, several of her projects attracted State and National heritage awards. She received a National Trust Commendation in 2008 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2009: ‘For service to historical archaeology and heritage conservation, particularly the preservation of colonial roads and cemeteries.’ From 2003 to 2021 she worked for the NSW State government as Senior Team Leader (Archaeology) and Listings Manager for State Heritage Register and Aboriginal Place Listings.
Siobhan joined the ASHA Committee in 2021 and became President in 2023.
Her interests include the nature of placemaking, monuments and memory; and the long -term conservation of archaeological sites in situ.
Vice Presidents – Anita Yousif and Dr Caiti D’Gluyas
Anita is a Sydney-based archaeologist/heritage consultant with 30 years’ experience. She holds Master of Philosophy (research) and has worked as a researcher at university level, freelance archaeologist and a heritage consultant. Her experience includes a broad range of historical heritage and archaeological projects, heritage risk management and advocacy. During her 17 years of continuous work in consulting, Anita has developed skills in steering of complex development projects, provision of specialist heritage advice and reporting, heritage conservation, strategic planning and client liaison. She is Director of Projects with Artefact Heritage and Environment responsible for timely delivery of professional services on multidisciplinary heritage projects. She is a former ASHA President and a longstanding member of other non-profit industry organisations through which she promotes archaeological best practice and heritage conservation principles at various forums.
Caiti D’Gluyas is an early career researcher in archaeology with more than 12 years practical experience in historical archaeology. Caiti has worked on a variety of archaeological projects across Australia in both research and commercial settings and is now a lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is passionate about ASHA’s potential to bring together archaeologists and foster better outcomes from the varied work of historical archaeology.
Treasurer – Sophie Jennings
Sophie is an archaeologist with 15 years’ experience working in both field and office. She currently works for a heritage consultancy based in Sydney, and specialises in both historical and Aboriginal archaeology. Sophie is a professional magpie with diverse interests, in part dictated by the projects she works on. Current interests include psychiatric asylums, landscapes, all things Parramatta, Christmas Island, and maps. Perhaps unusually for an archaeologist, Sophie also likes numbers. Sophie has been Treasurer since October 2024.
Secretary – Adele Zubrzycka
Adele joined the Committee in 2019 and has been the ASHA Secretary ever since! She has worked as a heritage consultant and historical archaeologist across New South Wales, Queensland and the USA for over ten years and is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland. Her PhD research centres around three South Sea Islander domestic landscapes at the Pioneer Sugar Estate in Brandon, North Queensland and explores power dynamics and identity on the estate.
Adele’s research interests lie in urban design, Queensland’s horticulture and crop industries, local and global trade networks and migrant labour experiences throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is happiest in the archives and enjoys baking and surfing (at an intermediate level). Adele is always willing to help current or future ASHA members get the most out of the Society, you can get in touch with her at [email protected].
Web Manager – Talia Green
Talia Green is an Archaeologist and Heritage Advisor with over eight years’ experience in the heritage industry. Talia is the ASHA Web Manager and works as a consultant in Victoria. Talia has worked on and managed a variety of consulting projects including residential and commercial developments, pipelines, precinct structure plans, water management and road and rail projects in the form of Cultural Heritage Management Plans, Preliminary Aboriginal Heritage Tests, Aboriginal and Historical Heritage Assessments, Environment Effects Statements, Due Diligence Assessments, Historical Assessments and Defence Heritage Assessments.
Talia has also spent time working in Cyprus in bioarchaeology, human remains and human repatriation, and specializes in faunal analysis (zooarchaeology). Talia’s research interests include diet reconstruction through the analysis of butchery patterns on faunal remains, the management of tangible and intangible heritage during times of armed conflict, and genocide archaeology.
Events Coordinator – Helen Nicholson
Archaeological sites, artefacts and museums are Helen’s passion, and at the heart of her research interests are people – both past and present – and sharing the stories archaeology reveals. She has worked on sites overseas and in Sydney where she now spends time cataloguing artefacts.
Helen has extensive experience in tertiary, adult and museum education and is a sessional lecturer in the discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Along with delivering numerous archaeology workshops, courses, study days, overseas study tours and lectures for wide and diverse audiences she also spent several years as the archaeologist through the round window on Playschool.
She was ASHA Treasurer from 2014 to 2024 and is currently the Events Coordinator and ASHA Public Officer.
Awards Coordinator – Dr Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly has been an ASHA committee member for the last 6 years. He has been the Awards Coordinator, and more lately an Editor of the AHA journal.
He has worked as a consultant archaeologist in Sydney since the 1980s, a length of time far too long for anyone’s good. Over that time Matthew has been lucky enough to have worked on some significant colonial archaeological sites, including First Government House, The Mint, Cumberland Gloucester St, Royal Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera House. In the last few years his research interests have expanded to include colonial/conflict sites, in PNG, along the iconic Kokoda Track, Jacquinot Bay in East New Britain and on the island of Nauru. He continues to work as a consultant in NSW, interstate and overseas.
Other Societies Representative – Francesca McMaster
Francesca joined the ASHA committee in 2023 in the role of Other Societies Representative. She graduated from the University of Sydney with honours in Australian archaeology in 2015 and has been working as a consultant archaeologist specialising in historical archaeology since 2016. Francesca has been privileged to work on a variety of sites during her career; from the Parramatta Female Factory to nineteenth century slums in Redfern and shipbuilding wharves at Barangaroo.
Social Media Officer – Ngaire Richards
Ngaire Richards is a Principal Heritage & Archaeological Consultant at Heritage Now Pty Ltd, a consultancy based in New South Wales that provides Aboriginal and historical heritage, archaeology, built heritage and heritage interpretation services. With over 17 years of experience working in archaeology, she has been a committed ASHA member throughout her career. Ngaire is enthusiastic about public engagement in archaeology, particularly sharing stories from historical excavations and recent discoveries with the community. In addition to her role as ASHA’s Social Media Officer, she is also the NSW coordinator for National Archaeology Week, an initiative aimed at promoting archaeology across Australia. She likes: historical research – maps, plans and GIS data – artefact analysis – straight trench sections!
Regional Representatives Coordinator – Karen Dye
Karen Dye is the ASHA Regional Representatives’ Coordinator. ASHA has regional representatives supporting our members across Australasia. We have representatives in states and territories of Australia, in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. In this role Karen enjoys interacting with ASHA’s regional representatives, helping to highlight the distinctive historical archaeology of the regions to the broader ASHA community.
Karen’s interest in historical archaeology was ignited while studying at Sydney University as a mid-life student, after a career in the fashion industry. Her love of textiles led her to studying the textile artefacts at the Hyde Park Barracks in her honour thesis. Her passion for ceramics drew her to working with artefacts in the historical archaeology private sector. Karen currently works at the Powerhouse Museum.
Blog Editor – Elanor Pitt
Elanor (or Ellie) is a Buildings Archaeologist with over eight years’ experience in historical archaeology, Aboriginal archaeology and built heritage. She has honours degrees in both Archaeology and Civil Engineering, and an MA in the Archaeology of Buildings. Ellie is currently freelancing in both archaeology and built heritage for a variety of NSW-based companies. Ellie is happiest when diving into archives, digging in the dirt, digitally recording sites and digitising drawings. Her research interests include church archaeology, buildings archaeology, digital archaeology and traditional building skills. She has participated in a range of archaeological fieldwork in Australia and overseas since 2009, but only found her first coin in 2024. Better late than never!
This is Ellie’s fourth year on the ASHA committee. Previously the Events Coordinator, she is now the Blog Editor. Shameless plug: if you would like to write a blog for the ASHA website, email her at [email protected].
General Committee Member – Dr James Robinson
James Robinson has had 30 years’ experience working as an archaeologist in New Zealand and the Pacific. His tertiary qualification (MA hons in Prehistory) was obtained at Auckland University and his archaeological field training has a strong Auckland and Northland focus in the northern temperate area of New Zealand. James completed his PhD in 2016 from University of Otago focused on a multi-disciplinary research on the human history on the Poor Knights Islands, where a core of archaeological survey and excavation was informed by palynology and traditional and historic sources.
Over the last 25 years James has worked as a professional archaeologist either as a private contractor in Australia and New Zealand, and or in the public sector including Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand), Department of Conservation and Auckland Regional Council. In this period I have worked on, as well as run both small and large scale projects in the field of prehistoric and historic archaeology. Within this broad area I have specialised in large scale archaeological survey work in difficult mainland and island environments. Examples of this include the mapping of the irrigated taro gardens in Puna Kei’a on Mangaia in the southern Cooks for Professor Richard Walter, and my own work on the complex gardens of the Poor Knights Islands of New Zealand. Since 2015 James was appointed as the Northland Regional Archaeologist managing the archaeological protection provisions of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act. Most recently James directed four seasons of excavation on Moturua Island in the Bay of Islands where settlement extends throughout the human history of New Zealand
Following the New Zealand hosted 2022 ASHA conference in Russell in the Bay of Islands, James has been a committee member of ASHA.