Work Experience

Tribal Historic Preservation Manager

Coquille Indian Tribe

June 2023 – Present

• Manage daily operations of a busy tribal historic preservation office, including oversight of fieldwork and monitoring projects, technical document reviews, and reviews of project proposals at the local, state, and federal levels. 
• Represent the Tribe at statewide cultural resource meetings, including the Legislative Commission on Indian Services Cultural Resource Cluster Meeting and programmatic annual meetings with state and federal agencies including the Oregon Department of Transportation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
• Serve as the Tribe’s lead staffer on Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act claims, successfully handling complex intertribal negotiation on repatriation cases and returning Tribal ancestors and cultural property to their homelands.
• Supervise professional staff responsible for laboratory management and cultural resource management on watershed restoration projects.
• Collaborate with staff to develop policy and procedures for Tribal Historic Preservation Department and laboratory management. 
• Supervised development of an updated file management system to streamline processing of document reviews and geospatial data and migrated legacy data into modern electronic formats.
• Brief and support executive leadership during government-to-government consultation.
• Participate in the development of programmatic agreements for agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund/Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board; the United States Forest Service; and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
• Provide trainings and lectures ranging from cultural resource tailgate training for landscaping crews to staff training for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to seminars at Oregon State University and the University of California, Davis.

State Lands Archaeologist

Washington State Department of Natural Resources 

Nov. 2014 – June 2023

• Conducted cultural resource surveys, site identification, and evaluations for compliance with the Washington Forest Practices Act, Washington Administrative Code, the Washington State Environmental Protection Act, and Section 106 and Section 110 of the NHPA.
• Reviewed cultural resources survey reports, archaeological site inventory forms, Washington State Environmental Protection Act checklists, Environmental Impact Statement sections, Timber Sale Cultural Resource Screening Documentation forms, and similar technical documents prepared by agency staff as well as consultant technical documents provided under contract or by project proponents’ staff. Monitored progress and completed work on cultural resource management projects.
• Created the Timber Sale Cultural Resource Screening Documentation form for DNR and supervised its testing, deployment, and revision. This form ensures consistent screening of timber projects for known and potential cultural resource issues.
• Developed policy and procedures and make technical recommendations for the cultural resource management program on more than 2 million acres of Washington state trust lands, with a practice emphasis on timber sales, green energy development, and other revenue-generating projects. Accomplishments included deployment of Phase I of the agency’s green energy siting map, which helps avoid resource impacts and facilitate responsible energy development by leveraging GIS datasets.
• Ensured that the department’s revenue-generating programs – timber sales, leasing, and easements – are in compliance with state and federal laws relating to cultural resource management.
• Managed statewide training program that teaches paraprofessional staff to inventory, identify, evaluate and report cultural resource surveys and background research. Supervise cultural resource management work of approximately fifty paraprofessional cultural resource technicians statewide, who report directly to managers in other programs.
• Coordinated with Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation regulatory staff and colleagues at other state and federal agencies to ensure appropriate cultural resource management on proposed agency actions.
• Facilitated Native American tribal consultation on complex land management projects.
• Wrote monthly internal newsletter for the state lands cultural resource management program.
• Chaired the Washington State Committee on Geographic Names. Led the state’s effort to replace derogatory placenames referring to indigenous women with tribal names, which became a national-level news story and required consultation with all federally-recognized tribes within Washington State. Served as agency spokesperson for matters relating to geographic names.
• Designed the cultural resources portions of the Special Concerns Report, a GIS screening tool that streamlines initial project review by nonprofessional staff while ensuring confidentiality of relevant data sets, substantially improving cultural resource review efficiency across the agency. The tool is used daily by project managers across the state.

Executive Director

Shelton McMurphey Johnson Associates, Eugene, Oregon 

Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2014

• Managed daily operations, budgets, contracts, IT, fundraising, educational programs, and event planning for a house museum.
• Supervised collections management and curation team.
• Developed website and managed all publicity and social media for museum.
• Supervised six paid staff members and approximately 30 volunteers, and managed college and graduate student internship program.
• Applied for and administered grants from funders including the Kinsman Foundation, Lane Arts Council, Oregon Community Foundation, and Oregon Humanities.

Administrator

Mulkey Cemetery Association, Eugene, Oregon 

June 2005 – Oct. 2014

• Managed historic pioneer cemetery. Developed website; supervised maintenance, preservation and landscape planning; and collaborated with volunteer board on budget, endowment, and land management plans.
• Completed IRS approval process for cemetery’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in 2008.

Proprietor

Sara E. Palmer, Eugene, Oregon 

Feb. 2005 – Oct. 2014

• Cultural resources and nonprofit and cultural organization management consulting. Clients included Coquille Indian Tribe, Rexius Forest Products, and independent radio stations. 

Cultural Resource Manager

LSA Associates, Inc., Point Richmond, California 

Nov. 1999 – Nov. 2004

• Project manager for environmental consultancy. Wrote proposals, prepared budgets, tracked and managed financial status of projects, delegated work to staff, and was responsible for quality of final work products including technical reports, initial study and environmental impact report sections, and evaluations of cultural resources.
• Helped grow LSA’s Northern California Cultural Resources Group from two staff in fall of 1999 to 12 full- and part-time staff in fall of 2004.

Recent Volunteer Work

Vice Chair of the Natural Resources Policy Committee and Shop Steward

Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28, Olympia, Washington 

Nov. 2021 – June 2023

• Advocated for policy positions that benefited union members and support excellent land management in Washington state.
• Negotiated contract administration of the collective bargaining agreement, regulations, and policies with human resources staff and agency leadership during collective bargaining and on behalf of represented staff experiencing high-conflict situations.

Scoutmaster

Boy Scouts of America, Lacey, Washington 

Feb. 2019 – June 2021

• Provided adult leadership and outdoor skills training to Scouts BSA girls’ Troop 007, including continuing scouting opportunities during the most acute stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Awarded the Journey to Excellence Gold Level Unit Award in 2019 and 2020. This is the BSA’s highest-level unit management recognition, for exceptional organizational development.
• Merit badge counselor: Citizenship in the Nation, American Labor, Architecture.

Education

University of South Carolina, 1997-1999: M.A., Anthropology. Coursework including theory and methods of archaeology and anthropology, archaeological field school, history of archaeology, historical research methods, statistical analysis and sampling techniques, scientific writing, and field work.

University of California, Berkeley, 1993-1997: Bachelor’s degree, Anthropology, minor in Spanish. Coursework including geography, statistics, writing, and anthropological and archaeological methods. 

University of California, Berkeley Extension, 2003: Copyediting Certificate.

Fluent in English, Spanish, and chinuk wawa, an indigenous language of the Pacific Northwest.

Experienced user of ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, and related ESRI products, as well as field tools for geospatial data collection including Garmin and Avenza Maps. Occasional user of QGIS.