S.R. Ferrara, MA RPA, was born and raised in Massapequa, New York. He served two full combat deployments to the Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as a USMC infantry rifleman. After his honorable discharge, he promptly enrolled in college courses under the GI Bill with a need to understand culture and society. Ferrara is a trained archaeobotanist and currently teaches courses at Queens College while he pursues his PhD in anthropological archaeology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.