Meet the Staff

When you visit the adobe-and-viga shop in beautiful downtown Taos, one of our expert staff will be there to help you find what you need, or to answer questions about the minerals. 

from left to right: Dane, Suni, Annya
Left - Deneen; right, Ellen
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Jesse Kline has been with Taos Rockers since 2011. An avid amateur mineralogist and field collector for over 30 years, Jesse knows more about New Mexico minerals and their geologic occurrence than most university geology professors in that field, and is a total WOW at identifying minerals from hand samples. 
  • Since 2000 he’s specialized in creating exhibits for professional regional- and national-level mineralogical symposiums.
  • He’s an artist, particularly enjoying print-making, drawing and sculpture.
  • Many mineralogical specimens at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology Mineral Museum (Socorro, NM Tech) were collected by Jesse.
  • He’s still an active collector of mineral specimens, and now particularly enjoys mentoring younger collectors who are willing to learn.

"The finest lab for the study of the Earth Sciences is…your own backyard. Take a walk. Be curious." – 

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Martha Sykes has worked at Taos Rockers since 2017, both in the Taos shop and behind the scenes. She produces the weekly email newsletter from Taos Rockers, and keeps the website going including new products and photographs.

Intending to be an English major in college, Martha fell in love with her geology class, and never looked back. She got her BS in Geology with Honors from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1976, and went on to get her MS and PhD in geology from Arizona State University. She found her future home (northern New Mexico) when she spent 6 weeks in Ranchos De Taos for geology field camp in 1975, and later when she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Before returning to New Mexico, Martha acted as a one-woman geology department at Hawaii Pacific University for 9 years, ending her time there as head of research and grants administration.

Along the way, Martha became a level 4 reiki master, a certified Colette Baron-Reid oracle card reader, an apprentice to Heather Ash Amara (of Warrior Goddess fame), and was initiated as an earth keeper by an Andean q'ero in Peru. That brings her full circle back to "earth science."