Larry E. Archibald has spent close to 40 years in roles associated with the oil and gas industry. He is currently a non-executive director at Woodside Petroleum, an Australian-based exploration and production (E&P) company. 

From 2008 to late 2015 he was the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Exploration and Appraisal for ConocoPhillips. Prior to that, he worked in a variety of exploration leadership and commercial roles for BP and Amoco.

Archibald earned a BS in Geology from Colgate University in 1979, an MS in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 1982, and an MBA from Regis College in 1986. Larry joined the Geosciences Advisory Board in 2016.

Lisa Park Boush received her PhD (1995) and MS (1991), from the University of Arizona in Geosciences; Minor: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the Department of Geosciences. She is currently the Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Affairs, College of liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Lisa also is a professor at the University of Connecticut in Professional Development. Her research focuses on questions related to the reconstruction of past climate history and its impact on coastal and large lake ecosystems. The past 19 years she has been working in the Bahamas reconstructing high resolution records of climatological and anthropogenically-driven environmental change for the past 6,000 years. She is also involved in the Lake Tanganyika Drilling Project.

Lisa is a new Advisory Board starting in 2021.

Stacie Gibbins received her MS (2001) and PhD (2006) in Geosciences from the University of Arizona. 

She is currently a Senior Geologist at ExxonMobil Corporation on the Petroleum Systems Analysis Team.

Tekla Harms received her MS (82) from Queens University and her PhD (86) from the University of Arizona. She is currently a Massachusetts Professor in Chemistry and Natural History (geology) at Amherst College. Tekla's teaching and research interests include geodynamics and the evolution of mountain belts and the interactions of plate boundaries in creating those belts.

Tekla has served on the Department of Geosciences Advisory Board since 2018.

Chatelle Lynch

Chief People Officer, The RealReal

Chatelle Lynch has served as our Chief People Officer since December 2023. Previously, Chatelle served as Chief People Officer at McAfee, where she ran the People Office, facilities, and corporate and executive communications. During her tenure, she took McAfee from private to public to private again, including the divestiture of a $4B dollar business to STG, and led a successful $14B sale to PE. Prior to her CPO role, Chatelle held the head of human resources for Intel Security, a separately owned subsidiary of Intel before being fully integrated. She has also held leadership positions at Fluor Corporation, specializing in human resources and compensation. Known for her expertise in producing cutting-edge programs that best meet the needs of diverse business models, Chatelle is instrumental in building and leading organizational design and development for today’s dynamically changing landscape. Native to Australia, Chatelle holds two bachelor’s degrees from Deakin University in Melbourne.

Kit Mars

Co-Founder, CEO, and President, Western Alaska Minerals

Kit Marrs is the Co-Founder, CEO, and President of Western Alaska Minerals, (formerly Western Alaska Copper & Gold). He has more than 25 years’ experience in mineral exploration and development, property evaluation, and project financing in Alaska and Mexico. Mr. Marrs has worked for major mining companies and consulting firms including Anaconda Minerals Company (Anaconda), Kennecott/Bear Creek Mining, Watts Griffis & McQuat, and Penoles, SA de CV. In 1981, he was the project geologist for the Illinois Creek/Round Top Project for Anaconda and directed the exploration program. He has extensive experience in financing, permitting, and implementing real estate development projects and joint venture developments with values of $10-30 million USD. His combined experience in both geologic exploration and development in Alaska, and real estate project financing, permitting and development gives Mr. Marrs a unique set of skills to lead this company. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona, and served from 2005-2021 on the Advisory Board for the University of Arizona’s Department of Geosciences.

Dr. Peter K.M. Megaw
President, IMDEX/Cascabel
Co-Founder MAG Silver and Minaurum Gold
Consulting Exploration Geologist

Mr. Anthony Murer                    Bakersfield, CA

Philip A. Pearthree

Directory and State Geologist, Arizona Geological Survey, University of Arizona

Phil Pearthree is currently Director of the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS). He grew up in the Midwest, graduated from Oberlin College in 1977, and came west to the University of Arizona for graduate school. He gained incredibly valuable geologic expertise and research experience as a graduate student in Geosciences, obtaining his M.S. in 1982 and Ph.D. in 1990. His research focused primarily on geomorphology, Quaternary geology, and active tectonics. He joined the AZGS as a Research Geologist in 1988. There he developed a vigorous program of research, mapping, and investigations in surficial geology, geologic hazards, environmental geology, aggregate resources, and late Cenozoic landscape development and river evolution, assisted by of many excellent UA graduate students and graduates. He assumed the position of Director in late 2016, very soon after the AZGS was reunited with the UA. He helped re-establish base state funding for the AZGS in 2017, guided the integration of the AZGS into the UA, and rebuilt staff capabilities, and fostered renewed growth in research funding working with existing staff and strategic hires while continuing to be involved in geologic mapping and research efforts.

John Pekala received his BS in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 1993 and his MS in Geology (Coastal Sedimentology and Stratigraphy) from the University of South Florida in 1996.

John is an Environmental Remediation Program Manager at Motorola Solutions in Phoenix, AZ. He is a registered Professional Geologist in Arizona and California, with more than 25 years of experience in the environmental field. His work has included implementing contaminated site investigation and remediation programs, hydrogeological evaluations, water quality monitoring, and environmental due diligence and compliance reviews. John has developed and directed community involvement programs, and represented responsible parties in Stakeholder and regulatory agency communications. As Program Manager, he provides leadership and strategic direction for the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site, along with management of Motorola's Global Environmental Remediation and Due Diligence programs. 

John joined the Department of Geosciences Advisory Board in 2011.

Pat Risner

President, South32 Hermosa Inc.

Pat Risner is an industry expert in complex mine project planning and development. He has held executive roles across the United States and Australia including Group Health Safety Environmental Officer for BHP, formerly BHP Billiton, where he had direct accountability to the company’s sustainability committee of the board of directors. As a seasoned leader, Pat brings a wealth of knowledge regarding sustainability, long-term economic development through mining, communities, and Tribal relations to the Hermosa project. He holds a degree in Mining Engineering from Missouri University.

Simone Runyon received her MS and PhD in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

Simone is an economic geologist with expertise in hydrothermal systems. She graduated from the University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences with a PhD in 2017. She was later a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory between 2017-2018 before becoming an Assistant Professor at the University of Wyoming in 2017. She is currently working for Freeport McMoRan in Tucson, since 2022.

Moira Smith received her PhD in Geology from the University of Arizona in 1990 and is a P.Geo. (British Columbia). She has held board or executive positions with numerous industry associations and is past-president of the Society of Economic Geologists and a recent winner of the Colin Spence award from the Association for Mineral Exploration of B.C. Dr. Smith is also a director of Discovery Metals Corp.

Dr. Smith is the VP of Exploration and Geoscience for Liberty Gold Corp, with development properties in Idaho, Utah, and Turkey.

Formerly Chief Geologist, Nevada for Fronteer Gold, Dr. Smith was instrumental in the successful advancement of Long Canyon, now an operating gold mine in Nevada. She developed an understanding of the geology and controls on mineralization at Long Canyon and built the geological model for ongoing exploration and resource growth. Prior to Fronteer Gold, she managed exploration programs for Teck on several high-profile, advanced-stage gold and copper-gold projects (now operating mines) throughout the Americas, including the Pogo gold deposit in Alaska, the Cobre Panama Cu-Mo-Au porphyry deposit in Panama, and the El Limon gold deposit in Mexico.

Kelly West received her MS in Geosciences from the University of Arizona and her PhD in Geology from the University of California at Los Angeles. She has 20 years of experience in developing, implementing and supporting Global Environment Facility and other environmental projects for UN Environment, IUCN, UNDP and the Natural Resources Institute in the UK. Much of her professional work has been linked to the science and management of aquatic systems in East Africa. 

Kelly currently serves as the Deputy Director of the UN Environment Programme Science Division.

Dr. Mark D. Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus at Stanford University, where he was also the Director of the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity and the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage and a Senior Fellow in the Precourt Institute for Energy. Dr. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechanics, and reservoir geomechanics with an emphasis on shale gas, tight gas and tight oil production as well as CO2 sequestration. Dr. Zoback served on the Secretary of Energy Subcommittee on shale gas development and the National Academy of Engineering Committee that investigated the Deepwater Horizon accident. He is the author of two textbooks and the author/co-author of approximately 400 technical papers. His online course, Reservoir Geomechanics, has been completed by over 12,000 people around the world. Dr. Zoback has received a number of awards and honors including election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2011. https://earth.stanford.edu/people/mark-zoback