Staff

Executive Director
Angus R. Quinlan, PhD, RPA

Angus Quinlan was born and raised in the United Kingdom where his early interest in history developed into a lifelong passion for historic preservation and the archaeology of prehistoric social systems. He holds a PhD in archaeology from the University of Southampton (UK) and is an established Great Basin researcher and rock art specialist who has presented and published widely. 

Angus has led archaeological inventories of major Nevada rock art sites in a variety of settings and is knowledgeable in protocols for site documentation, conservation, and restoration. His research interests include Great Basin rock art, prehistoric religion and ritual, and social archaeology. Angus has been NRAF Executive Director since 2007.

Deputy Director
Darla Garey-Sage, PhD

Darla Garey-Sage holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno. Prior to that, she earned a post-graduate Publications Certificate from George Washington University. She began volunteering with the Nevada Rock Art Foundation in 2008 and has served as a Board Member and as the volunteer editor of the Foundation’s newsletter. She has edited numerous newsletters for non-profit institutions, worked as a copy editor for academic and popular publications, and designed and edited fiction books for a small press.

Board of Directors

President
Alice Baldrica, MA

Alice Baldrica was Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for Nevada for 20 years, ending with her retirement from state service in 2010.  Prior to working for the state, she was an archaeologist at the Desert Research Institute and for the U. S. Forest Service.  Alice earned her M.A. and B.A in Anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno with an emphasis in the study of prehistory and history of the western Great Basin.  Her concern over the decades has been with the protection of archaeological sites but in recent years, she has devoted more time to public archaeology and historic preservation, helping develop Nevada’s Archaeological Awareness/Historic Preservation Month celebrated every May, and Nevada’s site stewardship program. It is her belief that protection of archaeological and historic sites can be better achieved through education and active involvement by members of the public, not solely through the enforcement of laws.  Ms. Baldrica serves on the board of Preserve Nevada and previously served as the state’s representative on the board of the Nevada Archaeological Association. 

Treasurer
Bobbie McGonagale, PhD

Bobbie McGonagle has been involved with archaeological research in the Great Basin since 1970 and earned a PhD from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1974. Bobbie worked for 31 years as an archaeologist for the BLM Battle Mountain District and has recorded rock art as well as aspen carvings.

Secretary
Kevin Rafferty, PhD, RPA

Kevin Rafferty was born and raised in upstate New York, outside of Albany, New York.  He came to Nevada in 1980 to take a job with the Bureau of Land Management, Las Vegas District as a Resource Area archaeologist, a job he held from 1980-1983.  During this time he received his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook in 1982.  In 1983 he became Director of the Division of Anthropological Studies (now the Harry Reid Center) at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  In his six years there he conducted and/or directed numerous survey and excavation projects in southern Nevada, southern California, western Arizona, and southwestern Utah involving sites ranging in age from the Lake Mojave period (ca. 10,000-7500 B.P.) to recent historic material (1920s-1930s).

In 1989 he became the first full-time anthropologist hired at the Community College of Southern Nevada (now the College of Southern Nevada) and has taught a wide range of freshman and sophmore level courses.  He is now chairman of the Department of Human Behavior at the college.  He also ran his own archaeological consulting business until joining Knight & Leavitt Associates as part-time Senior Research Associate in 1993.  Rafferty has pursued research in the southern Nevada/southern California region during this time, with his most recent research centering around Valley of Fire State Park, where he became interested in rock art almost out of self-defense.  His other research interests include hunter-gatherer studies, CRM law and its implementation, and trying to examine religion and religious ideas embodied in the archaeological record.

Director
Matt Schneider, JD

Matt Schneider is an Attorney who specializes in representing the interests of children. Matt’s public service includes volunteering for a range of organizations devoted to environmental conservation and animal welfare, as well as rock art conservation. Matt has volunteered as a field recorder for several Foundation site documentation projects beginning in 2006.