Breanna Henderson is an alum of the CHRM program, having received her master's degree in 2023. Her thesis is titled Creating Effective and Sustainable Public Archaeology: An Analytical Roadmap. Henderson developed a rubric for assessing the accessibility and sustainability of public archaeology projects and outreach efforts, built from an in-depth analysis of six successful public archaeology programs. Her rubric is intended to assist future public archaeology programs by highlighting best practices for increasing accessibility and sustainability, no matter the scale or budget.

Following below is an archived profile.

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein

A life in archaeology can be described as “taking the road less traveled by,” and as such my path to a career in cultural and heritage resources management has had many twists and turns.

After graduating from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I took time off from continuing my education to gain work experience. I had the privilege of working as a museum educator at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum on Ford Island, O’ahu, Hawaii. It was in Hawaii that I was able to truly explore my passion for public education and outreach, and I hope to one day be able to use the skills that I learned there to create an anthropology-based outreach program for schools.

After returning to the continental United States, I began my career in cultural and heritage resources management with Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research, based in Huntsville, Alabama, as a field technician, and then as a field director. Next, I worked for SEARCH Inc., in order to gain more geographically diverse field experience, before finally finding my home as a part of Lochmueller Group's growing CRHM department in St. Louis, Missouri. I absolutely love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else.