I received my M.A. in anthropology, focusing on bioarchaeology, from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2012. My thesis was a biological distance study that examined skeletal workload and nutritional patterns between Afro-Caribbean slave populations and American slave populations. I have also obtained a certification in museum studies from The University of West Georgia.
I met my husband in graduate school, and we have been living in Athens while he gets his Ph.D. in political science, and we have two daughters. I have been working with The UGA Laboratory of Archaeology since early 2019, and I am currently conducting NAGPRA related research.
My dissertation research will focus on Native American perspectives regarding dogs as sacred animals and other, less common, animal burials and their attendant mortuary practices in the southeastern United States. Hopefully, the result of this research will provide better guidance for NAGPRA practices, specifically regarding the repatriation of sacred animal burials. I will be working under the advisement of Dr. Victor Thompson.