Mark U. Wilde-Ramsing, Project Director, was born in Oakland, California and moved to Alexandria, Virginia when he was nine where he graduated from T.C. Williams High School. After attending Wake Forest University, Mark sought a career in archaeology and eventually was hired to lead an archaeological site survey of New Hanover County, North Carolina. In 1978 Mark took a permanent position with the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch where he developed their submerged cultural resource management program. During his career with the state, Mark has surveyed many miles of North Carolina waters, supervised the investigations of countless submerged resources from preliminary examinations to salvage recovery - dugout canoes to 20th Century steamers, and written numerous position papers regarding their management. These include placing twenty-one Civil War shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places as a thematic district, organizing professional workshops to develop guidelines for the protection of small, indigenous craft, developing the Branch's inventory of archaeological and historic shipwrecks, which now includes nearly 6000 entries, and compiling a bibliography of all research related to maritime cultural resources in North Carolina waters. During these endeavors Mark sought input not only from marine archaeologists, historians and conservators, but those from many related fields, particularly physical sciences such as marine geology and coastal geography, which provide the environmental foundation upon which to interpret the archaeological record. He also relied heavily on local informants and watermen. Over the last decade Mark focused on public education by developing outreach programs to raise awareness of the activities and goals of archaeology. A few years ago, after the discovery of the Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck, Mark was appointed director of project operations and was transferred to Carteret County to oversee one of the most significant and exciting underwater discoveries in recent times. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the Catholic University of America, Mark is currently enrolled in East Carolina University's PhD program in Cultural Resources Management.

Sarah C. Watkins-Kenney, QAR Project Conservator. Sarah was born in Manchester, England and brought up in Oxford. She only recently moved to the USA, in February 2003, when her husband took up a position as a Physics professor at East Carolina University. Sarah took up the position of QAR Project Conservator in March. She is based in Greenville, North Carolina where a new conservation facility is being set up to treat the QAR artifacts. This follows an agreement between NC Department of Cultural Resources and East Carolina University through its Maritime Studies Program, and the award of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts - Save America's Treasures.

Sarah has been working as a conservator of archaeological artifacts for some 25 years. She has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in Archaeological Conservation from Cardiff University (1977) and a Masters degree (with distinction) in Museum & Gallery Management from the City University, London (1994). She has worked as a conservator for a range of organizations in the UK, including: museums (The British Museum (1994-2003) and Bristol Museum (1985-1988)); a regional museum service based in Salisbury (1988-1993); Oxford University (1978-1984). Sarah has also worked as an on- site conservator, with various excavation projects in Britain and Italy. Objects and collections that she has worked on range from recently excavated prehistoric objects to collections in museums and historic houses. She specializes in the conservation of archaeological metal objects.

Sarah has been active in the conservation profession generally through numerous publications, giving papers at conferences, organizing conferences and participating in the work of professional conservation organizations as a committee member. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation, an Accredited Member of the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, an Accredited Member of the UK Institute of Field Archaeologists and an Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation. Over the years she has also been involved in training new conservators (for example working with interns, and as an external examiner for the Conservation Undergraduate degree course at Cardiff University (1995-1997). Through working in a number of different Museums she has also gained experience of outreach work -communicating about conservation to non-conservators - both professional colleagues and the public.

Chris Southerly, Project Archaeologist/Divemaster, Digital Information Supervisor. Chris was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He did undergraduate work in biochemistry at Virginia Tech before earning his BS (1990) in Anthropology/Archaeology from James Madison University. Chris also did graduate work in historical archaeology at the College of William and Mary before focusing on underwater archaeology and completing his MA (2003) in Maritime History and Underwater Archaeology from East Carolina University.

Over the last decade and a half Chris has had experience working on terrestrial and underwater sites from prehistoric to modern times, primarily in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Bermuda. He joined the Underwater Archaeology Branch as a staff archaeologist in 2000, concentrating on the environmental review program for the state's terrestrial and submerged cultural resources. As an archaeologist and divemaster he has participated in numerous surveys and research projects across the state. Chris turned his focus to the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project full-time in 2002 supervising fieldwork and diving, coordinating data management/analysis, inter-office networking, and GIS development.

Wendy Welsh, Conservation Laboratory Manager. Wendy is a native of Swansboro, NC and obtained a BA in Anthropology/Archaeology at Appalachian State University in 2000. In 1996 she started her career working on terrestrial sites and turned to underwater archaeology in June 2002 when she accepted an archaeological technician position with the QAR project. In July 2003, Wendy was transferred to Greenville to manage the QAR conservation laboratory where she insures that the lab runs smoothly and efficiently as the large volume of artifacts from the shipwreck are documented, processed and analyzed.

Karen Browning, QAR Computer Technician and Photographer, Karen is originally from Knightdale, NC and has lived on Harkers Island for 20 years. She came to the QAR project as an intern while completing her degree in Internet Technologies from Carteret Community College that she obtained August 2003 . Starting in October 2002, Karen is responsible for on-going design, periodic updates, and maintenance for the QAR site surveillance system, the QAR website, QAR computer systems, and data entry into the image and multi-media database. These databases catalogue and track the large volume of images, records and drawings generated by the project. Karen's photographic skills have helped document and archive the various stages of QAR artifacts from the time they were recovered through cleaning to their final exhibital condition.

Shanna Daniel, QAR Assistant Conservator, Shanna was born and raised in Texas and has recently moved to North Carolina to join the QAR staff. She did her undergraduate studies at Stephen F. Austin State University where she received a BA (2003) in Sociology with an emphasis in Anthropology/Archaeology. She furthered her academic studies at Texas A&M University where she received a MA (2007) in Anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology and conservation. Her thesis is titled A Mammoth of a Project: The Conservation of a Columbian Mammoth. She is certified in Scanning Electron Microscope, Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope, Historical Preservation, and Conservation (Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation Certificate).

Lindley S. Butler, Project Historian, is a native of Eden, North Carolina and presently resides in Wentworth. He received his A.B. (1961), M.A. (1964), and Ph.D. (1971) degrees in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A second field, historical archaeology, was begun at Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1966) and in summer institutes at Flowerdew Hundred, Virginia. His field experience includes the ancient Near East, early colonial America, colonial Barbados, and surveys of inland navigation structures and Amerindian fish weirs in North Carolina. At Rockingham Community College, Wentworth, he became chair of Social Sciences (1968), was appointed Historian-in-Residence (1974), and retired as Professor Emeritus (1997). He became a volunteer diver with the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch in 1996 and has been with the QAR Shipwreck Project from the outset. Author or editor of eleven books and numerous articles, sketches, and reviews in North Carolina history, Butler most recently authored Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast and a National Register District Nomination for Civil War shipwrecks in eastern North Carolina. Currently, he is working on histories of proprietary North Carolina, piracy on the southeast coast, and the Dan River. He has been on the executive board of the North Carolina Maritime History Council since 1995. For "significant contributions to North Carolina history" he received the Christopher Crittenden Award in 2005.

Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton, historic artifact analyst and ceramic specialist, has been volunteering her time and knowledge of historic material culture to the QAR project since the shipwreck's discovery in 1996, but more specifically since 2003 when she was asked to join the team. She has over 30 years of experience as an archaeologist, working primarily in the Southeastern United States. Linda is originally from Georgia, but has made North Carolina her home for over 23 years. She graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Anthropology (1975), and after attending the University of Tennessee for three years, completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology (1997) at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her dissertation research focused on 19th century pottery production in the state, and she has continued to make pottery research a primary focus. Linda worked as the Archaeology Supervisor for Historic Sites Section, of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources for 12 years (1990-2002) before leaving to take her current position as Curator and Historical Archaeologist of the Cultural Resources Program at Fort Bragg (2002 to present). As a professional archaeologist (RPA) used to working on land-based sites, Linda is learning how to get her "sea legs" and thoroughly enjoys working topside during recovery expeditions. So far, her analysis work for the QAR project has included technical studies of the ceramics, glassware and bottles, brick, tobacco pipes, glass beads, personal gear and other small finds recovered from the shipwreck. When not doing archaeology at Fort Bragg, and volunteering on the QAR Project, she is spending her time on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Pottery Center and the North Carolina Archaeological Society. When home, she lives in the woods of Chatham County with her husband Kirk, and other woodland critters.

Jim Craig, Geological/artifact analysis, field and laboratory support. Jim Craig was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised in Southern New Jersey. He received his B. A. in Geology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, his M.S. from Lehigh University in 1964, and his Ph. D. from Lehigh University in 1965. He then spent two years in Washington, D.C. as a Post-doctoral fellow at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He joined the Geology Department faculty at Texas Tech University in 1967 where he taught until 1970. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Geological Sciences of Virginia Tech in the Fall of 1970 and taught there until he retired in the summer of 2002. Jim won four teaching awards during his 32 years on the Virginia Tech faculty. In March of 2002, the governor of Virginia presented him the 2002 Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award from the State Council for Higher Education. Jim has authored three text books, more than 150 journal publications, and more than 150 abstracts of formal presentations. For many years, his research efforts concentrated on the nature of ore deposits and the ore minerals from which metals are extracted. In the last ten years, he has also carried out studies of the ore mineral analogs that form during the corrosion of metals. He and his students have applied these studies to some of the metal artifacts recovered from the QAR. Their studies on pewter's have provided information that will be useful to marine archaeological studies in many places. Currently, Jim is aiding Jack Callahan and Bill Miller in the study of ballast stones and in the recovery and analysis of gold and lead objects from the QAR.

Sim Wilde, Education and administrative support. Sim was born and raised in Asheville, N.C., but has lived in Rocky Mount and Elm City for 37 years. Sim has an AA degree from Mars Hill College, a Masters from Western Carolina University, and a Doctorate from UNC at Chapel Hill. He was a teacher in Asheville and Buncombe County for 10 years and a professor, department chairman, and dean at NC Wesleyan College for 17 years. He is currently retired. Sim has written two books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles. He has been active in community theatre and has written numerous play reviews. He has 4 daughters, 2 step-daughters, 10 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild. At QAR, Sim volunteers as QAR education coordinator, Dive Live registrar, Queens' Report writer and editor, and all around handyman to the Project Director.

Rob Girard, Illustrator, an Illinois native, has lived in Morehead City since 1981. He earned a BS degree in Art Education from Illinois State University, served in the US Marines for eight years, and likes to travel, having visited 15 countries. He has had a lifelong interest in archaeology and helped to form a non-profit marine archaeology exploration company, working not only as vice-president but also as a diver and artist. He has been employed since 1989 as an aircraft sheet metal mechanic at the Naval Aviation Depot in Cherry Point and works part-time with the QAR project.

Adria L. Focht, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2000 where she received her B.A. in Art (Fibers concentration) and Anthropology (Archaeology focus) at UNCC. In 2006, Adria conducted an independent research project on textile-impressed pottery sherds from the Woodland period at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia, North Carolina. She will present the results of this research at the South Eastern Archaeology Conference in 2006. Adria's primary research interests are in New World archaeology with an emphasis on prehistoric textile production and conservation. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology at East Carolina University. Adria is an active textile artist and participates in excavations throughout the Southeast.

Joshua Daniel, Underwater Archaeological Technician, was born and raised near Houston, Texas. He completed his B.A. in Archaeological Studies at the University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis in Classical Archaeology. He is currently finishing his M.A. in Anthropology at Texas A&M University with an emphasis in Nautical Archaeology. Joshua has participated in several projects, including the Episkopi Bay Survey in Cyprus, the Cairo Dashur Boat project in Cairo, Egypt, and most recently participated in the excavation of a Roman column wreck at Kizilburun, Turkey. His research interests include amphora studies, Etruscan and early Roman seafaring and commerce, Greek and Roman ship sheds, and the early 19th century British and American Navies.

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