Professional Interests

Cheryl Martin Collins is an archaeologist and GIS analyst. She primarily works on the Cultural Resources Management Program for the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), managing the project’s GIS datasets, writing reports, preparing maps, doing technical editing, creating site and architectural resource forms, and participating in field work as needed.

Cheryl is DRI’s senior ESRI Account Administrator and also carries out computer mapping and modeling for various scientific projects at DRI using ArcGIS Pro. She formerly taught a course in using GIS for environmental management at Nevada State University.

Most recently, she collaborated with Dr. L.-W. Antony Chen, Associate Professor and Director of UNLV’s Urban Air Quality Laboratory, and other scientists at UNLV on a project for the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD).The primary objective of the study was to develop a time-varying, census-tract-level COVID-19 vaccination barrier index (CVBI) by vaccination type in Clark County, Nevada, following the framework developed by Dr. Lung-Chang Chien, an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at UNLV, and his colleagues. The CVBI integrated multiple community factors, including monthly vaccine accessibilities based on the travel distance from December 2020 to June 2022. Cheryl led a workshop in 2024 for SNHD personnel presenting the GIS procedures used to create maps from various SNHD datasets and provided a training video as a final deliverable.

Cheryl’s archaeological experience primarily covers the nuclear testing and nuclear rocket development periods at the NNSS. She has also worked on archaeological projects elsewhere in southern Nevada, particularly in Nye and Lincoln counties. The focus of her academic research involved stone tool production and use by the Virgin Anasazi at Mt. Trumbull, located in far northwestern Arizona, and the exchange of obsidian between the Virgin Anasazi and other regional groups.

Cheryl served five years as the president of the Archaeo-Nevada Society and was a recipient of a Nevada Historic Preservation Award in 2005. She volunteered as lead archaeologist on a project with Archaeo-Nevada to prepare artifacts excavated from the Elwood B site in Overton, NV, for curation at the Lost City Museum. In addition to volunteer work related to archaeology, she also served as an academic mentor to college students in the Foster Care 2 Success program for several years and currently volunteers for the NV Promise program as a mentor for ten students each fall and spring semesters.

Education

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