Dr. Butler received her B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Georgia, and her Masters (Anthropology) and Ph.D. (interdisciplinary studies) at the University of Washington. Virginia joined the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University in 1994. Her main research is in zooarchaeology (the study of animal remains found in archaeological sites) and is particularly interested in the role of fish in past human societies. Over the last 15 years, working on her own and in colloboration with others, she's studied fish remains from sites throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Great Basin of Nevada and California, and Oceania. Virginia's research falls in these main areas: taphonomy (the processes that control the deposition and preservation of animal remains), evolutionary ecology, applying ancient bone records to contemporary issues in conservation biology and public outreach.