UNM Professor Appointed to National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Lynne Sebas­t­ian

Lynne Sebas­t­ian, an adjunct asso­ciate pro­fes­sor in the UNM Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy has been cho­sen to become an Expert Mem­ber of the Advi­sory Coun­cil on His­toric Preser­va­tion (ACHP). She is direc­tor of His­toric Preser­va­tion Pro­grams at SRI Foun­da­tion in addi­tion to her aca­d­e­mic work at UNM.

Sebas­t­ian will receive the oath of office at the ACHP’s next busi­ness meet­ing on March 1 in Wash­ing­ton D.C. The pres­i­den­tial appointed coun­cil gen­er­ally works at the pol­icy level, with most project review being done by staff mem­bers, but the coun­cil some­times becomes involved in review of large or com­plex devel­op­ment projects.

Sebas­t­ian says she hopes to bring to the coun­cil a respect for his­tory bal­anced with a con­sid­er­a­tion for the needs of mod­ern development. Citing major projects such as the pro­posed Key­stone pipeline, she notes that it is very impor­tant to weigh both the ben­e­fits to our com­mu­ni­ties and the coun­try and the impacts on our his­toric and pre­his­toric heritage. Sebastian says she is look­ing for­ward to serv­ing on the coun­cil and hopes she “can make a lit­tle bit of difference.”

Sebas­t­ian works all over the coun­try as part of her posi­tion as an expert on the process of his­toric preservation. Her term of appoint­ment is four years. Sebastian served as the State His­toric Preser­va­tion Offi­cer for New Mex­ico from 1997 to 1999.  She was the Deputy State His­toric Preser­va­tion Offi­cer and the State Archae­ol­o­gist from 1987 to 1997 and is the cur­rent pres­i­dent of the Reg­is­ter of Pro­fes­sional Archae­ol­o­gists. Sebas­t­ian was nom­i­nated for the posi­tion by New Mex­ico Sen­a­tor Tom Udall.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu