Charlie Leedecker
Charlie Leedecker has been a member of the ART Board since 2021, serving as Secretary (2023–2025) and Chairman (2026–2027). After retiring as a professional archaeologist, he continued to pursue his passion for archaeology by volunteering on public archaeology projects and archaeological field schools. He relocated from the DC area to Columbia in 2018 where he is active in local development issues and now serves on the city’s Historic Preservation Review board. He is the founding donor of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s Scholarship Program which provides financial assistance for field school and dissertation research.
Chester DePratter
Dr. Chester DePratter was an archaeologist at SCIAA for nearly 40 years and is now a Professor Emeritus at USC. His primary research interests are the routes of sixteenth-century Spanish explorers across the Southeastern United States; the site of the Spanish colonial capital, Santa Elena; Civil War prisons for Union officers in Columbia, South Carolina; Native American shell rings on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts; and the search for remains of French and Spanish shipwrecks on the South Carolina coast. He has worked with the ART Board over the past 35 years and was elected Vice Chairman in 2025.
Lee G. Brockington
Lee G. Brockington is a History Consultant with a special interest in the interpretation of archaeology, natural history, African American and women’s history. Former director of interpretation at Hobcaw Barony, curator of education at Historic Columbia and advisor to SCETV productions, Brockington has been active on the boards of ART, Friends of Charleston National Parks, SC Federation of Museums, and Friends of the Waccamaw Library. A resident of Pawleys Island, she is the co-author of five books on Georgetown area history. She joined the ART Board in 2022 and is presently serving as Secretary (2025-2026).
Randy Akers
Randy Akers, Columbia, is retired after serving 37 years as Executive Director of the South Carolina Humanities Council. He also served as an Instructor in the Department of Religious Studies for 26 years at USC. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Northwestern University. He participated in ten dig seasons in Israel at Roman period biblical sites. He maintained close contact with SCIAA throughout his humanities career. He joined the ART board in 2025.
John Allison
John Allison is a founding partner of the investment management firm Allison Investment Management, LLC. He is a South Carolina native, graduate of Wofford College, and has lived in Columbia for 27 years. In addition to his service on the ART board, he is Vice Chairman of the South Carolina American Revolution Trust and a founding member of the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution (SCAR) Roundtable. He has identified more lost Revolutionary War battlefields in the Carolinas than anyone else. In 2023 he was named the Distinguished Archaeologist of the Year by the Archaeological Society of South Carolina.
Jo Baker
Jo Baker obtained graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of South Carolina. She retired after a long career in education, health care, infectious disease management and biotechnology. Growing up in a military family, she lived in many places in the U.S. and Europe before settling in Pawleys Island where she has been a long-time resident. Her early years in Oklahoma sparked a keen interest in Native American cultures and she has been an active ART board member since 2011.
Robert Benedict
Robert Benedict is a Professor of Practice Emeritus and current part-time Lecturer at Clemson University. He formerly directed Clemson University’s Master of Real Estate Development program and has been at Clemson since 2006 and also taught in the City and Regional Planning Program. Before joining Clemson, he taught Preservation Economics at the University of Georgia and was active in real estate development. He previously served as a member of Greenville’s Design Review Board and as president of the Greenville County Historical Society. He first joined the ART board in the early 2000s and rejoined in 2022.
Julian Burns
Julian Burns joined the ART board in 2025, bringing a wealth of expertise in the Revolutionary War commemoration. He was commissioned in Armor from West Point, with an MS from the University of Southern California. He commanded from Cavalry Platoon through Joint Task Force in Israel and Korea. Since leaving active duty, he was Vice President of two major defense corporations in combat systems. He served as a board member for defense-related startups and for the War College, Infantry, and Armor Museums. A resident of Camden, he doubles as a farmer in Kershaw County and is an author and speaker.
Charles Epps (Charlie) Ipock
Charles Epps (Charlie) Ipock was born in Charleston and raised in Charlotte, thereafter attending NC State University for his undergraduate studies and completing studies at St. Mary’s University School of Law, serving as Editor in Chief of the school’s flagship law review. After practicing law for a decade, he enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, completing his master’s degree in Christian Ministry. He practices law as a Shareholder at Haynesworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. and is the Pastor of Concord Community Bible Church. Principally he manages his family-owned plantation that dates to 1802 which serves as the catalyst toward his archeological interests.
Lindsay Crawford III
Lindsay Crawford III earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina. After admission to the South Carolina Bar in 1986 he has been practicing law for 40 years. He is now an attorney with Crawford & Von Keller LLC in Columbia. His interest in South Carolina’s heritage was passed down from his father who was an avid reader of history. In recognition of his two decades of service on the ART board, he was granted Emeritus status several years ago and has recently returned to more active status.
Larry Koolkin
Larry Koolkin is a retired tech entrepreneur who after a decade in academic computing ( BU, Univ. of Texas, Norwich Univ., MIT) has successfully launched and managed a half dozen companies in the US, Bermuda, Prague, and the Cloud. Post retirement led to a graduate degree in Museum Studies, and new career - managing museum exhibitions - at Boston’s Museum of Science, Vermont’s Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, The Beaufort History Museum, and The Santa Elena History Center. For well over a decade, he has also operated a nautical and history themed online bookstore. He joined the ART board in 2022.
Nena Powell Rice
Nena Powell Rice is a professional archaeologist with a BA in Anthropology from SMU and a MA in Anthropology from the University of Denver. Nena has worked in the American west including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska for 12 years, and worked at the SCIAA for over 40 years where she remains a Research Affiliate after retirement in 2018. Nena has served on the Archaeological Research Trust since its establishment in 1992 and served as Secretary until 2024. Nena also served as the Editor of Legacy from 1992 until 2024.
Stu Rodman
Stu Rodman joined the ART Board in 2026. He is a Founder of the Santa Elena Foundation to recount the Spanish history in Beaufort County that dates to 1565. Santa Elena was the first successful European settlement and Capital in present day America. Stu is on the Beaufort County 250th Commission which is working to establish the Port Royal Island Battlefield from the Revolution. He also serves on the Board of the Honey Hill Foundation which is developing this Civil War Battlefield. Married for 60 years, Stu and Nina reside in Hilton Head and have two children and four grandchildren.
Drew Ruddy
Drew Ruddy has been a member of the ART board since 2022 and has served one term as Vice Chairman. As a former US Navy and commercial diver, he has been involved with and worked directly on underwater historic sites in South Carolina since 1967. He is active with the South Carolina Artifact Documentation Project which records and photographs artifacts maintained in private collections. He also conducts oral history interviews with private collectors to record information about sites and the stories of the collectors. He is a resident of Moncks Corner.
Robert S. Seigler, M.D.
Robert S. Seigler, M.D., is a native of Columbia, South Carolina. He was class valedictorian at Hammond School (1973), graduated from the Honors College at the University of South Carolina (1977), and earned his MD degree from the Medical University of South Carolina (1982). Seigler was the Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Greenville before retiring as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in 2022. He received the Order of the Palmetto in 2008 and is the author of 12 books and many professional and avocational journal articles. He has been on the ART Board since 2022.
Walter Wilkinson
Walter Wilkinson has had a lifelong interest in South Carolina history and joined the ART board as a way to be involved and contribute to SCIAA’s ongoing research. He has been a member of the ART board since 2004 and served as Chairman from 2023-2025. He was raised in Florence and traveled Europe and the United States extensively before pursuing a career in waterfront real estate development on the coast of South Carolina. Now based in Pawleys Island, he likes to tell his friends, “we have the dirt on everybody.”
Ex Officio Members
Chris Judge
In May 2026 Chris Judge began serving as the State Archaeologist of South Carolina at the SCIAA at USC Columbia. As State Archaeologist he is an ex officio ART board member. From 1990 to 2006 he was an archaeologist for SCDNR. From 2006 to 2026, he was Assistant Director of Native American Studies at USC Lancaster and was an Instructor and Senior Instructor of Anthropology. Chris earned BA and MA degrees in Anthropology from USC Columbia. He has studied Native American archaeology in South Carolina for almost 40 years, with special interest in the Late Precontact and Early Historic periods.
Adam King
Dr. Adam King is a Research Associate Professor in the Research Division of SCIAA. As Director of SCIAA, he is an ex officio member of the ART board. Specializing in the archaeology of the late prehistoric period, his research focuses on Mississippian period societies in the Deep South. He is currently pursuing projects in the Etowah River Valley of northwestern Georgia and the middle Savannah River Valley on the Georgia-South Carolina border, with particular attention to mortuary patterns, Mississippian art and iconography and town layouts and settlement distributions.
Gabrielle Purcell
Gabrielle Purcell is currently the Program Head of the Research Division at SCIAA and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina. She joined the ART Board as an ex officio member in 2026. Her primary research interest is the foodways of Native peoples in the southeastern United States. She specializes in paleoethnobotany and works collaboratively with living Native American populations to understand past foodways. Her research involves the analysis of archaeological plant material from Colonial-era Native American sites to understand how Native peoples chose to incorporate European-introduced foods into their cuisine and agricultural practices.