An Archaeologist with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Ms. Cota is the Native American Cultural Studies Branch Chief at Caltrans Headquarters. She is passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, environmental justice, and working with Native American tribes. She previously served as Caltrans’ Broadband North Region Native American Coordinator (the first to ever hold this position), where she worked with Native American tribes in Caltrans Districts 1, 2, and 3 to ensure federally and non-federally recognized tribes throughout all 22 counties in northern California are involved in ground-disturbing activities during Broadband construction.

Ms. Cota makes guest appearances on radio broadcasts out of Lake County promoting diversity and women’s issues. She has written extensively on the epidemic of obesity in Native American communities and how it can be attributed to the responses to stressors unique to the culture as well as curated a museum exhibit on the basketry of the United Auburn Indian Community. She is the author of “The Religions of the Lakeport, Kelseyville, and Clear Lake Area and Their Impact on Traditional Native American Religious Practices”, published in the Clear Lake Archaeology Project 2021 Field Report by Foothill College Department of Anthropology. She is a member of the Society for California Archaeology, the Society of Black Archaeologists, the Coalition for Diversity in California Archaeology, and the Cultural Studies Subcommittee to the Native American Advisory Committee.