Judith Ann Bense is an American academic, Florida historical archaeologist, and a former president of the University of West Florida. She is also the chairwoman of the Florida Historical Commission at the University of West Florida, she served as a faculty member and department chair in the anthropology program, which she started at the school. In 2008, she started her 7-year term as president of the university. Prior to this, she was the executive director of anthropology and archaeology at UWF. During her career, she was fundamental in drafting the legislation to create the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN). Early life Bense was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Panama City, Florida, where she lived on her family's dairy farm with both parents and two brothers. By the time she was eight, she knew she wanted to be an archaeologist, a decision heavily influenced by family trips to historical state parks. She attended Panama City's Bay High School and graduated in 1963. Education Bense graduated from Florida State University (FSU) with a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1967. She then went on to receive her master's in anthropology with a focus on archaeology from this institution in 1969. Her Master's thesis research, working with David S. Phelps, focused on a Late Woodland shell ring located in Wakulla County, Florida. After graduated from FSU in 1969, Bense and took a job in cultural resource management working for the Florida Division of Archives, History, and Records Management on the Interstate 10 survey. Later that same year, Bense went on to receive her Ph.D. in anthropology from Washington State University (WSU) in 1972. At WSU, Bense worked with archaeologist Richard Daugherty and her advisor Frank C. Leonhardy. Her dissertation research focused on prehistoric climate change along the lower Snake River. In 1972, Bense graduated and moved back to Florida to help take care of her family in the light of both her parents' deaths, her father in 1967 and mother in 1972. Early career Bense spent the next five years focusing on business endeavors related to her family's north Florida farm. In 1977, she began teaching anthropology and archaeology classes at UWF and taught an archaeology field school at Kings Point site, St. Andrews Bay, Florida. This was the first field school taught by UWF. Next, Bense headed the cultural resource reconnaissance of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on the