About

Margarita de Guzman

Managing Director + CEO

Margarita has over 20 years of extensive archaeological experience and knowledge in all services related to historical resource consulting. She is an approved permit-holding archaeologist in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Margarita has managed many large-scale HRIAs and HRIMs throughout her consulting career and recorded numerous historic resource sites. Her experience includes field assessments and mitigations for projects ranging from small-scale oil and gas to Class I pipelines and Forestry Management Areas, as well as infrastructure, power, residential/industrial subdivisions, and other developments in the private and public sectors.

A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and Durham University (UK), Margarita holds degrees in Archaeology and Economics. Her Master’s studies involved relational artifact analysis of three central European sites: Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Upon completing her studies, Margarita spent five years working in Europe on a variety of archaeology sites, including an Iron Age hillfort in Schwarzenbach, Austria, a complex Roman bath site in Grumentum, Italy and an Urartu fortress outside Yerevan, Armenia. Margarita also founded and co-directed the SVG Public Archaeology Program, a non-profit rescue excavation on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. With the help of a select team, she completed two seasons of public excavations.

Kristin McKay

Manager, Administration

Kristin has over 20 years of archaeological experience and is a qualified permit-holding archaeologist for BC (Interior Plateau and Sub-Arctic/Boreal Forest), Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and Northwest Territories. She has been responsible for all HRIA/AIA and HRIM work aspects for small to large-scale developments throughout these regions. Kristin has extensive experience in GIS, having earned an M.A. and M.Sc. applying GIS to archaeology; her master’s thesis focused on the creation of a 3D model of the Lucanian site of Roccagloriosa in southern Italy and the Lunt Roman Fort near Coventry, England. Kristin also worked as an archaeologist in England for several years and has developed archaeological management and predictive models for large-scale operations in northern Alberta.

Jode MacKay

Manager, BC Operations

Jode has over 20 years of archaeological experience, 13 of which have been spent in Alberta as a field archaeologist and site supervisor. Having worked in various sites throughout Alberta, BC, Ontario, Jordan and the Caribbean, he is highly knowledgeable in diverse archaeological assemblages. In 2011/2012, he had the opportunity to be Field Director for the SVG Public Archaeology Program on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. From May to November, he can be found at our seasonal office in Williams Lake, leading our BC team throughout the Cariboo and the Kootenays. Jode has a strange love of hot dogs and leftovers but it doesn’t seem to affect his ability to huff it through the forest!

Anthony Russell

Project Archaeologist

Anthony is originally from Vancouver and received his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow in 2011. He has conducted fieldwork in Italy, Scotland and Canada, including BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories. He is a permit holder for all these areas but BC, but is a Field Director for the Interior Plateau and Sub-Arctic/Boreal Forest and holds an R-License for Ontario. His research interests include globalization, the Mediterranean Bronze Age, and the material culture components of identity formation. In his spare time, Anthony is a self-proclaimed sub-par gamer, a neophyte cider maker, a world-class cider consumer, and a fan of several failing sports franchises. He has two cats, one dog, and a bunch of fish. Fun fact: he has an irrational hatred of salad forks.

Eric Tebby

Project Archaeologist (Permit Holder)

Eric is a Project Archaeologist with permit holding status in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. He is a graduate of MacEwan University, where he completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology and History; in that time, he was an active leader in various sports and outdoor clubs. Not a surprise to us because he is quite the outdoors enthusiast, often sharing photos of all his outdoor activities that are entirely unrelated to work! In 2012, Eric completed an 8-month internship excavating at a large Linear Pottery culture site in Saxony, Germany, but he didn’t start his CRM career until 2015; he has had a passion for it ever since! He recently completed a graduate degree at the University of Alberta focused on a Métis wintering site in the Cypress Hills, which spurred a passion for Canadian History.

Erika Sutherland

Project Archaeologist

Erika is a woman of many talents. She received her B.A. in Archaeology from UBC Vancouver and M.Litt. from the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland. Erika was lucky enough to start her archaeological career at a UNESCO World Heritage Site; since then, she has done archaeology in Utah, Alberta, British Columbia, and Scotland. Since joining the Cultural Resource Management world, she has spent three years working in Scotland and six years in Alberta. In case you need more reasons to think Erika is fun, another fun fact (or two) is that she can make moccasins, macramé and anything and everything with a hot glue gun and glitter. She has also played and coached competitive rugby for 13 years!

Amanda Wong

Manager, Technical Services + AB Project Administrator

Amanda is a GIS Specialist and field archaeologist with a BA from the University of Calgary; she has participated in excavations in Poland, Guatemala and the Yukon and joins our field crews in Alberta and BC (whenever we feel ready to absorb her office work!) hiking/sweating/digging/avoiding wasps with the best of them. She initially joined Circle as a GIS practicum student, but we’ve decided to keep her forever! Amanda quickly elevated from a GIS Assistant to GIS Specialist, and is now on the leadership team. She is a valuable asset to all our initiatives. Fun fact: She is always down for karaoke.

Kyle Belanger

Safety & Lab Coordinator

Kyle has over 20 years of archaeological experience in Alberta and Manitoba and extensive experience in archaeological survey and mitigation in various environmental zones: the Montane Cordillera, Boreal Forest, Plains, Parkland, and the Canadian Shield. Kyle holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg and dabbled in paleontology. When he’s not busy studying past remains, Kyle spends his free time in the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies and/or playing Fortnite!

Meg Simper

BC Administrator

Meg is an archaeologist with ten years of experience in CRM but now cozies up in our office full-time with all our reports, helping ensure they are the best they can be. She received her B.Sc. in Archaeology from the University of Calgary and has completed extensive archaeological surveys and mitigation in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories, as well as in the Caribbean on the islands of Antigua and St. Vincent. She prefers to spend time curled up with a good book or in the mountains, hiking, rock climbing or skiing and loves travelling or talking about travelling. A little-known fact about Meg, she was a competitive horse rider for ten years!

Tyler Statz

Supervising Archaeologist

Tyler is a supervising archaeologist with roots on Vancouver Island. Still, he has worked in various locations in western Canada, including mitigative excavations and survey work in southern and central Alberta, southeast Manitoba, and the Peace region of northeast British Columbia for the past five years. Tyler received his BA from the University of Victoria. He is a PADI-certified scuba diver, a “Magic the Gathering” competitive champion, a jazz musician, and a former soccer pro (ok, we use the word pro loosely). Tyler is working on his master’s in Heritage Resource Management at Simon Fraser University.

Sarah Morrison

Supervising Archaeologist

Sarah is a supervising archaeologist and a returning staff member. Sarah completed her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Alberta in 2011 and worked at Circle as a field tech back in 2014. That was before she moved to England and completed her MSc in Palaeopathology at Durham followed by a PhD; specializing in isotope analyses of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur with regards to dietary reconstruction using experimental burned bone and Anglo-Saxon archaeological remains both inhumed and cremated (ya, we are impressed too!). After eight years in England, Sarah returned to Canada and (to our delight) came back to work with us at Circle. Aside from impressive academic achievements, Sarah is a dog lover and a skilled fencer, she even received a sports scholarship that partially funded her doctorate research. En Garde!

Abigail Harding

Supervising Archaeologist

Abigail began her career at Circle in 2022 as an Assistant Archaeologist and is now a Supervising Archaeologist. She has a BA in Classics (Honors), with Certificates in International Learning and Archaeology from the University of Alberta. Abigail has studied archaeology in Italy, Greece, Alberta, and the Yukon. Her upbringing in Scotland, Canada and Bolivia has given Abigail a great sense of adventure. When she isn’t knee-deep in soil looking for artifacts, you can find Abigail baking, sewing, crafting, or walking in Edmonton’s beautiful river valley! One of her other passions is singing. While studying at the U of A, Abigail sang with the premier chorus, the Madrigal Singers, and was their executive president for 2 years (you will definitely find her putting this to use in the woods to ward off animals).

Simon Hughes

Supervising Archaeologist

Simon is a supervising archaeologist, having started as an assistant archaeologist in 2022 after moving to Canada. He is originally from the United Kingdom. Simon has a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and Anthropology, an MSc in Palaeopathology and a PhD, all from Durham University. His PhD “Measuring the impact of research access for human skeletal remains stored in English museum contexts” looked at how research affects the preservation of human remains stored in museums. Whilst completing his PhD, Simon worked as the assistant curator at the Durham Museum, helping to put together displays and exhibits about the history of the City of Durham, as well as the surrounding areas. In his free time Simon enjoys gardening, cooking and making his own hot sauce (with variable results).

Raj Gahir

Accounting Technician

Raj is our first in-house non-archaeologist, but she loves hiking like the rest of us. Raj has a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in accounting and brings more than 15 years of experience in full-cycle accounting. To put it in archaeology terms, she will clean up our loose! Like everyone else at Circle, we can’t wait to see what she does.

Assistant Archaeologists

We have a few Assistant Archaeologists that join us each season. Please check out our Instagram for stories and photos of our amazing crew!