About Us
Mission Statement
Hamline University's Center for Anthropological Services (HUCAS) provides professional services and information-driven solutions that respectfully support communities, organizations, and individuals, through detailed contextual research in archaeological, environmental, forensic, and human cultural settings.
The past exerts a powerful influence on how we understand our place in the world, our identities, and the ways in which we treat one another. HUCAS is committed to the protection and preservation of an honest understanding of the past that is inclusive and respectful.
Our mission includes the protection of burial grounds, the identification of unidentified human remains, repatriation of displaced human remains and associated belongings, preserving the stories of overlooked or under-represented groups, and working with descendant and stakeholder communities to ensure their representation in our shared understanding of the past.
The Center promotes academic excellence at Hamline by assisting with courses offered by the Department of Humans, Environments and Climate, by supporting student and faculty research, and by providing Hamline students and recent graduates with professional experience in anthropology and archaeology.
Center Staff
Brian Hoffman
Brian Hoffman, PhD, is the Director at HUCAS and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Hamline University.
Marcia Regan
Marcia Regan, PhD, is a Principal Investigator at HUCAS and an Instructor in the Department of Anthropology at Hamline University. She has more than 35 years experience in human skeletal excavation, recovery, and analysis, working in both Minnesota and Arizona.
David Tennessen
David Tennessen, PhD, is a Principal Investigator at HUCAS and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Hamline University.
Robert Larsen
Robert D. Larsen is an Indigenous Archaeology Specialist for HUCAS. He is Mdewakantowan Dakota from the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton, Minnesota. As previous Councilperson he is adamant about the ancestors having a voice and protecting burial and sacred sites. His experience participating in MIAC, archaeological, burial, and NAGPRA projects led him to Cultural sensitive recovery and reburial and now to HUCAS.
Tom Sanders
Tom Sanders, MA, RPA, is an Indigenous Archaeology Specialist for the Center. He is the former manager of the Jeffers Petroglyphs Historic Site and a founding member of the Red Rock Ridge Research Group. He has been working with Indigenous Elders for more than 20 years.
Sofía Pacheco-Forés
Sofía Pacheco-Forés, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology at Hamline University with expertise in the identification, excavation, and study of human skeletal remains. In addition to the creation of osteological profiles from human skeletal remains, she also uses bone and tooth chemistry to reconstruct the geographic origins of human skeletal remains.
Susan Myster
Susan Myster, PhD, DABFA, is a Professor Emerita of Anthropology. She is a HUCAS Osteology Fellow.
Erin Dinneen
Erin Dinneen, MA, is an Archaeology Specialist Supervisor for HUCAS. Her work over the past decade has taken her from Alaska to Kiribati, and now back home to Minnesota, participating in Phase I, II, and III archaeological projects. She has spent the last few years collaborating on burial recoveries.
Desiree Haggberg
Desiree Haggberg, Registered Archaeologist 28081, is the Osteology Repository Supervisor for HUCAS and has more than eight years experience in the field and lab identifying, recovering, and studying human and faunal bone. She has worked on several burial recovery and monitoring projects as well as Phase I and II investigations. She is the collections manager for the repository and guides NAGPRA and archival projects.
Forest Seaberg-Wood
Forest Seaberg-Wood is the Archaeology Laboratory Supervisor for HUCAS. She has 10 years of experience working in both the field and laboratory, including Phase I and II investigations, cataloging, artifact analysis, and collections management.
W. Carter Olsen
W. Carter Olsen is an Archaeology Record Specialist for HUCAS. He has a BA in Anthropology from Hamline University, worked for several years as an archaeological field technician after graduating in 2014, and is now excavating the archives of past field work to create an organized database of digitized files. As a field tech he worked on several projects in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Kyle Knapp
Kyle Knapp is an Archaeology Record Specialist. He has assisted on several HUCAS projects, but perhaps most notably on the Historic Human Remains Project. Kyle is interested in applying open-source intelligence techniques, archival research, genetic genealogy, and forensic science methods to the investigation of unidentified human remains cases.