David Robinson spoke about collaborating with indigenous community groups in his position as Director of the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

David Robinson is the Director and Chief Archaeologist for the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR). Prior to entering public service in the Massachusetts State government in 2019, he was president of the Rhode Island-based submerged cultural resource management consulting firm, David S. Robinson & Associates, Inc., and a marine archaeologist at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.  Over the course of his 29-year career, David has specialized in multi-disciplinary marine archaeological investigations of submerged shipwrecks, coastal infrastructure, and ancient cultural sites submerged by sea level rise. He has worked extensively with federal and state agencies, Tribes, industry, museums, and academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. David is currently serving as a member of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s Maritime Heritage Working Group (2020-present). He served as the Sanctuary's first-ever maritime heritage representative on its Sanctuary Advisory Council between 2008-2014, and was appointed to and served as the cultural resources representative on the U.S. National Marine Protected Areas Program’s Federal Advisory Committee from 2017-2019. He is the 2019 recipient of the Tomaquag Museum’s Eva Butler Scholar Award recognizing his nearly two decades of collaborative marine archaeological work with southern New England’s Indigenous communities. He holds an M.A. in anthropology (nautical archaeology) from Texas A&M University (1999), and a B.A. in anthropology and art (double major) from the University of Rhode Island (1990).