Dennis migrated west from his native North Carolina, with a brief stop in Houston to pick up a BA in anthropology at Rice University.  After attending the Arizona State University archaeological field school, a detour led him back to Houston where he served a year in a suit, programming for a natural gas marketing consulting firm.  Fortunately, his background in computers (dating back to 8th grade and including punch cards, main frames, and the first Macintosh) enabled him to persevere, and at last Dennis landed in the graduate program at UC Santa Barbara.  Sources tell us his focus has been Andean archaeology, with his PhD research focusing on the Inca Empire in southern Ecuador, while the Nasca region of Peru was the subject of his MA.  He has been waiting to finish his PhD when it could be signed by a new governor.  He is finding his interests in archaeology, computers, art, bicycling, and coffee to be very useful in his new job at the ARF.