Board of Directors
In keeping with George Stuart’s vision, and with many exciting activities under way, the BEARC governance has been expanded to include those who study Ancient America from many backgrounds and disciplines.
Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho, Executive Director
David Stuart, President
Ann Stuart, Property Manager
Jeffrey C. Splitstoser, Vice President
Charles J. Wortman, Treasurer
Dylan Clark, Fundraising and Development
Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho
Executive Director
Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in 2023 and got her Licenciatura from the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (UDLAP). She is a collaborator of the Proyecto Chichen Itza (INAH) and worked on several archaeological projects, including Proyecto de Interacción Política del Centro de Yucatán (PIPCY) (UCR/UM), Proyecto Costa Escondida (PCE) (GSU/UCSD), Proyecto Tepeticpac (INAH), Proyecto Kabah (INAH), among others. Her research focuses on body processing, mainly in the Chichen Itza region, and she taught classes at UDLAP and UCR. She continues learning courses in Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo Sustentable (CIDES) and Universidad la Salle de Cancún. She is also interested in organizing and participating in conversations with local communities and outreach activities. Nelda was the George Stuart Resident Scholar in 2021, sharing the position with Ashuni Romero. Recently, she co-authored the book: When the East Meets West: Chichen Itza, Tula, and the Postclassic Mesoamerican World (BAR, 2023).
David Stuart
President
David Stuart is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 1995, and taught at Harvard University before arriving at UT Austin in 2004, where he now teaches in the Department of Art and Art History. His interests in the traditional cultures of Mesoamerica are wide-ranging, but his primary research focuses on the archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization, and for the past three decades he has been very active in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing. Over the past two decades his major research has centered on the art and epigraphy at Copan (Honduras), Palenque (Mexico), Piedras Negras, La Corona, and San Bartolo (Guatemala). Stuart’s early work on the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs led to a MacArthur Fellowship (1984-1989) and a UNESCO Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in Mexico City in 2012. His books include Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya and The Order of Days. Stuart is currently the director of The Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which fosters multi-disciplinary studies on ancient American art and culture. Photo Credit: Paul Nadler
Ann Stuart
Co-Founder & Property Manager
Ann Stuart, DVM, moved to the Asheville area over 25 years ago after earning and undergraduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill and then the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine followed by a year at the University of Georgia. When her parents, George and Gene Stuart were both planning planning to retire from National Geographic, they were thrilled to purchase the small farm in Barnardsville where Ann's horses lived. They named the property Boundary End, and quickly transitioned the horse barn into what is now the BEARC research library. Ann has always maintained an interest in archeology and very nearly completed an anthropology degree before her love of animals shifted her focus to biology and medicine. With her brother David, she founded Maya Field Workshops where they take groups of travelers into the Maya world for week-long educational adventures. These trips help fund BEARC, provide a great educational opportunity and keep Ann connected to her family legacy. She lives on a farm next to Boundary End and maintains the property for events, continued use by scholars and, of course, a few horses. Photo Credit: Paul Nadler
Jeffrey C. Splitstoser
Vice President
Dr. Jeffrey C. Splitstoser was appointed by George Stuart to serve as Vice President of the Boundary End Center (BEC). Splitstoser and current president, Dr. David Stuart, edit the Center’s two peer-reviewed journals, Ancient America and the Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing. Splitstoser is an Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University. He is also a research associate of the Institute of Andean Studies, Berkeley, and a Cosmos Club scholar. Splitstoser was a Junior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks (2005‒2006). As a specialist in ancient Andean textiles, he is part of the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological project, which is excavating Wari textiles and khipus (see the June 2014 issue of National Geographic Magazine). Splitstoser recently received notoriety as the textile specialist for the Huaca Prieta Archaeological Project, directed by Dr. Tom Dillehay, where he studied 6,200 year old cotton textiles dyed with the world’s earliest known use of indigo. He received his Master’s degree (1999) and Ph.D. (2009) in anthropology from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. His dissertation is a study of the Early Paracas textiles from Cerrillos.
Charles J. Wortman
Treasurer
Charles Wortman was born in Cuba and grew up in Mexico and in Puerto Rico. During his professional career, he has also lived and worked in Venezuela and in Brazil. Charles is an economist by training and, after a career in finance, he has realized that his hidden passion is Maya epigraphy and archaeology. He has sought to address this issue by pursuing an M.A. in Archaeological Studies at Yale University where he is currently enrolled. Charles has travelled extensively throughout the Maya area with his family and more recently, has explored the region with David Stuart via the Maya Field Workshops.
Charles is a member of the Board, and Treasurer of, the Ballet Hispánico, a premier dance company that brings communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures as well as of the Institute of the Americas, a non-profit institution based in la Jolla dedicated to encouraging economic and social reforms in Latin America. In addition to learning Maya glyphs Charles is also working on improving his Chinese calligraphy.
Dylan Clark
Fundraising and Development
Dylan Clark is the Deputy State Archaeologist (Land) for North Carolina's Office of State Archaeology. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University in 2016, and his dissertation research explored the social organization and history of a Maya coastal port community through household archaeology at the island site of Isla Cerritos in Yucatan, Mexico. He also earned an MA in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from Western Michigan University. In addition to Mesoamerican and Southeastern archaeology, his research also focuses on public and collaborative archaeology, museum studies, and heritage studies. Prior to his current position, Dylan served as program director for InHerit: Indigenous Heritage Passed to Present, a non-profit program in the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at UNC-Chapel Hill that supports community-based cultural heritage education programs in the U.S. and Latin America. In 2016-17, he taught courses at UNC-Asheville and Brevard College and was a George Stuart Residential Scholar at BEARC. He now serves on the fundraising and collections committees for BEARC’s Board of Directors.
