2022 Spring Class
Dayan Weller grew up in the Monterey Bay area, where he developed an interest in the ocean and maritime history at an early age. He attended Cabrillo College, where he decided to pursue archaeology as a career and eventually enrolled in the 2014 field school on Santa Rosa Island & in Nipomo, CA and began working in CRM shortly after. He transferred to UC Santa Cruz where he graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology in 2018, and continued to work on CRM projects until moving to Greenville, NC to begin the Maritime Studies graduate program at ECU. His primary research interest is commercial whaling, and ultimately he hopes to work on the history of the shore whaling industry in central California.
Raymond Phipps is originally from Dallas, Texas but has lived throughout the Southeastern United States. After serving six years in the United States Army, he attended and graduated from Georgia Southern University with his Bachelors in History and a minor in Anthropology. He is currently a first-year graduate student in East Carolina University’s Maritime Studies Program. His research interests focus on adaptations made to maritime vessels over their service life, emphasizing on analyzing the technological, economic, cultural, political, and institutional influences for these modifications.
Logan Willis is a first-year graduate student in the Maritime Studies program at ECU and a member of the North Carolina Army National Guard. She recently completed her BA in history and minored in coastal and marine studies at ECU. While earning her undergraduate degree she was one of the first to attend the Coastal Studies Institute for a semester. It was there that she studied and became passionate about accelerated sea level rise and its negative impact on the underwater cultural heritage in the Cape Hatteras region. Her research interests lie in military history, cultural impacts from U-boat activity on the North Carolina coast, WWII, and the preservation of shipwrecks. Logan hopes to combine her passion for scuba diving and History to enhance her understanding of material culture along with battlefield archaeology to reveal answers left submerged in the past.
Daniel Masters, (Master Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, retired) is originally from Long Beach, CA, but lived in a couple of other states and Argentina while growing up. During 4 years in the Marine Corps Reserve, and 28 years in the regular Marine Corps, Dan participated in numerous combat, humanitarian, and training missions around the world and served as a drill instructor at Parris Island and Officer Candidate School. He also spent more than two and a half years on US Navy amphibious ships, visiting or serving on every continent except Antarctica, and most of the world’s seas and oceans. His childhood love of the ocean, ships, and boats was reinforced by his experiences on all types of US Navy landing craft and Marine Corps riverine and assault craft. After three years studying Business Administration at an out-of-state university, Dan transferred to ECU as a senior to study Atlantic and Maritime History and Coastal and Marine Resources. His plans after graduation include joining the Maritime Archaeology program as a graduate student, traveling a lot more, and English bulldogs. In warmer weather, he occupies himself with camping, kayaking, and traveling abroad.
Kedrik Eddlemon was born in Oklahoma and raised in NC. Got his Associates in Arts from Wayne Community College, and is working currently on his bachelor’s and he’s on the last semester at ECU for a Public History Major and he’s already completed his requirements for a minor in Psychology. He had the privilege to have his elementary years in Japan and that helped him formulate a strong appreciation for leaning about the history and culture of both East Asian and Southeast Asians. That and being a part of a Thai family has helped with the curiosity of wanting to learn about their cultural foundations. His goal is to work as an archivist.