Alumni
Note to alumni:
- To update or add an entry on this page, email the department chair or coordinator.
- To send an alumni update to the university, use the form linked here.
- MA students: Contact the department chair or coordinator if you would like to be added or removed from the alumni group email.
Below are some of our many Masters (MA) and Bachelors (BA/BS) student alumni - we are proud of you!
Class of 2020-2029
| Sarah Brewer, MA Research Interests: Cultural resource management, cultural landscapes, prehistory and early colonization of the central coast of California |
| Brandy Clark, MA Research Interests: Cultural resource management, traditional ecological knowledge, land management policy. MA Thesis Title: Dendroanthropological applications in adaptive management: a multi-methodical approach for interpreting cultural landscape change at MVS-YEE-SE’-NE |
| Keduescha Colegrove, MA Research Interests: Cultural resource management; heritage preservation; preservation planning utilizing traditional values |
| Amy Deuink, MA Research Interests: Ethnography; libraries; user experience; critical information literacy; higher education; 21st century libraries |
| Tina Fulton, MA Research Interests: Coordination with Native American tribes; California coastal archaeology, worked bone artifacts, faunal bone analysis, GIS, and botany. |
| Michelle Hart, MA Research Interests: Great Basin and California archaeology, hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies and environmental adaptations in arid environments, traditional ecological knowledge, landscape archaeology, GIS, cultural resource management, historic preservation, Mojave and Colorado Desert region |
| Liz Hodges, MA Research Interests: Archaeology of the Northwest Coast and California, cultural resource management, traditional ecological knowledge, GIS. |
| Emily Koss, MA Research Interests: Evolution of religion; hunter-gatherer religion; cultural and behavioral ecology; primate cognition |
| Melvin Lee, MA Research Interests: Mass Incarceration; re-entry; globalism; structural violence; conflict; peace building; colonialism; white supremacy; self-care; epigenetics and inequality. |
| Berlin Loa, MA Research Interests: Diaspora and immigrant communities, cultural memory and material artifacts, museum collections, transnational narratives (diaspora and exile), border culture, displacement and sovereignty, urban immigrant culture, literary anthropology, literature and imagery as cultural memory, folklore and storytelling, oral traditions. MA Thesis Title: Counter archives: Unfolding hidden stories |
| Jarrett Lowery, MA Research Interests: American West expansion and settlement, North American protohistoric period, cultural syncretism, and hunter-gatherer adaptations in California, Oregon, and the Great Basin. |
| Justin Martinez, MA Research Interests: Archaeology, cultural resources management, historical preservation, park resources, digital and virtual archaeology |
| Laurelyn Memmott, MA Research Interests: Mesoamerican archaeology; conflict archaeology; trade; geoarchaeology; lithics |
| Courtney Montgomery, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology, human osteology, pathology, trauma analysis, skeletal identification, bio-archaeology, Viking studies. |
| Stanton Morse, MA Research Interests: Last Glacial Maximum distributions and peopling of the Americas; Incipient agriculture and surplus; Mesoamerican Archaeology; Olmec art and architecture; Lowland Maya settlement patterns; Epigraphy; War, conflict, and society; Native American Belief Systems; Maritime archaeology; Cultural Resource Management; Geographic Information Systems. |
| Jordyn Neely, MA Research Interests: Archaeology, CRM, Lithics, Paleo-Indian/ Archaic archaeology, Peopling of the Americas, Land Use & Migration, Bioarcheology, Evolutionary Psychology, Feminism & Gender Inequality, Gender Equality in cultural sub-groups, Rural Culture, the San Luis Valley (of Southern Colorado), the Anthropology of Modern Agriculture. MA Thesis Title: Who farms the future? Producing the next generation of agriculturalists |
| Jenna Nelson, MA Research Interests: Bioarchaeology; health; nutrition; diet; human osteology |
| Mindi Nguyen, MA Research Interests: Socio-cultural anthropology, implicit bias, public health, medical anthropology, globalization |
| Gabriella N. Oglietti, MA Research Interests: Archaeology; remote sensing; GIS; cultural resource management; settlement patterns; preservation. |
| Jacqulyn Scheer, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology; trauma; pathology; bone nutrition and health; taphonomy; forensics education, outreach, and research institutes. MA Thesis Title: Analyzing lower extremity injury profiles of pedestrian traffic fatalities according to vehicle type. |
| Dana Taggart, MA Research Interests: Archaeology, marine/underwater archaeology, bioarchaeology, osteology, mythology & folklore, cultural resource management, and methodology as effected by climate change. |
| Walter A. Tovar Saldaña, MA Research Interests: Holistic anthropology, biocultural anthropology, human behavioral ecology, water management, public anthropology, anthropological pedagogy, anthropology of violence, underwater archaeology, computational archaeology, culture resource management, archaeology, Mesoamerica. |
| Jordan Walsh, MA Research Interests: Community Organization; Social justice; Educational Anthropology; Consumerism and waste management; Folklore |
| Kaya Wiggins, MA Research Interests: Cultural resources management; archaeology of the Central Coast of California; prehistory; protohistoric period; Chumash culture; Salinan culture; Olivella (Callianax biplicata) shell bead economies and classification; colonization of California by Native peoples. MA Thesis Title: A place of small canoes: An archaeological investigation of Cayucos, California |
| Dorota Zabnicka, MA Research Interests: Biological anthropology; forensic anthropology; identification of subadults; facial reconstruction; development and nutrition; osteological growth, and pathologies. MA Thesis Title: Assessing methods for estimating biological sex from subadult skeletal elements. |
Class of 2010 -2019
| Mele'ana K. 'Akolo, MA MA Thesis Title: A feminist interpretation of women's work with Koloa in the Tongan community |
| Mark Arsenault, MA, RPA Research Interests: Historical archaeology, cultural resource management. MA Thesis Title: Social drug consumption in the New River Mining District. After Graduation: RPA Cerfified Archaeologist, working in CRM. |
| E Safiya Bal, BA After Graduation: “I’ve been working as a substitute teacher for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District since December 2011. As of April 2012 I was hired on as field technician for Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. -based in Davis, CA. The project is in Vacaville, CA.” |
| Laura Benne, MA Research Interests: Global gender inequality; advocacy; ethnography; ecological sustainability; Rwanda MA Thesis Title: The 2016 Election: Conservative Female Voters Agentive, Adversarial and Resolutely Republican |
| Kathleen Bromley, MA Research Interests: Applied Linguistics, multimodal anthropology, and landscape archaeology. MA Thesis Title: Levee Stories for an Expedited Reconnaissance Study. After Graduation: "My husband and I are raising our son in Traverse City, Michigan. I am pursuing a Ph.D. from Michigan Technological University in Industrial Heritage/ Archaeology- Vernacular Architecture. Working for the USDA, I was able to participate in a project using the Rural Energy Saving Program (RESP) for two national infrastructure projects for the State of Michigan. The RESP provided a combination of federally funded grants & loans, which allowed for the successful running of fiber-optic cable to the Traverse Region and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to begin." |
| Kate Catanese, BA After Graduation: “After graduating, I worked for six months as a research assistant on a project through Tulane University concerning the reproductive strategies of male capuchin monkeys. Although it was an amazing and life-changing experience, I came out of it knowing that I would much rather work with people than primates, and am currently seeking admission to Humboldt’s elementary education program.” |
| Alexandra Cox, MA Research Interests: Archaeology, museum studies, medieval studies. MA Thesis Title: Stability for a Small Historic House Museum: Drafting a Collection Management Policy for the Trinidad Museum |
| Paloma Cuello del Pozo, MA Research Interests: Archaeology, island settlement, and ecology; isotopic signatures and ancient migration patterns. MA Thesis Title: Intra-insular mobility and ancient human adaptations to restricted environments. Case study: The use of strontium isotope analysis in the archaeology of Lanzarote, Canary Islands. After Graduation: Working on Ph.D. in Anthropology at Texas A&M University. |
| Manisha Davesar, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology; trauma, decomposition; pathology; forensic identification; social contexts. |
| Ariel Eastburn McCormick, MA Research Interests: Medical anthropology; maternal, child and adolescent health care; reproductive justice After Graduation: Research Coordinator at UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment; Community doula |
| Edward Fernandez, MA Research Interests: Policy; city planning; resource distribution; economic/social inequality; community development; food justice/sovereignty. MA Thesis Title: Banking for the future: An ethnographic study on the local food bank, its role on food justice, and patron perception |
| Ariel Fishkin, MA MA Thesis Title: Fighting rape culture at Cal Poly Humboldt: challenges and growth in student activism |
| Megan Funck, MA Research Interests: Ethnography; anthropology of travel and tourism; development; globalization; cultures and languages of South Asia |
| Katherine Gaddis, MA Research Interests: Bioarchaeology; evolutionary medicine; paleopathology; epidemiology; zooarchaeology MA Thesis Title: Stress and frailty in Medieval Prussia: Interpretations from skeletal remains at Bezławki. After Graduation: Working on Ph.D. and UNLV. Instructor, Bełzawki Bioarchaeology Field Program. |
| Jacqueline Heinzen, MA Research Interests: Nationalism, state-sanctioned violence, globalization, labor, community development. MA Thesis Title: Transformation in three American orchestras: an analysis of labor, agency, and change After Graduation: "She has started work as a User Experience Researcher with Binary Defense, a cybersecurity firm based out of Hudson, Ohio. It’s her first full-time job where she was hired specifically to apply her research skills as an anthropologist!" |
| Jennifer Humphreys, BA After Graduation: ““I am currently earning my M.S. in Primate Behavior at Central Washington University, specializing in molecular primatology. Soon I will be heading to the forests Suriname to study gene flow through conservation corridors.” |
| Corinna Irwin, MA Research Interests: Medical anthropology, sexual and reproductive health, US/Mexico border studies, social determinants of health, structural competency, Latin American studies, global feminism. MA Thesis Title: Equal access, knowledge, and empowerment: promoting inclusion in sex education and reproductive health care for Humboldt County's Spanish speaking population. |
| Mia Kennel, BA After Graduation: "Started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies. Kennel is in the the graduate Environmental Conservation program, widely considered the best program of it’s type in the United States." |
| Wesley Korpela, BA After Graduation: “Pursing a career in maritime archaeology.” |
| Nora Mounce, MA Research Interests: Food culture, medical anthropology, consumer habits, community health, rural studies. MA Thesis Title: Words to Cook By: Changing Meanings of Eating Local in Humboldt County After Graduation: Teaching Anthropology at College of the Redwoods |
| Kristen Nawn, MA Research interests: Forensic anthropology; forensic taphonomy; skeletal identification and trauma analysis, applications of Human Remains Detection Dogs in forensic contexts MA Thesis title: Sniffing out Decomposition: Investigating the Reliability of Human Remains Detection Dogs |
| Diana Newberry, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology; osteology; isotope analysis; human rights; identification of remains; trauma analysis MA Thesis Title: United States-Mexico Border: Rights of the dead, forensic anthropologists, and families of the victims. After Graduation: Teaching Anthropology |
| Alexandra McGee, BA After Graduation: “I’ve transformed from a Humboldt Lumberjack to a Berkeley Bear. I have just started my first semester of graduate school as a Latin American Studies masters student. My last semester at Humboldt, I took an engineering course with Lonny Grafman which got me really excited about small-scale energy projects, particularly how they relate to community participation, rural development, energy independence and environmental sustainability. At the same time, I’ve put my anthropology skills to use, moving into a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery to live with a high lama. I’d love to hear from you. If you want to know more about my adventures, check out my blog: throughaliseyes-chapterthree.blogspot.com” |
| May Patiño, MA Research Interests: Evolutionary medicine, nutritional epidemiology, dietary ecology. MA Thesis Title: What does it mean to go Paleo? An exploration of the ancestral diet movement. After Graduation: Coordinator of Humboldt Food Policy Council and Lecturer in Anthropology at Humboldt. |
| Jessica Peters, BA After Graduation: Jessica Peters interned at the American Embassy in Paris. While there Peters was accepted into UCLA’s Anthropology PhD program, and received her M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2012 and her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology in 2015. During this time Peters also presented research at the AAAs and at the Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities (organized by the University of West Georgia). |
| Erin Pinkston, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology, juvenile stature and body mass calculation, facial reconstruction MA Thesis Title: Juvenile remains: Predicting body mass and stature in modern American populations. After Graduation: Working on Ph.D. in Anthropology at SUNY Buffalo.. |
| Kristyna Pfluger, MA Research Interests: Forensic anthropology, forensic odontology, and human osteology. Learn more about Kristyna's research on CSU Voices and Views. MA Thesis Title: The effects of heat on δ13C and δ18O ratios in dental enamel: Implications for forensic anthropology. |
| Carrisa (Carrie) Pritchard, MA, RPA Research Interests: Cultural resource management, applied archaeology, global heritage management, bioarchaeology, human osteology, migration studies, biodistance, stable isotopes, DNA. Regional Interests: Europe, North Africa, California, the Great Basin. MA Thesis Title: Assessing craniofacial variation and sexual dimorphism in a skeletal sample from Medieval Prussia. After Graduation: Cultural Resource Program Manager, the Great Basin Institute |
| Samantha Reid, MA Research Interests: Indigenous food sovereignty; evolutionary medicine; South African culture; social & environmental justice; decolonization strategies of colonized nations; advocacy. |
| Spencer Ruelos, BA After Graduation: "After graduating from Humboldt Spencer Ruelos, Anthropology, Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, 2013, went on to receive his Masters in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University. There he wrote a master’s thesis titled: “EveryoneGames: Exploring Queer Gamer Identity and Community,” where he examined the worldmaking practices of LGBTQ gamers in digital and physical spaces. While at SFSU, Spencer received the prestigious CSU Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. He is currently continuing his studies of queerness, video games, and technology as a PhD student in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine." |
| Kate Ruprecht, MA Research Interests: Museum education and curriculum development; multicultural and global education. MA Thesis Title: Examining veiled muslim women's experiences in educational institutions in France and the United States and decolonizing the curriculum to reflect their stories After Graduation: Taught at the University of Valenciennes. Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award for the 2018-2019 school year in Romania. |
| Hope Schear, MA Research Interests: Archaeology (historical, Viking/Celtic, Andean); cultural resources management; geographic information systems MA Thesis Title: The historical evaluation and significance of the Old Joerger ranch, Martis Valley, California After Graduation: Archaeologist for the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District |
| Isadora Sharon, MA Research Interests: Unregulated development in rural communities, Ifugao Philippines, Tourism, Religion, Post-colonialism, social justice and advocacy. MA Thesis Title: Countering a colonial fantasy of Filipinos highlanders: Ethnic versus ethical tourism After Graduation: Working full time in advocacy and research. Teaching anthropology |
| Grant Skoglund, MA MA Thesis Title: Café para todos: A critical narrative of bilingual education policy and practice in monolingual Spain |
| Rosie Slentz, MA Research Interests: Cultural anthropology, food systems, elementary education, public diplomacy, community development. MA Thesis Title: From soil to soul: Food systems curriculum for 5th graders. After Graduation: Integrated Learning Specialist at Humboldt County Office of Education. Working on Ph.D. in Education at UCLA. |
| Byron Smith, MA Research Interests: Mesoamerican Archaeology, geoarchaeology, and human landscapes. MA Thesis Title: Subtropical agronomy on a variable landscape: exploring late classic farming in the Three Rivers Region through geotechnical design and the distribution ofedaphic variables After Graduation: Worked as a Research Associate for the Cultural Resources Facility at Cal Poly Humboldt. Now working on Ph.D. at UT Austin. |
| Henry Solares, MA Research Interests: Domestic violence; sexualized violence; policy; policing; gender; race; sexuality; Mesoamerica; post-colonial studies. MA Thesis Title: (In)difference to survivors: The anti-violence comics project |
| Megan Wetterau, MA MA Thesis Title: Analysis of methods used to combat sex trafficking in Humboldt County |
Class of 2009 & Earlier
| Greg Collins, BA “After graduating in December 1998 from Humboldt with my BA in Anthropology and Geography (double major) I began working as a shovel bum for archaeological consulting firms and the U.S. Forest Service. After traveling around California as an archaeological technician for a few years, I started graduate school at CSU, Chico and completed my thesis with an emphasis on CRM and zooarchaeology. I am currently the North Coast Redwoods District Archaeologist and am stationed in Eureka. My academic and professional career has taken me full circle, and I am now raising my family in Humboldt County.” |
| Ariel Gruenthal-Rankin, BA “After graduating from the University of Central Lancashire, UK in 2009 with a MSc in Forensic Anthropology, I have taken a job with the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office as a Deputy Coroner.” |
| Lizbet Husby-Gerry, BA “Living and working in Oregon.” |
| Virginia Howard Mullan, BA “Virginia Howard Mullan, 1980, Anthropology, retired with a fabulous retirement party at the Arcata Theater Lounge after 30 years of teaching all subjects in a multigraded classroom at Bridgeville Elementary. Mullan is currently working at College of the Redwoods training foster and kindercare guardians, while also volunteering and substitute teaching at Cuddeback School in Carlotta, Calif. She is still writing and is currently working on publishing a vignette about Julia Park Howard. This year, Mullan had the chance to see many of her friends who are Humboldt alumni, including: Suzanne Stone Gorter, Jim Gorter, Sherry Sweeney, Jody Stevens Vandenburg, Marty Casillas, John Bennett, Bob Fiock, Dave Ward, and Ralph Martinez.” |
| Rebecca Kellawan, BA "Went on to graduate studies in the U.K. earning a Master’s of Arts with Distinction in Historical Archaeology from the University of Bristol. Kellawan is currently employed as a Senior Archaeologist with Far Western Anthropological Research Group located in Davis, California. Kellawan specializes in the historical archaeology of Northern California. She has also previously conducted research on African-American troops stationed in Britain during World War II and the Indian diaspora in the West Indies." |
| Mark Martinez, BA “For the past two years I have been advocating and empowering youth to make non-violent, healthy choices as a mentor for the Tariq Khamisa Foundation. Influenced by anthropology of development, I hope to continue my work with non-profit organizations, while attaining my masters in social work.” |
| Timi O'Malley, BA "Published “Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals” in December 2018. This is a memoir not only about food and the people that shared these meals with her, but the spiritual lessons learned along the way." |
| Evan Pinto, BA “I have been working as a secondary teacher for a virtual high school. I also teach vocational education classes (in a bricks and mortar class). In addition, my wife, two children and I just adopted a two year old Golden Retriever!” |
| Traben Pleasant, BA “I am currently pursuing a MSc. in Social/Cultural Anthropology at University College London, UK.” |
| Christopher Robertson, BA “I just accepted an offer of admission into U.C. Berkeley’s Asian Studies MA program, and will be focusing on China Studies during the fall of 2011.” |
| Scott Schindel, BA “Volunteering on a Howler monkey project in Southern Mexico.” |
