2026
Comparably’s Best Company Outlook
Service
Cultural Resources
SWCA's nationwide experts have the skills and experience to support the high-level consultation and planning efforts needed to properly address important cultural resources.
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Kevin Miller
Cultural Resources Vice President
Overview
With more than 500 cultural resources experts, SWCA is one of the largest cultural resources consultants in the U.S. Our nationwide presence means we have the capacity, reliability, and experience to support projects of all sizes, types, and complexity, while our local expertise provides the knowledge and nuance to consult with the various stakeholders that manage the nation’s resources. We provide a full suite of services to private and public clients, led by experts in archaeology, historic preservation, management and planning, and Tribal relations and ethnography.
We leverage strong relationships with federal agencies, Indigenous governments, and State Historic Preservation Offices, enabling us to understand the specifics of regulatory processes in particular geographic areas. With this knowledge, we provide our clients with effective support and tailored guidance to meet their project objectives. Our cultural resources experts are well versed in consultation concerning the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), cultural resource management for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process, Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), and various state laws and regulations.
Cultural Resource Management and Planning
Cultural resource management often requires more than simply completing field surveys, and no other firms match SWCA’s expertise when it comes to meeting our clients’ advanced cultural resource management needs. Our consultants provide regulatory understanding and the consultation support skills needed to meet the cultural resource management and planning needs of any project, no matter how simple or complex. Our nationwide presence means that we have experts with local resource knowledge and experience working with local stakeholders anywhere projects are located.
Relevant Services
- Cultural Resources Monitoring and Detection Plans
- Ethnography and Ethnohistory
- Historic Preservation
- Historic Properties Management and Treatment Plans
- Programmatic Agreements and Memoranda of Agreement
- Public Outreach and Interpretation
- Visual Effects Analysis
Archaeology
SWCA’s archaeologists focus their expertise on finding solutions for our clients that balance project goals with preservation. Our nationwide capacity means we can handle projects of any size and complexity anywhere in the U.S. We provide a comprehensive suite of archaeological services to meet any compliance need, including geoarchaeology, marine archaeology, historic archaeology, and a variety of laboratory analyses.
We produce results that advance projects and meet scientific and regulatory standards through comprehensive studies, archaeological surveys, full-scale excavations, and thorough analysis of artifacts, sites, and other evidence of the past. SWCA’s archaeological services provide efficient, accurate, and cost-effective data collection using state-of-the-art electronic field equipment, remote sensing devices, and data processing systems. Our full-service archaeological program offers robust modeling applications and geoarchaeological techniques that rapidly and reliably help scope projects and identify cultural resources.
Relevant Services
- Archaeological Surveys
- Archaeological Testing and Data Recovery Investigations
- Cultural Deposit and Site Integrity Interpretations
- Deep Test Excavations
- Desktop Assessments and Predictive Modeling
- Geoarchaeology
- Geomorphology and Micromorphology
- Geophysics
- In-House Laboratory Analysis
- Magnetometry
- Maritime Archaeology
- Mechanical Excavation and GeoProbe Coring
- Probability Monitoring
Geophysics
SWCA’s Geophysics service line specializes in the use of non-invasive methods to help locate and identify features in support of cultural and natural resource management. Our mission is to help clients meet the growing demand for technology-based solutions to effectively manage resources in ways that are both efficient and non-destructive. We specialize in a range of geophysical and geospatial methods for archaeology, historic preservation, cemetery/forensics, and paleontology/geology.
Relevant Services
- Electromagnetic (EM) Conductivity
- GIS Integration and Analysis
- Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR)
- Magnetometry
- Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK GNSS) Mapping
- Resistivity
Historic Preservation
We are trusted partners on our clients’ projects from proposal through completion, resulting in cost-effective, compliant, legally defensible, and innovative solutions. Our nationwide team manages historic compliance and planning projects across federal, state, and local regulatory frameworks, dedicated to delivering comprehensive historic research and insightful analysis.
Our historic preservation experts have a wide range of experience from compliance with Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, to analysis under Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, understanding of unique permitting challenges, and the steps necessary to procure tax incentives for projects. We have experience working with a variety of historic property types including buildings, structures, districts, and landscapes.
Relevant Services
- Archival Research
- Architectural and Landscape Documentation
- Heritage Documentation Program Documentation (HABS, HAER, HALS)
- Historic Contexts
- National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) Nominations
- Preservation Planning
- Preservation Tax Credits
Meet the Experts
Cultural Resources Vice President
Kevin Miller
Kevin is the Client Services Vice President of Cultural Resources and an expert in the archaeology of the Southwest with a background in prehistoric technologies, faunal studies, and trade/exchange systems.
Vice President | Southern California • Pasadena
Heather Gibson
Heather is the Vice President for SWCA’s Southern California and Pacific Islands subregion, which includes our offices in Honolulu, Pasadena, and San Diego. She has over 22 years of experience in archaeology and cultural resources management, and specializes in urban historical archaeology.
Senior Cultural Resources Technical Director
Scott Phillips
Scott is a Senior Technical Director who leads Cultural Resources Management, Regulatory Affairs, and Indigenous Government Relations across SWCA. He has developed his expertise and acumen since entering the field in 1990 and has provided leadership in these areas at SWCA since 2001.
Senior Cultural Resources Technical Director • Fort Collins
Paul Burnett
Paul is the Senior Cultural Resources Technical Director – Field Services for SWCA’s offices nationwide. He has 24 years of archaeological experience, largely across the Great Plains and Intermountain West.
Senior Office Director | San Antonio
Martin Handly
Martin is the Senior Office Director of our San Antonio office. He has more than 30 years of cultural resource management experience with transmission projects and FERC and non-FERC regulated pipeline corridor projects.
Cultural Resources Director
Jonathan Libbon
Jonathan is a Registered Professional Archaeologist with over 16 years of experience. He meets the Secretary of Interior’s qualifications and provides archaeological support for energy, federal, state and local, land development, and transmission projects throughout the Northeast.
Cultural Resources Director
Brent Handley
Brent Handley is a registered professional archaeologist with 31 years of experience in academic research and cultural resource management projects. He is the Cultural Resource Director for the SWCA Southeast Subregion and supervises all phases of cultural resource assessment, including logistical organization, daily field operations, primary and background research, artifact analysis, writing final reports, business development, people development, and financial performance. Previous cultural resource management projects have included cultural resource assessment surveys (CRASs), pipeline and transmission line testing, monitoring, test excavations, block excavations, aboveground historic surveys, remote sensing, and predictive modeling. These surveys have been completed throughout the southeastern United States for the Department of Veterans Affairs; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); U.S. Navy; Army National Guard; National Park Service; U.S. Department of Agriculture (including the U.S. Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service); U.S. Department of Transportation; local, county, and state agencies; private companies; telecommunication companies; and public utility companies.
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Awards • 2018
2018 CTF California Preservation Design Award
The City of San Gabriel Historic Preservation and Cultural Resources Ordinance Update is the winner of a 2018 Preservation Design Award by the California Transportation Foundation. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists.
Awards • 2016
2016 Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Award
The SWCA project team responsible for completing the Trans-Canyon Water Line Documentation Project received a 2016 Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Award at the Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Phoenix. In 1970, Grand Canyon National Park completed a pipeline to transport North Rim water 12.4 miles to the South Rim and its village. Replacement of 50-year-old line segments began in 2015, and SWCA was contracted to document the historical value of the pipeline.
