I have dedicated my academic development to the field of physical anthropology because I understand that there is a significant gap between the scientific methods used in biological and forensic anthropology. Each discipline uses different methods for similar samples and results. Moreover, I have always been fascinated by learning about mortuary customs and the societal actions within ancient communities.
I became interested in physical anthropology during my Bachelor of Arts (Honors) at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) where I designed a thesis using human rib samples collected at the Neolithic site, Çatalhöyük. My thesis included the comparison of biometric data and excavation data to investigate the relationship between mortuary practices and micro-diagenetic change in bone. Following a poster presentation at the Western Biological Anthropological Group Conference (2015), the study was published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology (2020).
During my Bachelor's, I worked as the osteological assistant in the UCB Museum of Anthropology for the duration of my degree and maintained a histology research apprenticeship at UCB Archaeobotany Laboratory. During this degree, I attended three mortuary anthropological field schools. These included a course at the Forensic Anthropological Research Facility at Texas State University, the excavation of a Medieval cemetery in Giecz, Poland, and mentorship at and funded by the Center for American Archaeology, Women in Archaeology Scholarship.
Upon graduation, I was employed as a Bio-Archaeologist at the San Francisco archaeological consulting firm, Hollman and Associates, and volunteered with the Anthropology Museum at San Francisco State University. These activities advanced my skills in handling forensic and museum biological specimens, methods of identification, and the histological assessment of bone microstructure.
To further my skills in physical anthropology, I worked as a research scientist in the Centre for Forensic Research (CFR) at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada. Here I designed a study to assess a forensic skeletal sample for micro-diagenetic change, resulting in publication with the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine (2023). During this time, I worked as a teaching assistant in the CFR and as an anthropologist for the SFU Museum of Archaeology, assisting the British Columbia Coroner. Additionally, I was invited to the Anthropology Unit visiting scientist position at the New York City Office of the Medical Examiner to identify individuals recovered from the 9/11 disaster, and with the United Nations Commission on Missing Persons in Cyprus, assisting in the repatriation of human remains from genocide. Most recently, I was employed at the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner where I worked as the Histotechnologist for 3.5 years until I was awarded an UKRI AHRC M4C Scholarship to focus on my research full time.