Ellen Chapman, PHD

Ellen brings deep experience in historic preservation and archaeological cultural resources laws and regulations, with a focus on supporting Tribes, descendant communities, and other stakeholders through complex regulatory processes. She is Secretary of Interior qualified as an archaeologist and as a physical anthropologist.

Since 2016, she has supported CHP attorneys’ work to help clients navigating the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and state and local preservation laws. Ellen supports the CHP legal team in providing analysis and advice to clients to advance their protection of archaeological heritage and obtain meaningful mitigation if sites are lost or damaged. Ellen provides analysis of archaeological and historic preservation regulations; archaeological, architectural, and ethnographic analyses; and consultation histories to advance clients’ participation in federal processes and litigation objectives.

Prior to joining CHP, Ellen worked in archaeological field and lab settings across California, Virginia, Missouri, Nevada, India, and the United Kingdom. She led the 2016 National Park Service’s Urban Archaeology Corps program in Richmond, Virginia, and created Colonial Williamsburg’s first replica of an 18th-century articulated skeleton. Since 2018, she has been part of a multidisciplinary advocacy coalition to protect the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the largest documented burial ground for enslaved and free people of color in the United States. As a member of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists DHR Guidelines Committee, she has worked to improve the robustness of archaeological regulations in Virginia.