Donald A. Slater (Ph.D., Brandeis University) is an archaeologist and educator in the Department of History and Social Science at Phillips Academy, Andover.  His research into past cultures’ worldviews, religion, and iconography has been split between two archaeological worlds – Colonial New England and Ancient Mesoamerica.  After directing the Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project in Mexico from 2008-2017, Slater turned his attention to local archaeology where he has been studying the Old Burial Ground and the Bradstreet Site, both in North Andover, MA.  In partnership with project co-director Christy Pottroff of Boston College, he has positively identified the archaeological and structural remains of two 17th c. homes owned by famed poet Anne Bradstreet and Governor Simon Bradstreet.

Christy L. Pottroff (Ph.D., Fordham University) is an assistant professor in the English Department at Boston College where she teaches classes in early and nineteenth-century American literature. Her book-in-progress, Postal Hackers, tells the stories of the nineteenth-century misfits who hacked the U.S. postal system by using mail tools and protocols in extraordinary ways. She is also co-coordinating an archaeological study of Anne Bradstreet’s two North Andover homes along with archaeologist Donald A. Slater. Last year, amidst these projects, Christy was diagnosed with and treated for cancer--an event that continues to inform her thinking and her living.