Marcia Menihan Kodlick ’86

I toured Hood as a Junior in high school and totally fell in love with the campus and overall vibe of the students and faculty. I visited a few other schools and applied to a handful, but I kept finding myself being drawn back to Hood. I still consider my choice of attending Hood one of the best decisions I ever made!

Well, it certainly was not a straight path from my undergraduate degree in Home Economics to a 30+ year career in archaeology! But my life has always tended to take circuitous routes. The “short” story is that I studied Interior Design at Hood and also took as many Art History classes as I could, which sparked my interest in continuing my education in Art History. I attended graduate school at WVU where I decided to focus on prehistoric art, which led to coordinating my studies with both the Art Department and the Anthropology Departments and spending a life-changing two weeks in the Vezere Valley of France studying the cave paintings and engravings in the region as part of the primary research for my thesis (which also sparked my life-long passion for travel). Shortly afterward, I had an opportunity to volunteering on an archaeological site in England for a few summers, and I have been working in the field of archaeology ever since.

I don’t think I would consider any single professor a traditional mentor per se because my experiences with so many of them have helped guide my choices through the years. However, if I had to choose one who left the most significant impression on me it would be my Anthropology instructor, Dr. Purnima Bhatt. Her class was my very first class I attended as a Freshman and I just loved her style. Funny how I ended up in an anthropological field years later!

My current “job description” is a far cry from when I started out working in the field! My years in the field took their toll and my old(ish!) bones just don’t bend and twist the way they once did, but it’s not a bad price to pay for having the experiences I have had and to still be working in the profession that I enjoy so much. Currently my day consists of managing projects, coordinating with agencies to develop scopes of work and budgets, authoring reports, supervising field efforts, and mentoring staff.

As far as working through the challenges of the pandemic, we have been fortunate in that our office staff is able to work remotely without issue and our field staff has adopted the required safety protocols so that we can continue to conduct our field activities with minimal disruption. And it certainly helps that we work outside!

One of my favorite aspects of my profession is that it is always changing – starting new projects, excavating new sites, meeting new people, and the opportunity to travel and see areas that I would never have a reason to travel to otherwise. I began my career in the field – digging holes and screening for artifacts. Through the years my responsibilities have increased with experience, and I think my favorite part of my job now is the opportunity to mentor younger staff and prepare them for advancing their careers.

Looking back, I probably would have stuck with Anthropology from the beginning, although the choices I made then led me to where I am today so I am not going to second-guess myself now!

My advice would be to be open to new experiences, work hard, and be ready to get dirty!