Allyson grew up in Chapel Hill, NC. She holds a BA in history and Classics from the University of North Carolina-Asheville (UNCA) and an MA in maritime studies from East Carolina University (ECU), where her research focused on the maritime lanscape of piracy in NC. During her time at UNCA, she attended the Cetamura Field School in Tuscany, Italy, where she fell in love with archaeology. She also interned with the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, gaining experience in collections management, curation, and exhibit design. Following the completion of her MA degree, she worked contract positions at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vermont, the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum in Florida, and ECU.
Allyson has experience working in the fields of terrestrial, maritime, and public archaeology, maritime history, material analysis, and museum education and interpretation. Over the past six years, she has worked in North Carolina, Florida, Vermont, Costa Rica, and the Pacific Islands. Before joining OSA, she worked as an research archaeologist with East Carolina University's Program in Maritime Studies. Her interests include public archaeology, climate change and heritage at risk, North Carolina maritime history, and 18th century maritime history.
Allyson helps monitor Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund Grant projects (recovery funds related to hurricanes Florence and Michael) for compliance to agreement and federal and state standards, and assists in federal reporting. She also helps plan and implement work to identify, document, evaluate, and manage archaeological sites and cemeteries that are at risk of damage from storm events.