We exist so that no anthropologist has to guess what a hiring committee or a promotion review actually wants from the work they have already done.
The practice began in a department hallway, reading a friend's job letter the night before a deadline. More than 15 years later, that same reading is a full coaching practice.
Every client arrives with a record worth defending. Our work is to make that record legible to the people holding the decision.
Will Meyer, PhD, RPA
Your Anthropology Career Coach
Will is an anthropologist and archaeologist with a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation explored how people dwelt with the Bronze and Iron Age tombs of southern Burgundy. He has worked as a field archaeologist, ethnographer, and teacher across the United States and France, including Cultural Resource Management work with Kittatinny Archaeological Research and the Cultural Resources Division at Ft. Drum, NY.
Will has moved through nearly every stage of an academic career: teaching assistant and graduate fellow, post-doctoral scholar, research assistant professor, adjunct instructor, assistant professor, department chair, and now tenured associate professor and Chair of the Anthropology/Archaeology department at Mercyhurst University. Between 2016 and 2021, he served as the Professional Development Coordinator for Villa Maria College, reviewing colleagues' portfolios for promotion and guiding their continued development as educators and scholars.
That range is what Will brings to coaching. He has been on both sides of the table, as a candidate and as a committee member, and knows how to make a record of research, teaching, and service legible to the people making the decision. He has sat on graduate search committees, hired and mentored field researchers, and served on numerous faculty search committees, some of which he has led.
Background at a glance
- PhD in Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2012); BS in Anthropology, magna cum laude with Honors, Mercyhurst University.
- Chair of Anthropology/Archaeology at Mercyhurst University, and former Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences at Villa Maria College, where he also served as Professional Development Coordinator.
- Associate Professor of Anthropology/Archaeology at Mercyhurst University, with tenure awarded in 2026.
- Record of archaeological and ethnographic research in the United States and France.
- Institutional Review Board member, faculty search committee member and chair, and curriculum committee member for the Society for American Archaeology.
- Fulbright IIE Advanced Studentship (2009–2010) and Registered Professional Archaeologist.