Alumni Profiles

Undergraduate Alum 2016

Environmental Data Analyst 

Michael graduated from UMass in 2010 (bachelors, engineering), 2013 (PhD, engineering) and 2014 (MA, anthropology).

He is an anthroengineer, combining theories and methods from anthropology and engineering to address questions within and across the two fields. His research has three pillars: primate evolutionary biomechanics, the mechanics of human variation, and culturally relevant, sustainable prosthetics for low-and middle-income countries, where he works primarily in Sri Lanka but throughout SE Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Drew is a biological anthropologist asking evolutionary questions about human physiology. Specifically interested in the role of sweating in human evolution; variation in sweat characteristics in contemporary human populations; and the evolution of human metabolism, including energetic limits to endurance performance. More information about Drew's research projects can be found on his personal website.

Frida’s focus was cultural anthropology with an interest in power structures and systems of power. As a student and recent grad, Frida worried that she would have difficulty finding a job with their anthropology degree or need to go immediately into another degree program, like law school. However, after volunteering with lawyers Frida realized there were plenty of opportunities for those with anthropology degrees. Currently, Frida works for their city’s police commission that oversees the police department and investigates complaints community members file against the police. They balance

Zach is currently working as an immigration analyst at a law firm in San Francisco. His job consists of guiding people through the immigrant visa process to establish permanent residency in the United States. His anthropology education has helped him to better understand and address the needs of people navigating the complex citizenship process across different experiences, cultural practices, and communication styles. Zach is also increasingly involved with activism around food sovereignty, combining his passions for the anthropology of food and community well-being. Moving forward, he

Dennis Culliton graduated from the UMass Anthropology Department in 1984. Dennis studied Cultural Anthropology and also majored in Economics during his time at UMass. After graduation, he worked in a variety of different jobs but his most recent were as a history teacher in Guilford, Connecticut, where he got the inspiration to launch his nonprofit, The Witness Stones Project, dedicated to unearthing the history of slavery in the north and paying tribute to the enslaved individuals who lived here.

Alexa is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at Yale University, advised by Dr. David Watts. I study the relationships between nutritional ecology, climate change and fitness in a population of wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus)

Jennifer Foster earned her Ph.D. in 2003 and spent the following 4 years teaching at the UMass School of Nursing before being recruited to Emory. Lynn Sibley, the former wife of George Armelagos was working on gathering nurse-midwifery faculty with PhDs in anthropology to work on global maternal-newborn research, and Jenny fit the bill. After a fulfilling decade at Emory, which included multiple research projects in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and a Fulbright semester in Chile, Jenny retired in May 2018. Jenny (now Professor Emerita at Emory) and her husband David currently live in

In 2021, Alex Ganote graduated as an Anthropology major. Before finding anthropology, Alex explored different majors: computer, science, biology, comparative literature, and political science. In all these studies, he was mostly fascinated about people and cultures. So, Alex finally oriented his educational path towards cultural anthropology. During the progression of his major, Alex became aware of how this field of study had a strong connection to every aspect of his life experience. “I saw that anthropology was always ‘happening,’ no matter where I was or what I was doing.”

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Angela Labrador (Ph.D. 2013) entered the graduate program to study the archaeology of the American Northeast with Martin Wobst. She swiftly moved to embrace the lens of heritage. As she recalls, “I became more interested in questions about why people want to save things from the past, rather than in what really happened in the past.” Her dissertation, “Shared Heritage: An Anthropological Theory and Methodology for Assessing, Enhancing, and Communicating a Future-Oriented Social Ethic of Heritage Production” approached the protection of heritage as a social ethic. As she puts it, heritage “isn

Ying Li is a UMass Anthropology alumni receiving her MA in 2015 and PhD in 2022.  Ying currently works as a User Experience (UX) researcher.

Kerry Lynch (Ph.D. 2010) is playing a critical role in helping solve a 240-year-old maritime mystery: what happened to the HMS Endeavour, the ship that Lt. James Cook captained on the first voyage by British explorers to Australia? A specialist in underwater archaeology, Lynch is field director for the exploration of Revolutionary War activity in Rhode Island’s Newport Harbor, and has worked on various underwater sites there since 1997. At a news conference in Newport last September, Lynch and other researchers announced a promising discovery at the bottom of Newport Harbor that could possibly

UG Alum 2020, current medical student at UMass Chan Medical School

Akanksha Nagarkar graduated as an Anthropology major in 2021. Akanksha has always been fascinated by culture. Growing up in diverse places led her to the understanding that culture is at the heart of everything. So, as soon as she started thinking about going to college, she knew she wanted to become an Anthropology major to read and learn about culture. In particular, Akanksha was interested in analyzing the relationship between culture and science, which is another passion of hers.

Sarah graduated in 2007 and is currently working at Communicate Health in Maryland as a project director. Sarah has her master's degree in public health from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is experienced in developing user research protocols for, and and recruiting from, special populations including refugees, immigrants, youth, low-income parents, individuals requiring additional assistance in an emergency, and people of limited literacy.

Sylvia is hoping to pursue a career in cultural resource management. This is contract archaeology composed of research, fieldwork, and report writing, which is designed to help individuals or organizations comply with laws such as Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Alum Danielle Raad, Curator and Assistant Director of Collections, Stanford University

Dolores Root (Ph.D. 1984) pursued her doctorate, and wrote her dissertation in archaeology, on the material dimensions of social inequality in non-stratified societies. During her time as a graduate student at UMass, she learned to critically question the status-quo not only in anthropology but in other disciplines as well. But what she came to value most was teaching anthropology to undergraduate students, where she discovered her passion for engaging students in critical thinking, opening perspectives on the past and the present.

Megan Savoy (she/her) graduated as an Anthropology major in 2019 with a focus on bioarchaeology. Her interest in this subdiscipline derived from the question, how can human lifeways (diet, health, violence, etc.) manifest physically on the body? Currently, she is an Archaeology Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Her research uses isotopic analysis to detect changes in mobility and diet of early human populations.

Ashley Sherry is currently an Anthropologist Turned Tech Founder | AI-Powered Interview Platform for Deep, Scaled Insights | Bridging Human Understanding & AI @ EmpathixAI. Read More about Ashley and her current research on her LinkedIn account.

Molly Totman received her Undergraduate Degree in Anthropology in 2011 and her Master's Degree in Public Health in 2014. After graduating, Molly used her combined degrees to begin her career at Caring Health Center in Springfield, MA. At Caring Health, Molly serves low-income, refugee, immigrant, and minority populations that otherwise wouldn't have a healthcare system.

After graduating, Althea spent five years working on infectious fungal diseases. She is currently the Senior Director of Operations and Partnerships at the International Model United Nations Association (IMUNA).

Research: Primate Conservation