Stephen Miles Lewis – Founder, President and Board Member

Audio Production Administrator for the Texas State Library Talking Book Program. Past State Section Director for the Travis and Williamson County chapters of the Mutual UFO Network. Web designer and print publisher of E.L.F. Infested Spaces Journal of Possible Paradigms.

Miles served as facilitator for Austin’s UFO Experiencer Support Group for nearly ten years and has spoken to local and national radio / TV / print media. In 1995 he spoke at the national Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness conference on the subject of UFOs as a transformative paradigm. His interests in both the physical and folkloric research of parapsychology and ufology have led to his collecting and archiving of over 3000 books on these and other topics relevant to consciousness research and the founding of the Anomaly Archives, lending library of the Scientific Anomaly Institute.

John Anderson – Board Member 

John grew up in South Dakota and became a passionate sky watcher at an early age. He purchased his first telescope with money earned doing odd jobs when in elementary school and built another telescope in junior high. John has a bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion.

John moved to Austin in 1978 and eventually went to work for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission where he was employed in a variety of positions including Photographic Specialist, Prints and Photographs Archivist, and finally as the Archives Preservation Officer. He retired from the Texas State Archives in 2015 after nearly 37 years of service.

John is a contributing author to two books on the history of photography, and has written and presented extensively on various aspects of photography and archival preservation.  He is an active member of the Society of American Archivists.

Mark Jackson – Board Member

Mark Jackson is a geologist and scientist with an interest in all things anomalous. He was the co-host on the original episodes of Anomaly-NOW! from 2020-2021 and the initial relaunch of the show in 2023. He also served as guest-host on The ParaCast.

 

 

Nyssa Hughes – Board Member

Nyssa Hughes has a passion for travel and adventure. To date she has lived in 6 countries around the world and has visited over 50. One of her goals is to visit 100 countries.

She is an archival researcher and writer, with a strong interest in anomalous subjects and adventure biography. She has given presentations at the Anomaly Archives about the adventurer Frank Buck, and written and co-produced a documentary on William Seabrook and his connection to Zombies in popular culture.

She has long been a supporter of the Anomaly Archives, and has done many behind the scenes activities with nearly all aspects of the organization; like helping at outreach events, crew work with the Anomaly Archives’ Streamathon, and donating time, tech help, and technology to further the goals of the Archive.

Nyssa spent ten glorious years working in various libraries and archives, before switching to technological product development. Using these skills, she worked with the Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies team that won the René Warcollier Prize for Remote Viewing in 2012.

As an award winning artist, she has displayed her inventions at several Maker Faires and once was a runner-up in a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Can art contest.

Advisory Panel Committee Members

Ed Conroy – Advisor & Former Board Member

Ed Conroy is the author of “Report on ‘Communion,’” (Morrow, 1989; Avon, 1990; published as “Informe Comunión” by Reediciones Anómalas, 2020), the result of his investigation into the life and work of Whitley Strieber, author of “Communion: A True Story” (Morrow, 1987) his account of experiences with non-human beings he called his “visitors.” He has reported on UFO investigations and the crop circle phenomenon for “Más Allá de la Ciencia” of Barcelona, Spain. Educated at California Institute of the Art’s School of Critical Studies, the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México and the University of Texas at San Antonio, he was in those years a student at the San Francisco Zen Center and member of an esoteric studies community centered around The Philosopher’s Stone Bookstore, where he became familiar with the literature of anthroposophy and both classical and humanistic astrology. He was also a student of the later Albert Riedel (Frater Albertus) at the Paracelsus College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ed is a former arts reporter and columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. For the past 30 years he has been a student of the Western Hermetic Tradition in the Builders of the Adytum. Since 1998, he has served as Director of Development for Southwest School of Art in his native San Antonio, Texas.

James L. King – Former Board Member & Advisor

Founder of INACS, the Institute for Neuroscience And Consciousness Studies. He is a local realtor and former independent computer consultant. Jim has had a lifelong interest in the study of consciousness. His personal research interests currently focus on mental imagery, neurofeedback, and brain-computer interfaces. He has had a lifelong interest in anomalies associated with consciousness, as well as their implications for understanding physics and the natural world.

Jim received a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Houston in 1972, and has completed 15 graduate level hours in psychology and education. He has fifteen years of experience data processing and computer programming, and has owned his own consulting business. He has also been involved in community voluntees activities, including past and present service on the Boards of Directors of other non-profit organizations. He also works with New Life Institute.

Jeremy Wells – Advisor

Jeremy D. Wells is a Kentucky based writer, editor, researcher and newspaper publisher. Jeremy grew up in rural eastern, Kentucky, within day trip distance of Point Pleasant, WV (home of the fabled Mothman), Peebles, OH (location of the Serpent Mound), and the haunted Moonville train tunnel in Vinton County, OH. He grew up surrounded by stories of these mysteries, black panther sightings, and his grandparent’s haunted house, fueling an early interest in the paranormal. After studying history at Shawnee State University and working as a journalist and editor for various small town newspapers Jeremy’s interest evolved from attempts at proving or disproving strange phenomenon to the history of Forteana, trends across various phenomenon and ages, and the study of why individuals interpret this unknown phenomenon in the manner that they do.

Jeremy currently works as a freelance writer, editor, and training specialist in the video game industry and served as a researcher and field investigator with the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (now NAWAC – North American Wood Ape Conservancy).

Christopher Jahnke –  Archival Technology Advisor

Chris is a Technology Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center. There he serves as Database Administrator and Head of Technology and Digital Services. He’s a “lifelong learner primarily motivated by curiosity and the joy of problem solving… seeking to develop technical skills in pursuit of increasingly complex puzzles to solve.” He’s worked in State government agencies and Software Tech companies such as Topaz Technologies, Blue Moon Software, First American Flood Data Services, and the Texas State Auditor’s Office.

Past Board Members & Advisors

Mike DeGroff – Past Board Member

Austin MUFON – Former State Section Director for Travis and Williamson Counties. Mike is a trained MUFON Field Investigator. Mike was instrumental in the founding of the Anomaly Archives and it’s continued growth.

Ray Hawkins, Ph.D., ABPP (Clinical Psychology) – Past Board Member

Ray is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Nueroscience and Consciousness Studies (INACS). Ray received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, after completing a one-year pre-doctoral internship at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute. From 1975 to 1982 he was an assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he co-edited two books and published several articles on addictive behavior and biofeedback applications. In 1979 he co-founded the Austin Stress Clinic, the first private clinic in Austin to specialize in biofeedback and clinical health psychology.
In 1982, Ray joined the Austin Regional Clinic as a staff psychologist, where he continued his clinical research on addictive behaviors and began new research on the relationship between Jungian personality types, addictive behaviors, chaos theory, and other behavioral health issues, including chronic pain. He is now a core faculty member in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at Fielding Graduate University, and is clinical psychologist at New Life Institute, where he also serves as training clinic director.
Ray is also on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, Psychology Department, as a lecturer and clinical supervisor, and since 1998 he has been an adjunct professor in the Master of Arts Program in Pastoral Ministry at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.
Ray’s current clinical research interests are in individual differences in personality, consciousness, and spirituality.

Bob McGarey – Past Board Member

Robert McGarey is the founder and Executive Director of The Human Potential Center. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. He has been a featured speaker at numerous local and national conferences, and over the years has presented over 500 workshops. He has extensive experience and training in a variety of psychological techniques that promote physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Craig York – Past Board Member

I have been interested in the paranormal generally since discovering Ivan Sanderson’s Investigating the Unexplained when I was still a pre-teen. In the forty and some odd years since, I have amassed a modest library of ghost lore, mainly collections of regional ghost stories, and cryptozoological material. I have sculpted a few “Crypto” subjects, and maintain an active hobby life. In addition to these activities, I am an amateur actor, and have enjoyed a number of successful performances with the local Theater troupe, The Violet Crown Radio Players. Long a passive spectator of paranormal investigation, I hope to take a more active role in the years ahead.

Don Switlick – Past Board Member / Board Member Emeritus

Founder of Austin IONS, the local community group of the Institute Of Noetic Sciences. Don was also active among such local consciousness groups as INACS (as their Director of Education facilitating INACS’ Consciousness Connections series), the Jung Society of Austin, Omega at The Crossings, and with New Life Institute.

Mark Muecke – Past Board Member

Mark is a writer and researcher who lives in Austin. In recent years, he became interested in UFOs, remote viewing and other metaphysical topics, after being skeptical of them for most of his life. He is currently most interested in researching the UFO topic and its broader implications for our society. He attends several UFO conferences each year, and recently began leading the monthly Anomaly Archives meetings.

Mark has a master’s degrees in public policy and journalism from the University of Texas. He has previously worked as a journalist and covered the 80th Texas legislature for the El Paso Times in 2007.

Mark Sebesta – Past Advisor

Mark grew up in Denver, Colorado, and attended the University of Colorado in Boulder,  where he received a BS and MS in Civil Engineering.  In 1993, he moved to The Woodlands, Texas, where he was introduced to the work of Carl Jung at the Jung Center in Houston.  He then moved to Austin in 1999 and served as president of the Jung Society of Austin for four years.  He has been a practicing engineer for 28 years. In 2003, he became interested in politics in the run up to the Iraq war and is currently exploring the connection between politics and consciousness. Sebesta is also a petition signer and volunteer for Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth.