Archaeobotanist
Gail has over 35 years of experience in identification of charred and uncharred wood samples found in archaeological contexts. In a field she helped pioneer, she set up the very first Wood Identification Laboratory (WIDL) in the Pacific Basin region, which curates a reference wood collection from several Pacific island groups including the Hawaiian Islands. Her understanding of ecological associations in Hawaiian vegetation has been applied toward environmental reconstruction at Kaho‘olawe and other Pacific islands. In her capacity as the WIDL Manager and Archaeobotanist, Gail is responsible for the analysis of samples and the completion of technical reports for numerous Cultural Resource Management firms operating in Hawai‘i and Micronesia, which resulted in the identification of woods from various Pacific islands, including Guam, Sāmoa, Palau, and the Hawaiian Islands.