Colleen Boyle is an alum of the CHRM program, having received her master's degree in 2024. Her thesis is titled Minding Your Feet: An Examination of Cemetery Recordations and Analysis through Geospatial Documentation in Fairfax County, Virginia. Boyle utilized geospatial and other data from the Fairfax County Park Authority’s ongoing cemetery survey, which includes inventory, photography, and spatial record of graves and grave markers, as well as cemetery boundaries, plantings, and other landscape features. Her thesis presents three case studies: two family cemeteries - one owned by Fairfax County, and one in private ownership - and a large public cemetery operated by Fairfax County, established in 1946 as a “Potter’s Field”. Colleen’s analysis was rooted in phenomenology but was firmly grounded with geospatial data, resulting in a data-driven thesis focused on present land uses and outcomes of diverse histories at each site. Her analysis highlights the cemeteries as vital community heritage and sources of local history. She demonstrates how the social value of cemeteries carries forward after discontinuation of burials, and the continuing care for these places.

Following below is an archived profile.

Colleen has worked as a field archaeologist with the Archaeology and Collections Branch of the Fairfax County Park Authority for the last six years and has been Crew Chief since 2019. She graduated from the University of Mary Washington in 2016 with a B.A. in Historic Preservation with a focus in archaeology and planning. Her work has primarily been within the Mid-Atlantic region from South Carolina to Maryland on various phase I, II, and III projects.