He received his masters and doctoral degrees from the Department of Anthropology at Syracuse University and has an undergraduate degree in photojournalism from the University of Maryland. For his masters thesis, he conducted excavations at a boarding house on the grounds of what is now the Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum. For his doctoral dissertation he conducted archaeological fieldwork at the site of Fort Haldimand in Jefferson County, New York, a British fortification dating to the American Revolution. The goal was to examine the provisions available to soldiers on the frontier during the war.