Dr. Kerriann Marden has been working with human skeletal remains since 1998, and has been author or coauthor on human and nonhuman forensic anthropology cases in five states.  She was a registered medicolegal death investigator for five years, and she is currently an active member of D-MORT, the mortuary response team of the National Disaster Medical System, performing identification and analysis of human remains in mass disasters. Dr. Marden has also conducted extensive analysis of prehistoric human remains.  She was awarded Smithsonian Predoctoral and Postdoctoral fellowships to conduct research on ancient skeletal remains at the National Museum of Natural History, and she has examined Native American remains at the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum in Chicago, the Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico, and the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.  She has an ongoing program of research in forensic osteology analysis of trauma, dismemberment, and reassociation of human remains. Dr. Marden earned her B.A. from St. Lawrence University, an M.A. in Sociology from University of Maryland Baltimore County, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tulane University. She is currently accruing the required time and casework to sit for the Board certification exam for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. During this latency period, three Board certified anthropologists have agreed to sit second chair on all casework to ensure the highest level of evidentiary support (see Consulting Scientists).

David R. Hunt, Ph.D., D-ABFA

National Museum of Natural History
Department of Anthropology
Smithsonian Institution

Washington, D.C.

David R. Hunt is a physical anthropologist in the Physical Anthropology Division at the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.  He is also the Physical Anthropology Collections Manager for the Department of Anthropology. His areas of research include human skeletal biology and variation, forensic anthropology, and mummies of the world.  Dr. Hunt serves as a physical anthropology consultant to museums and universities in the United States and internationally on issues of personal identification from the human skeleton, historic and prehistoric skeletal analysis and collections management of skeletal remains. A Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists, Dr. Hunt is an advisor to medical examiners’ offices and law enforcement agencies.  He is the on-call forensic anthropologist for the District of Columbia-Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, one the on-call forensic anthropologists for the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office, the DC region US Park Service and has been consultant to the US State Department, FEMA and NTSB in mass disaster and crash and bombing incidents. Dr. Hunt is the forensic anthropology advisor to the Forensic Imaging Unit at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on their facial reconstruction and age progression projects. Dr. Hunt’s cranio-morphological studies also have required him to do reconstruction of paleo-Indian and historic Native American crania from the US; in particular, as part of the on-going research of Kennewick Man, reconstructing and advising on the facial reproduction of Kennewick Man for the National Geographic. Dr. Hunt is also involved in several international excavations and research in prehistoric, historic and classical archeological sites, including remains from Mongolia, mass graves from the Stalinist Period, and interpretation of population dynamics in Dashur and Saqqara, Egypt.

 

Marcella H. Sorg, Ph.D., D-ABFA, R.N.

Department of Anthropology, Climate Change Institute

and Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center

University of Maine

Orono, ME

Marcella H. Sorg is Research Associate Professor of Anthropology, Public Policy, and Climate Change at the University of Maine. Her research focus is in forensic anthropology, particularly the taphonomy of human remains in terrestrial and marine contexts. She is a practicing, board certified forensic anthropologist, consultant to the Offices of Chief Medical Examiner of Maine, New Hampshire, and Delaware. She earned her doctorate in physical anthropology from The Ohio State University in 1979 and was certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology in 1983. With a theoretical base in human variation and genetic demography, Dr. Sorg has also conducted studies of several historic Maine populations, including Acadians of the St. John Valley, Franco-Americans of the Old Town area, and inhabitants of Vinalhaven Island. In addition, she has been active in the descriptive analysis of prehistoric osteological collections from Maine and New Hampshire.  She is currently Principal Investigator on a National Institute of Justice funded project to develop and validate regional taphonomic standards for northern New England forensic death investigations.

 

John W. Verano, Ph.D.  

Professor

Department of Anthropology

Tulane University

New Orleans, LA

 

John Verano is a physical anthropologist who specializes in human skeletal biology, paleopathology, bioarchaeology, and forensic anthropology.  He is currently a Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University, where he teaches courses in human osteology, paleopathology, forensic anthropology, the study of mummified remains, and South American archaeology. Dr Verano’s primary research area is Andean South America, with a particular focus on prehistoric populations of coastal and highland Peru. His  research interests include pathology in ancient skeletal and mummified remains, trepanation and other ancient surgery, warfare, human sacrifice, and mortuary practices. Over the years, he has collaborated with a number of International and Peruvian archaeological projects, analyzing human skeletal and mummified remains recovered from their excavations, as well as assisting and directing the excavation of burials and sacrificial contexts. In the United States, Dr. Verano complements his South American research with forensic anthropology: assisting local, state, and federal law enforcement, coroners, and medical examiners in identifying and interpreting human skeletal remains from medico-legal contexts.  He offers consultation in forensic anthropology as a public service through the Doris Z. Stone Laboratory for Biological and Forensic Anthropology at Tulane University. A Fellow in the Physical Anthropology Division of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Verano has been qualified as an expert witness in forensic anthropology in the State of Louisiana.  

 

Michael Warren, Ph.D., D-ABFA

Director, C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Assistant Director, William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL  

Dr. Michael Warren is a physical anthropologist specializing in Forensic Anthropology.  He is one of the 88 Board certified Diplomates of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and currently serves as Vice President of the Board.  He has authored or co-authored several hundred forensic osteological reports over the last 20 years, including the skeletal analysis in the recent, widely-publicized murder of Caylee Anthony.  Dr. Warren assisted the Federal government in the recovery and identification of victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack and of Hurricane Katrina, and has served as a consultant in the excavation and analysis of human remains from mass gravesites in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. A Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Warren’s research interests include forensic identification, trauma analysis, forensic analysis of human cremated remains, human osteology, victim identification in mass disasters and genocide, and human variation.  Dr. Warren is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida, and also serves as Assistant Director of the University’s William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine.  He has also presented lectures on the importance of forensic anthropology to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Ministry of Justice of Thailand, and the University of Bradford in England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Jenks, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair

Criminology Department

 

Sara Phillips, Ph.D.

Limited term Faculty

Department of Anthropology

Will Phillips

Forensic Archaeology Field Crew Chief

Anthropology Major

 

Kevin Rowell

Graduate Research Assistant

Criminology Master’s Program

 

G. Llew Kinison

Student Research Assistant Program Assistant

Anthropology Major