Risa Carlson

Risa Carlson has been an archaeologist for 38 years working throughout Alaska, with 15 of those years with the U.S. Forest Service in Southeast Alaska. She received her B.S. from the University of Alaska, returning to school many years later for masters and Ph.D. degrees in archaeology from the University of Cambridge, U.K. Risa’s family moved to a remote village on Prince of Wales Island in 1968 where she and her sister spent many hours on the water and exploring the forest. In the early 1990s, she was part of the Tongass Cave Project, searching for new caves with the cavers and recording the cultural resources within. Now she focuses on early Holocene archaeological sites in the same area, reveling in the joy of always learning new things.