Matthew Virta has worked as an archeologist and cultural resources professional for the National Park Service (NPS) for over 30 years.  Currently he is the Cultural Resources Program Manager for the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP), where he has been employed since 1999, planning and managing identification, documentation, and preservation projects for the park’s archeological sites, historic structures, and cultural landscapes.  Before joining the GWMP, Matt was employed as a Staff Archeologist and Archeology Laboratory & Collections Manager for the NPS, Denver Service Center, Eastern Applied Archeology Center, conducting archeological investigations and curating archeological collections for national parks from the mid-Atlantic through the northeast.  Prior to that, he was employed in a similar capacity serving parks in the greater Washington, DC area with the NPS, National Capital Region Archeology Program (where he initially started as a University of Maryland graduate student intern).   Matt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (1984) in Anthropology (Archeology) and a Master of Applied Anthropology degree (1986 - Archeology & Cultural Resources Management) from the University of Maryland, College Park.  He was in the first graduating class of the MAA Program.