Alphabetized List of Pictured Alumni

Ugan, Andrew

 

  
 
 

Emily Brunson - Class of 2001

Since graduating from USU in 2001, I have been working on my PhD in anthropology at the University of Washington in Seattle. While at the UW, I have had the opportunity to work on several research projects and get a concurrent master’s degree in public health, focusing on epidemiology. For my dissertation research, I am interested in household decision making and its impact on child health. In November of 2005, I traveled to Gambia, a small country in West Africa, to conduct some pilot research for my dissertation. It was insanely hot, the food was interesting, and the people were wonderful. I am looking forward to going back, hopefully in the fall of 2006, to finish my dissertation research there.

 

Stephanie Call - Class of 2003

 

I am currently an Army Officer working with a Civil Affairs unit. The road getting here was full of adventure. Immediately following graduation from USU, I participated in an internship at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command: Central ID Lab in Honolulu, HI. I worked with osteometrics to sort commingled remains of Korean war dead. After a year at the lab, I enlisted in the U.S. Army and, due to my degree, was granted the advanced rank of Specialist.  After finishing my training for the Army I entered the Master's program for forensic anthropology at the University of Montana.  My thesis involved the development of an independent method for siding foot phalanges with research I conducted with the Terry Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. While finishing my Master's I simulataneously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army and I am currently serving at Ft. Lewis, WA.  The lessons I learned in achieving both my degrees helps me everyday in advising my soldiers and military civil management operations around the world.


 

Kim Clawson - Class of 2003

I was recently appointed the Park Naturalist for Dead Horse Point State Park. My job entails a number of different roles and tasks. I work in the visitor center and entrance station. I also take care of visitation for the park and write newspaper articles for park events; I just finished renovating the Park’s Junior Ranger book. I give an interpretive slide program, "Desert Survival: How did the Ancestral Puebloan survive out here?" and hope to have another one called “Movie History of Moab” soon. I am also in charge of the Park library and the museum, but haven't really had time to do anything with the museum yet, that's my project for this winter (2006).

 

Brian Munk - Class of 2004

 

I applied to the Japanese government through the JET programme to be an English teacher in the Jr. High/High school, and after some nail-biting months I was awarded a position and moved to Japan In August. I work with all three grades at my Junior High School. That comes to close to 600 students. They all have 3 days of regular English class (grammar, spelling, reading, writing) from a native Japanese English teacher. And then they have my class which is once a week and focuses on “conversation English.” We do a lot more role play and conversation games so the class is very upbeat and fast paced. I am a co-teacher with a native Japanese English teacher, who helps with explanations of new vocabulary and game rules. I am loving my time here in Japan and as a teacher.

 

Stephanie Olsen - Class of 1999

I am currently working as a Social Studies teacher and a Curriculum Designer for an online High School. We are a dropout intervention program and work with a severely at-risk student population. I integrate social theory into my instructional designs to create class materials that will connect with our students and their differing cultural and economic backgrounds.

A degree in Anthropology has been one of my most valuable career assets. After graduating I went on to earn a Master's Degree in Instructional Design. I studied cross-cultural education and used my background in anthropological theory on a daily basis to create new methods and theories of instruction for information age learners. I have such a passion for anthropology as well as education and I am constantly finding new applications for the things I learned while I was at USU. I have found so many ways to integrate both of my fields of study to create a career path that works for me. The beauty of anthropology is that we study everything. The possibilities available to an anthropologist truly are limitless.

Eric Cunningham - Class of 2000

After I graduated from USU I took a short break and then in 2002 went to Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET Program). I taught at a junior high school in Nagano prefecture for two years. Then I met my wife and moved to Kyoto (hence the photo) where I lived for one more year, teaching English at various schools in that area. During my time in Japan I became very interested in Japanese agricultural landscapes, known as "satoyama" (mountains at the village). I wanted to combine this interest with my previous research concerning religious practices in Japan. 

This led me to the anthropology department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and particularly their ecological anthropology program. A subfield of that program, developed by Dr. Leslie Sponsel, is called Spiritual Ecology, which seeks to incorporate spiritual beliefs into ecological issues. I was lucky enough to receive a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship from the Center for Japanese Studies here and so I am continuing my research into "satoyama". Particularly I am looking at sacred groves associated with shrine and temple complexes and possible ways of rejuvenating rural areas using traditional agriculture and silviculture. 

My anthropology degree has helped me throughout all of this, in both direct and indirect ways. I'm particularly thankful for the breadth of my education at USU. Because I am doing research within a multi-disciplinary field, I've found my experience at USU invaluable. 

Melanie Dixon - Class of 2004

I went to an Arabic language institute here in Egypt for about five months, and then got a research job with the American University in Cairo studying American-style higher education in the Middle East. Now I'm just finishing up that project, and I'm working part-time as a research assistant for a USAID team, carrying out a survey of vocational preparatory schools throughout Egypt. We just visited our second school today. That's been a really fun project. I am on the project with two Egyptians-- one an education specialist and the other a development specialist. I've been in Egypt a little over a year now, and I'm planning on coming back to Utah in January to study some more Arabic at the University of Utah, and work on applying for grad school.  We'll see what happens! 

 

Jason Bright - Class of 1997

After graduating I spent a couple years on a Master's degree at the University of Utah, and then enrolled in the PhD Program there in 1999. That sent me to Namibia in the summer of 2000, and I spent three more years in graduate studies. I put the studies on hold for a while, and built a small cultural resource management firm in 2003, based in Salt Lake City. We're called Mountain States Archaeology, LLC and we do contract work in Utah and the rest of the Great Basin. Some of the larger projects we've completed include several hundred miles of survey in Sevier Valley and the adjacent plateau, and an inventory of most of the Sevier Desert, near Delta, Utah. We're hoping to acquire some additional money for further research in the Sevier Desert. I recently re-enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Utah. I also serve as the editor of Utah Archaeology, an outlet for professional and avocational archaeologists in Utah and the surrounding area.

Katie Simon - Class of 2003

I have been doing cultural resource management work out of Moab, Utah since 2000 when I took a student position with the Bureau of Land Management. I worked there four seasons and then moved on to the world of private consulting as a staff archaeologist for a local firm. Over the past 6 years I have had fantastic experiences exploring (i.e. surveying and excavating) many spectacular landscapes and sites throughout Utah and western Colorado. In the process I've also gained an intimate view of the oil and gas industry which has left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. I am now applying to graduate school with renewed ideals and hope of making better contributions to the field through spatial technology based research. In the meantime I'm off to Southeast Asia with the intention of doing a little international shovel bumming. 

Kevin Poe - Class of 1996

Since graduating USU in 1996 my NPS career has been shaped by the invaluable background in anthropology/archaeology that USU afforded me. My understanding of how much of human prehistory was shaped by our role in the food chain saved my life during a close encounter with a Grizzly Bear and her three sub-adult cubs in Glacier National Park in 1997. During 1998 and 1999 while digging/researching and interpreting the Underground Railroad in Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio) I was reminded how a major contribution of archeology is to keep history from being intentionally forgotten or worse yet, remembered wrong. Now at Bryce Canyon National Park my job is sharing my passion for astronomy with thousands of people from every corner of the globe.  What they sometimes don't realize, until peering through a telescope into the vacant vastness of the Void, is something anthropology taught me long ago. No matter how far we look or what technology we dream up, Earth and Each Other, is all we are ever really going to know. Indeed, it is also all we are ever going to have. Therefore, trying to glean a better understanding of both is worthy of more than the occasional a master's project. Perhaps it should be a way of life?"

Jill Jensen - Class of 2000

I received my degree in Anthropology at USU in 2000. While a student at USU I served as editorial assistant to Dr. Simms for the 1999 issue of Utah Archaeology, helped to re-open the Museum of Anthropology, got my first taste of funded research (URCO recipient 1998), co-authored and published my first article, and got more field and lab experience than you can shake a stick at. Clearly, I was having too much fun to graduate in just four years! After working in Nevada for some time, I felt inspired to return to academia and I am currently finishing up my master’s thesis at California State University at Sacramento under the direction of Dr. David Zeanah and Dr. Mark Basgall. My thesis focuses on variability in strategies for reproductive fitness with examples drawn from prehistoric pronghorn hunting in the Great Basin.

Update: The thesis is finished!  Title: Sexual Division of Labor and Group-Effort Hunting: The archaeology of pronghorn traps and point accumulations in the Great Basin. I am now employed as an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Elko Nevada Field Office.

Silvia Smith - Class of 2002

After graduating from USU with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology, I became a graduate student in Biological Anthropology at the University of Utah, working under the guidance of Professors Henry Harpending, Dennis O'Rourke, and Alan Rogers. I received a Master of Science degree in Anthropology in 2005, after completing a study on ancient DNA from 50 prehistoric Aleut individuals. The goal of my MS research project was to infer information about past population migrations in the Aleutian Islands using mitochondrial DNA haplogroup data. I am currently a doctoral candidate in the same department and I am working on my dissertation project(s). My interests have shifted from ancient DNA studies to understanding the coevolutionary relationships between
bacterial pathogens and their human host. More specifically, my dissertation work uses the genus /Mycobacterium/, to which the causative pathogens of tuberculosis and leprosy belong, to elucidate how an
ancient human pathogen changes through time to adapt to the evolving genome of one of its host species, /H. sapiens/. My graduate studies have been consistently funded by graduate teaching assistant fellowships, research assistantships, and by teaching several courses in the departments of Languages and Phylosiphy and Anthropology at USU and at the U of U. The outstanding education I received  as an undergraduate student in the Anthropology Dept. at USU has been essential to my academic development.

Dan Call - Class of 2001

Since graduating, I have made my home in the Greater Seattle area. I quickly found employment as a field counselor for a foster care organization, which in turned heightened my interest in working with youth. After marrying in early 2002, I returned to school and earned my teaching certificate.

In the fall of 2004, I began teaching upper-level Spanish and World History for Washington High School in Tacoma, Washington. The years I spent studying culture certainly enrich the classroom experience for my students, and I devote a lot of effort toward incorporating the qualitative and inductive methods that I learned under the guidance of USU’s Anthropology program into my own curriculum.

The teacher’s craft has led me in some interesting directions. I plan to start work on my Master’s degree in 2007, although I have yet to find the program that will best complement my interests. Until then, I’ll continue teaching, sipping on the occasional mate, and reading everything I can get my hands on.

Jenny Cummings - Class of 2004

After graduating in December of 2004, I started working at Sorenson Genomics, a genetic testing laboratory in Salt Lake City.  As a technician in the lab, I primarily performed DNA extractions from various specimens, set-up PCR, and carried out analysis for mostly identity and relationship testing but for forensic work as well. After a year of work in the production lab, I began working in research and development. In this position, I investigate new processes and equipment for the lab, enhance existing processes, or help validate tests, chemistries, and/or equipment. The skills I received from studying biological anthropology has provided an excellent foundation for my career and I find myself building on that foundation daily.

Megan Andrew - Class of 1999

Having completed my anthropology degree in 1999, I immediately entered the working world for the next year and a half. I first worked in a low-income school before moving on to a non-profit quality of life health research center. Having wet my feet in the world of work, I returned to graduate school in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Despite the switch to sociology, I have found the research and teaching foundation I was able to establish at USU to be an invaluable asset. I continually draw upon the apprentice-style training I received as an undergraduate including the project-based work in my courses, exposure to teaching as an undergraduate teaching fellow and rhetoric associate, and the opportunity to conduct independent research for my senior thesis. Currently, I work with Robert M. Hauser on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study as a research assistant. I generally study social stratification, social demography, and quantitative methods and have particular interests in inequalities in the transitions to adulthood, education, and health across the life course. I anticipate completing my doctorate in 2008.

Christopher Carlson - Class of 1994

The Anthropology Major had just been approved during my time at Utah State University—a good thing, as being an undeclared junior was becoming awkward. Steven Simms and Carol Loveland taught at my field school, the Great Salt Lake Burial project, where the lakeshore sand trowelled like butter and has spoiled me to this day. After graduating from USU, I shovel-bummed around the West for five years, working mountain surveys in Colorado, Anasazi excavations in Southeastern Utah, oil-field surveys and excavations in Wyoming, even doing a brief excavation stint at the Fort Leavenworth Prison Farm. I was lucky that I could camp for a majority of my fieldwork, though in retrospect I should have spent those five years living out of a camper van rather than a Toyota Tercel. I am now settled and working for SWCA Environmental Consultants in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as their Field Director and as a Project Manager.

Andrew Ugan - Class of 1993

I actually became involved with Anthropology at USU before it was a major. My career has taken me from managing the archaeology lab at Utah State through a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Utah. Along the way I’ve had the pleasure to work and publish with colleagues from all over the world, but particularly here in the Great Basin. My recent research focuses on the relationship between climatic variability, prey availability, and the ultimate structure of the zooarchaeological assemblages at Median Village and Evans Mound, two Fremont Period sites in Utah’s Parowan Valley. I currently have a postdoctoral research fellowship from the National Science Foundation to try and identify the effects of changing climate using the stable isotope signature of the Parowan faunas, and find myself once again ensconced in the lab. ( Photo – myself and a 20cm cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) bacculum; taken while working with Nicholas Conard and his research group at Hohle Fels, Germany, Aug. 2005).

Rachael Kent- Class of 2005

The valuable experience I gained while working on a degree in anthropology at USU enabled me to get a job in development research at USU after graduation. I was then accepted to the School of International Training in Vermont, where I worked on a master's degree in International Development for Leadership, Management, and Service. My practicum was through the Peace Corps, where I will studied educational development. I just received a new job at the Engergy GeoScience Institute at the University of Utah working on the database system in GIS for well locations. My experience with the Anthropology Museum has taught me how to be creative, precise, and productive. These skills are valuable assets to my career path. I would like to thank my professors for teaching me how to work hard and be creative.

Buck Benson- Class of 2005

Currently I am a Master’s student at Idaho State University working on the Sanak Island Project under the supervision of Dr. Herbert Maschner. The project is a segment of a large multi-disciplinary research venture studying long-term climate change and human interaction on the lower Alaska Peninsula. For my thesis I am experimenting with the applicability of photon activation to analyze trace element data from andesitic basalt materials recovered from sites across the peninsula. The goal of this analysis is to map the distribution and movement of materials (and people) across the peninsula, as well as to pinpoint the locations of each source through the use of GIS.

 

 

Chris Kiahtipes- Class of 2006

I attended Utah State University as a major in anthropology from the fall of 2003 until I graduated in the spring of 2006.  I focused on archaeology and participated in the archaeology field school, several archaeology conferences, and several sessions of field work while attending USU.  Currently, I am pursuing a master’s degree in Evolutionary Anthropology at Washington State University.  I maintain my interest in archaeology, and the questions I wish to ask of the archaeological record come from a branch of evolutionary theory known as human behavioral ecology. I am starting to pursue a thesis project that addresses the appearance of ground stone tools (think manos and metates) in the northeastern Great Basin.  The goal is to compare what we know about the early grinding stones with ancient environments and ecosystems reconstructed through the analysis of preserved pollen grains; this technology can tell us a great deal about changes in diet and residence patterns among the Great Basin’s ancient inhabitants and highlight the ways in which these people interacted with a changing environment.  I study anthropology because a clearer understanding of the physical and cultural evolution of humans has informed my perspective of the world in important ways. You should care about anthropology because it’s your world too. 

Katie Rutherford- Class of 2005

 

Biological Anthropology was the first anthropology class I took my freshman year and it sparked my interest and passion for people, which led me to choose anthropology as a major. After graduating I worked in government banking for a year, and then realized the cubicle world was not for me, quit my job, and took off for South Africa to volunteer for a few months. I returned in early November, convinced and relieved that anthropology was definitely a huge part of the person I wanted to be. I have since started a non-profit organization called Dollars for Change (www.dollarsforchange.org) aimed at assisting poverty-stricken communities around the world by donating money toward sustainable development projects, while also trying to educate Americans on world poverty (through the website) and helping them to realize the power of just a dollar. It's been a great learning experience so far -- after incorporating it three months ago, my donation balance is up to $3,555 as of today and I feel very strongly about the fact that every cent of every dollar goes directly to the cause. I'm really excited about it and I'm brainstorming every day about where and how it will grow. I'm hoping to get involved with microfinance someday and I'm always thinking about getting a masters, but haven’t decided yet what specifically I should study. I really appreciate all of the teachers in the Anthropology Program at USU. I feel so lucky to be doing what I'm doing and I know my thoughts and ideas for Dollars for Change all stem from what I learned from all of you.

 

Leticia Neal - Class of 2005

I graduated from Utah State University in the summer of 2005 with a B.A. in History and a B.S. in Anthropology. During my time there, I took advantage of some of the great opportunities offered by the Anthropology Department, including serving as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, and as a Lab Manager of Archaeological Collections, as well as field and laboratory work on archaeological projects around the state. In the fall of 2006, I began graduate study for a Masters of Anthropology at University of Nevada, Reno. My classes, projects and positions in graduate school keep me very busy. I received a graduate Teaching Assistantship for spring of 2007 and another for 2007-08. I also serve as the president of the graduate student anthropology club. I am developing many of my own projects including, research into a working ranch (1860-present) where I am conducting an ethnography and using archaeological documentation. I am also working with a team to create and design a museum exhibit. During the summer of 2007 I will be conducting fieldwork for my Masters thesis …..Wish Me Luck!

Lara Petersen - Class of 2005

 

Lara Petersen is living in Denver, CO with her husband Shaun and two
boys Benjamin, 6, and Erik, 3. Lara works at the Aurora Public Library
and Shaun is starting his last year of the Physician Assistant program
at the University of Colorado. After that, they hope to get a job
working for Indian Health Services somewhere in the West.

 

Stephen Anderson- Class of 2004
After graduating from USU with a BS in Anthropology, I took one year off of school to relax and work in adaptive outdoor recreation. In the Fall of 2005, I began my graduate studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. While at NAU, I worked with Hopi Tribal elders on the Hopi Footprints and Footprints of the Ancestors projects with Dr. George (Wolf) Gumerman. These projects involved visiting archaeological sites with Hopi elders and Hopi youth in the attempt to reintegrate and redevelop a Hopi cultural curriculum for the Hopi Tribal school system. In the summer of 2006, I conducted my thesis research while working as a Rangeland Archaeologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest (HTNF) in Nevada. The focus of my thesis was to assess cattle grazing impacts on archaeological sites in the Ely and Jarbidge Ranger Districts of the HTNF. I finished my Masters of Anthropology in May of 2007. I consider the guidance and instruction of the USU and NAU faculty to be an essential part of my academic success. Currently, I work as an archaeology project manager with Centennial Archaeology in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Brian Beesley - Class of 2003

I graduated from with a B.S. in Anthropology in the spring of 2003.  I then went to work in a hospital in my hometown in Idaho.  While there I went ahead and got married and got a Master's in Public Health from Idaho State University.  Because I never want to be finished with school, I decided to continue at the University of Utah, where I have just started (Fall 2007) at the School of Medicine.  I have one child of 6 months and all is well.

I couldn't have picked a better major than Anthropology and couldn't have had more amazing professors while at USU than Drs. Lambert, Simms, and Moris, from each of whom I took multiple classes. 

Field School 2002: a coyote, a van, and a brief ceremony by Arie.  Purple clay, a hole in the ground, rasta music from a cowboy named Buck.  Some of you know what I'm talking about. 

All of you former collegues, keep in touch!
brianbeesley20@yahoo.com

Andrea Severson- Class of 2007

I began my time at USU as a Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences major in August 2004.  I chose to take Biological Anthropology as an elective during my first semester, and immediately fell in love with the subject.  During my second semester at USU, I enrolled in Ancient Humans and the Environment, which was being offered for the first time.  After these two courses and my first year at USU, I made the decision to pursue a minor in Anthropology.  From there, my interest in the subject continued to grow, and I soon found myself so engaged in Anthropology that I changed my major from Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences to Anthropology.  I discovered that I love to learn about physical anthropology, medical anthropology, international development, and human-environmental interactions.  Anthropology allowed me to explore all of these subjects, and the major also allowed me to continue to build a solid science background in preparation for graduate school.  The environment was stimulating, the faculty were wonderful, my classmates were great, and my opportunities were nearly endless.  Some of these opportunities included being an Undergraduate Research Fellow (I pursued fisheries research at the Fisheries Experiment Station), as well as an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow for Biological Anthropology. 

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from USU in December 2007 with a BS in Anthropology.  Throughout my time at USU, my love for fisheries never diminished, which led me to the decision that I should pursue graduate studies in fisheries management.  I am now a Master's student in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, and am fully funded through a Graduate Teaching Assistantship.  I am focusing on fisheries management and aquatic ecology, but maintain my interest in anthropology.  Pursuing a degree in Anthropology broadened my way of thinking and made me aware of so much around me that I otherwise would have paid little attention to.  In addition, though fisheries and anthropology may appear to be vastly divergent fields, they can actually intersect each other in interesting ways, particularly when examining human-environmental interactions and resource sustainability.  I can't wait to finish my formal education and find a career that allows me to combine both of my interests, most likely in resource management, environmental education, or another closely related field that considers the interactions of humans with the natural environment.

Mary Sundblom - Class of 2008

After entering college as an art major, a chance encounter with an introductory cultural anthropology course changed my mind and direction. Having lived in Australia and traveled in Brazil during high school, anthropology provided a way to critically investigate the cultures I was so fascinated with. Since then, I've continued my pursuit of anthropology and international studies, with an interest in development studies, gender, and the environment. I've participated in several international programs including a summer language program in Peru, a semester in Holland, and ethnographic field school in Peru. Most recently, I did a six-month internship at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in the Washington DC area, where I served as the Corporate & Foundation Relations intern (learning a great deal about non-profit organizations and development/ fundraising processes as well as community-based conservation and environmental education.) My experience at JGI really formalized my interest in the interrelationships between humans and the environment, with a special interest in grassroots approaches to conservation and sustainable development. Approaching graduation, I'm now looking into graduate programs that apply anthropological theory and methods to the management of cultural and natural resources.

 

Julie Rowlett- Class of 2005

I took a biological anthropology course in my freshman year that really piqued my interest, eventually leading me to change my major to anthropology. Through various courses and opportunities such as ethnographic field school in Huanchaco, Peru, and serving as an undergraduate T.A., I shifted my focus to culture and the role of the environment within the human sphere. After graduation I worked in Washington D.C., learning about the energy sector and renewable technologies. I made the decision to return to school for my masters and was accepted to Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) where I'm currently pursuing my MPA in Environmental Science and Policy. I'm involved in the school's energy club and pursuing research regarding "greening cities". After graduation in May 2009, I plan to work in renewable energy project development and management and become involved in developing nations, helping to build and modernize energy infrastructure. My training in anthropology has afforded me excellent research, writing and critical analysis skills that are indispensable to my career goals.

Karina Baird - Class of 2007

I attended Utah State University from fall of 2005 until December 2007 when I graduated with a BS in anthropology and a minor in sociology. While at Utah State, I had the opportunity to work with wonderful professors and motivated fellow students. Shortly after graduation, I got married and moved to the gulf coast of Florida. I am now pursuing a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of West Florida and work for Prentice Thomas & Associates, a cultural resource management firm. I have been able to use everything I learned as an undergraduate anthropology student to become successful in doing field work, writing site reports, doing research, and so many other things that are included in a career in archaeology and anthropology. I feel that my experience at Utah State prepared me very well for grad school and a wonderful job!

 

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