DR. HEATHER EDGAR
Lab Director
Heather J.H. Edgar, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Forensic Anthropologist for the Office of the Medical Investigator, New Mexico. She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology in 2020. Trained primarily in bioarchaeology, the study of human populations in the recent (<10,000 years) past, she received her education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (BA), Arizona State University (MA) and Ohio State University (PhD). She is the project director for the New Mexico Decedent Image Database, which provides free access for qualified researchers to de-identified, richly documented CT scans of over 15,000 decedents. Her current research includes improving the identification of missing and murdered American Indians, and investigating inequity related to mortality, ethnicity, and other factors among New Mexicans.
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Contact: hjhedgar@unm.edu
EMILY MOES
Graduate Student
My interests are broad within human biology, but specifically I focus on the mother-infant nexus and how we can infer that relationship in the bioarchaeological record. I am a dental anthropologist with an emphasis on deciduous teeth and their morphology and growth/development. My current research aims at combining these interests by studying fluctuating asymmetry in deciduous teeth and how it may reflect maternal stress. Since 2017, I have been involved with the Belize Paleoindian and Archaic Project as the bioarchaeologist under Dr. Keith Prufer, where I analyze human remains excavated from Belize. From 2017-2019, I led a team of students calling and interviewing next-of-kin of individuals who are included in the New Mexico Decedent Image Database, under Dr. Heather Edgar. I graduated from Boise State University with my Master’s degree in 2016 in anthropology. My previous field experience includes burial excavations at a medieval cemetery in Italy, and at two rock shelters in the Belizean jungle.
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Contact: emilymoes@unm.edu
PAIGE LYNCH
Graduate Student
I received my Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Pennsylvania State University and my Master's in Forensic Anthropology from Mercyhurst University. My general interests include: forensic anthropology, structural violence, social inequalities, stable isotope analyses, human osteology, and archaeology. My current research focuses on understanding how structural violence influences access to resources in Colonial Period Mexico. I work at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator as a Morphology Technician, assisting with cases requiring a forensic anthropologist. Current projects I am a part of include working with Dr. Edgar and colleagues examining structural violence in Colonial Mexico and with Dr. Prufer on the Bladen Paleoindian and Archaic Project. My previous excavation experience includes forensic cases in the northeast US, and archaeological sites in Belize, Spain, and Israel.
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Contact: pal5154@unm.edu
NIKKI APPEL
Graduate Student
I am currently a PhD candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology interested in studying the ways our society and environment biologically affect the process of aging. I received by Bachelor's degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Anthropology from the University of Miami. I later received my Master's in Forensic Anthropology from Boston University. For my Master's thesis I examined long term cocaine use and its potential effect on bone morphology. Currently, I am working on a project involving the collection of 3D measurements from CT scans of skulls and long bones obtained through the New Mexico Decedent Image Database. The measurements taken will be used to assist in a more accurate estimation of individuals of Native American Descent and aid with the growing problem of Missing and Murdered American Indians. I also hold a position at the Office of the Medical Investigator as an Anthropology Morphology Technician. There, I assist in case work that requires forensic anthropological analyses.
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Contact: nappel@unm.edu
ESTEBAN RANGEL
Graduate Student
I’m a PhD student in the Evolutionary Anthropology subfield. My main interests lie at the intersection of biological anthropology, archaeology, and cultural practices. I received my Bachelor’s in Anthropology with a minor in Geography from Texas State University and my Master’s in Anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University. My thesis project involved studying Andean identity using on geometric morphometric analysis of modified crania.
I am research assistant helping with the collection of 3D landmark data for the Missing and Murdered American Indians project and I am also one of the osteologists for the Belize Paleoindian and Archaic Archaeological Project. My main interests are in bioarchaeology, 3D geometric morphometrics, cranial vault modification, identity/personhood, biocultural practices, mortuary archaeology, Mesoamerican archaeology, and cranial morphology.
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Contact: estebanrangel1@unm.edu
JANA MEYER
Graduate Student
Hello! I am a PhD student in Anthropology (Archaeology subfield), studying how activity and resource distribution affected the lives and livelihoods of people in the past. As a bioarchaeologist, I study archaeological human remains, focusing on questions of health and methods of activity reconstruction. My dissertation plans involve the attempt to identify patterns of manual activity – as reflected in entheseal changes of the hand and forearm bones – related to craft production among Ancestral Puebloans from the Pueblo IV Period. I intend to use 3D geometric morphometric analyses based on 3D Scans of bones to identify differential manual activity patterns within and between sites to assess in how far osteological evidence suggests the presence of potential (part-time) craft specialists within villages, and to test for inter-village specialization. My other general interests include juvenile osteology, burial practices, biological relationships between individuals and populations based on non-metric skeletal traits, and GIS-based studies on the intra-site organization of various aspects of communal life in the past.
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Contact: janavalesca@unm.edu
NADIA NEFF
Graduate Student
I am a PhD student in the archaeology subfield. My research interests include the bioarchaeology and historical ecology of Mesoamerica, human-environment interactions, ZooMS, and stable isotope analysis. I received my BA in anthropology in 2013 from Fort Lewis College, and my MSc in Bioarchaeology from the University of York in 2016. During my Master’s, I worked on optimizing the biomolecular protein analysis method ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) in application to battlefield archaeology, specifically to identify the location of several missing mass graves from the War of Roses, Battle of Towton (1461). My dissertation research focuses on using compound specific isotope analysis coupled with radiocarbon analysis to investigate human-landscape interactions over an 11,000 year period in southern Belize. I also currently work as a Contract Osteologist for the Office of Archaeological Studies NMBIOARCH database project in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Contact: ncneff@unm.edu
DR. KELLY KAMNIKAR
Post-Doctoral Fellow
I received my PhD in Biological Anthropology with a focus in forensic anthropology from Michigan State University. I am broadly interested in the relationship between craniofacial variation and population affinity estimates in forensic anthropology and the application of anthropological methods to human rights. My dissertation research examines craniofacial variation in Latin American samples as related to population affinity estimates for deceased migrant populations at the Mexico-US border. At the University of New Mexico, I am working with Dr. Edgar’s team on improving biological profile methodology for Native Americans using data from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database. Additionally, I am involved in several international research projects that focus on forensic anthropology in Guatemala and the Republic of Georgia.
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Contact: kkamnikar@unm.edu
DR. CAIT MCPHERSON
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Before joining the lab, I graduated from the University of Arizona with a PhD in biological anthropology and a minor in archaeology. I’m broadly interested in the relationship between developmental plasticity and the production of phenotypic variation, and my research explores aspects of Life History Theory (LHT), Developmental Systems Theory (DST) and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis. My dissertation examined the relationship between episodes of developmental stress and life history trade-offs involving growth and survival in an archaeological skeletal sample, using an interpretive framework based on the sensitive developmental windows concept. Advised by Drs. Heather Edgar and Lexi O’Donnell, I’m currently using data collected from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database to explore how early life stress relates to measures of developmental instability and constrained growth in a modern skeletal sample. Since 2015, I’ve conducted bioarchaeological field work in support of the La Playa Archaeological Project and the Arizona State Museum Bioarcheology Lab, and ethnographic field work for the National Park Service.
Contact: cmcpherson@salud.umn.edu
MADISON BUTLER
Undergraduate Student
I am undergraduate student in Evolutionary Anthropology and Psychology. I received my Associate of Arts in anthropology in 2021 from Central New Mexico Community College. I am currently a research assistant working with Dr. Edgar and Nikki Appel on the Missing and Murdered American Indian project. I have also worked as a remote research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Ian Wallace. My undergraduate thesis research, advised by Dr. Ian Wallace, studies the effect of calorie restriction on cortical mass of growing individuals. My research interests include human skeletal biology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, mortuary analysis, evolutionary medicine and mismatch diseases, and the developmental origins of human health and disease. I am on tract to graduate Spring 2024, where I will start applying for biological anthropology graduate programs.