Ms. Rhonda L. Smith is a co-owner and the Principal Investigator of SPARC.  She is a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists (2002).  Ms. Smith has a B.A. with Honors in Anthropology from Newcomb College, Tulane University, New Orleans (1990); and a M.A. in Anthropology with a specialization in Zooarchaeology from the University of Georgia (UGA), Athens (1996).

Ms. Smith has worked in archaeology for almost 33 years, beginning as a student employee for the Center for Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University (1986).  She has field experience in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Caribbean.  She has analyzed vertebrate faunal collections from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, the Caribbean, and Peru.

Ms. Smith has more than 23 years of experience in Cultural Resources Management and Consulting.  She meets or exceeds the Secretary of the Interior’s (SOI) professional qualifications (36 CFR 61, Appendix A) for professional archaeologist and Principal Investigator (32 CFR 767.8); the qualifications for a professional archaeologist as defined in Title 25, Part 1, Chapter 1, Subchapter A.102 of the Louisiana Administrative Code; the Archaeologist Qualifications as published in the Louisiana Register on April 20, 1994; and the standards of the professional guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Interior (48 Fed. Reg. 44.716).  Ms. Smith has authored or co-authored more than 300 technical reports and Section 106 compliance documents.