All graduates of Anthropology within the past 5 years are eligible for lifetime membership of the Ohio Theta Chapter of Lambda Alpha, the international honors society for students of Anthropology. Interested? Click here.
PhD’s in Anthropology
| by Last Name | Dissertation Title | Current Position | 
| Marisa Abbe (PhD – January 2011) | “An Analysis of Cultural Competence, Cultural Difference, and Communication Strategies in Medical Care” | Program Manager Children’s Medical Center, Dallas Injury Prevention Department | 
| Kathleen Joy Adams (PhD – August 1972) | “The Barama River Caribs of Guyana Restudied: Forty Years of Cultural Adaption and Population Change” | |
| Sarah Adler (PhD – January 2008) | “The Influence of Burmese Buddhist Understandings of Suffering on the Subjective Experience and Social Perceptions of Schizophrenia” | |
| Elizabeth Albert (Lewton) (PhD – August 1997) | “Living Harmony: The Transformation of Self in Three Navajo Religious Healing Traditions” | Senior Research Associate Case Western Reserve University Center for Community Health Integration | 
| Aylin Atillasoy (PhD – May 1996) | “Daily Survival Versus the Threat of AIDS: Street Youth and the Street Economy in New York City” | |
| Heather Baily (PhD – May 2020) | “The Digital Labor Ward: Teleconsultation in Rural Ghana” | Population/Health/Nutrition Foreign Service Officer United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | 
| (PhD -May 1997) | “Perceived Stress and Health in British and Asian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients” | Associate Professor University of Nebraska, Omaha Department of Sociology & Anthropology | 
| Donna Benson (PhD – 1987) | “Pleasant Bottoms: The Cooperative Years, 1784-1826 (Ohio Decorative Arts, Folklore)” | |
| (PhD – 1985) | “An Ethnography of Menopause: Menopausal Experiences of Mayan Women in a Yucatan Village” | Professor University of California, San Francisco Institute for Health & Aging | 
| (PhD – 1987) | “Population Genetic Approaches to Phenotypic Microevolution in the Jirels of Nepal” | Professor Director, Genomics Computing Center University of Texas Rio Grande Valley South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute | 
| (PhD – January 1996) | “Living in the HIV Spectrum: Life Stories and Illness Narratives of Gay Men” | Deputy Associate Director of Science Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of STD Prevention | 
| (PhD – May 1991) | “Culture, Nevra, and Institution: The Making of Greek Professional Ehtnopsychiatry” | Clinical Professor University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions — Associate Vice President, Interprofessional Education UF Health Office | 
| Christine Borden-King-Jones (PhD – May 2021) | “Storied Experience: Walking with Everyday Ghosts” | Adjunct Minot State University | 
| (MD – 1984; PhD – 1987) | “Occupational Health and Safety in Context: An Examination of Three Polyurethane Foam Plants in Israel” | Assistant Dean, Primary Care-Population Health Chair and Professor Brown Medical School Department of Family Medicine | 
| Alex Bridges (PhD – May 2017) | “Two Monasteries in Ladakh: Religiosity and the Social Environment in Tibetan Buddhism.” | |
| (PhD – January 2016) | “Culture, Environment, and Experiences of Disability in Ladakh, India” | Assistant Dean of Research Director of Research and Sponsored Programs Gustavus Adolphus College | 
| (PhD – May 2000) | “Whom Can I Count on Today?: Contextualizing the Balance of Family and Government Old Age Support for Rural Pensioners in Mongolia” | Professor Purdue University Department of Anthropology | 
| (PhD – August 2007) | “Lived Experiences of Behavioral and Emotional Disorders in U.S. Children and Families” | Research Associate Professor Dartmouth University Department of Anthropology | 
| (PhD – May 2015) | “Biopolitics and Subjectivity: The Case of Autism Spectrum Conditions In Italy” | Assistant Professor Central Michigan University College of Medicine | 
| Brad Cassuci (PhD – August 2015) | “A Cold Wind: Local Maasai Perceptions of the Common Health Landscape in Narok South” | |
| (PhD – August 2001) | “Ugandan Women’s Health Beliefs, Social Networks and Tuberculosis Treatment Seeking” | Chair University of Maryland, Baltimore County Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health | 
| Shiuan Sanna Chen (PhD – January 2011) | “Zuo Yue Zi Sitting the Month in Taiwan: Implications for Intergenerational Relations” | |
| (PhD – May 2019) | “The Revival of “Visiting Marriage” – Family Change and Intergenerational Relations Among Matrilineal Tibetans in Southwestern China.” | Co-Principal Investigator Case Western Reserve University Department of Anthropology | 
| (PhD – May 2002) | “Self-Identity and the Acquisition of Cultural Knowledge in University Settings” | President and CEO Step Forward | 
| Elizabeth Coker (PhD – January 2001) | “The Making of the Egyptian Psychiatric Patient: Reinterpreting Cultural Symbols through Biomedical Discourse” | Independent Consultant Olympia, Washington | 
| Margaret Cooney (PhD – May 2002) | “The Experience and Knowledge of Menopause among Low-Income Cleveland Women” | Data Quality Manager | Evaluator Frontline Service, formerly MHS | 
| (PhD – 1972) | “Networks, Groups, and Local-Level Politics in an Afro-Caribbean Community” | Professor Emeritus Illinois State University | 
| (PhD – May 2002) | “Outlaws, Swindlers, and Authentic Healers: Legitimacy, Identity, and Religious Healing in Urban Turkey” | Professor Amherst College Department of Anthropology and Sociology | 
| Susan Dorsky (PhD – May 1981) | “Women’s Lives in a North Yemeni Highland Town” | |
| Delia Easton (PhD – January 1998) | “The Cultural Context of Puerto Rican Adolescents’ Perception of HIV Risk” | Research Scientist New York State Department of Health | 
| (PhD – January 2006) | “Parental Decision-Making About Children’s Participation in Clinical Research” | Research Associate Kaiser Permanent Northwest Center for Health Research Northwest | 
| (PhD – January 2012) | “Living an Uncertain Future: An Ethnography of Displacement, Health, Psychosocial Well-Being and the Search for Durable Solutions Among Iraqi Refugees in Egypt” | 
 Assistant Professor Colby College Global Studies | 
| Lillian Emmons (PhD – May 1989) | “Determinants of Dieting Behavior and Eating Disorders in High School Students” | |
| (PhD – January 1999) | “Burning Ashes-An Anthropological Study of Intellectual and Moral Judgment in the Historian’s Debate” | Program Director Metro Montessori Middle School | 
| Maureen Floriano (PhD – May 2021) | “Models of Addiction and Health Seeking Behaviors: Understanding Participant Utilization of an Overdose Education and Naloxone” | Lecturer Baldwin Wallace University | 
| Maryann Foley (PhD – 1984) | “Personal and Social Effects of Being a Carrier of Hepatitis B” | |
| (PhD – May 1985) | “Fertility and the Economic Value of Children in Pokhara Valley, Nepal” | Associate Professor and Chair Wake Forest University Department of Cultural/Applied Anthropology | 
| Joseph Galanek (PhD – January 2012) | “The Social and Cultural Context of Mental Illness in Prison” | Senior User Experience Researcher AnswerLab | 
| (PhD – May 1998) | “The Ethos of Power: Navajo Religious Healing of Alcohol and Substance Abuse” | Executive Director Mental Health & Recovery Board of Portage County | 
| Alisha Giri (PhD – 2024) | “In Pursuit of Success: Transnational Migration and Livelihood Outcomes in Rural Nepal” | |
| (PhD – May 1999) | “If it’s not Broke, Don’t Fix It: Patients’ and Clinicians’ Decision Making for Treatment of End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States” | Professor Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine | 
| N’omi Greber (PhD – May 1976) | “Within Ohio Hopewell: Analysis of Burial Patterns from Several Classic Sites” (Deceased) | |
| (PhD – January 2012) | “Negotiating Sexuality: Ritual, Culture and Change in Rural Southern Tanzania” | Research Scholar Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics | 
| (PhD – May 2023) | “Patients, Practice, and the Social Construction of Transgender among Adults” | Director of Operations The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland | 
| (PhD – May 2013) | “Imperiled Femininity: Reconfiguring Gender in a Context of Heightened Violence Against Women” | Teacher Carnegie Vanguard High School | 
| (PhD – May 2001) | “Spirits, Demons, and Nightmares: Moral Images of Self and Other in Puerto Rican Life History and Religious Discourse” | Professor and Director of Graduate Studies University of Cincinnati Department of Anthropology | 
| Ben Jiao (PhD – May 2001) | “Socio-Economic and Cultural Factors Underlying the Contemporary Revival of Fraternal Polyandry in Tibet” | Senior Researcher Tibet Academy of Social Sciences | 
| Brooke V. Jespersen (PhD – May 2023) | “In Search of Tranquility: Migration and Older Puerto Rican Adults’ Quests for a Good Old Age” | Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System | 
| (PhD – May 2007) | “Social Networks and Social Support for Tuberculosis Control in Kampala, Uganda” | Lecturer Makerere University Department of Social Work and Social Administration | 
| Kelley Kampman (PhD – May 2021) | “Mothering on MATs: The Influence of Intensive Mothering and Biomedicalized Addiction Treatment on Opioid Addicted Women’s Mothering Practices” | |
| (PhD – January 2019) | “The Social Construction of Sufficient Knowledge at an American Medical School” | Research Associate Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine | 
| (PhD – January 2017) | “The Normalization of Everyday Violence: Rights, Education, and Violence Management in Salvadoran Children’s Lives” | Research Scientist Case Western Reserve University Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods | 
| Yachun Gregory (Ku) (PhD – May 1991) | “Chinese Rural Elderly in the Post Mao Era–Two Villages in Zhejiang Province” | Instructor Lorain County Community College Sociology | 
| (PhD – January 1992) | “Risk Factors for Diarrheal Disease in Village Children in Nepal” | Associate Professor of Research University of Texas Rio Grande Valley South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute | 
| (PhD – January 2010) | “The Making of Bioethical History” | Assistant Nurse Manager University of Washington After Care Clinic | 
| Anthony Layng (PhD – 1976) | “The Carib Population of Dominica” (Deceased) | |
| Ellen Lazarus (PhD – January 1984) | “Pregnancy and Clinical Care: An Ethnographic Investigation of Perinatal Management for Puerto Rican and Low Income Women in the United States” | |
| Yi Li (PhD – May 2023) | “An Ethnographic Study of ‘The Eastern March of Tibetan Buddhism’ In Shenyang, Northeastern China” | |
| (PhD – January 2004) | “Aging and Modernization: A Field Study of the Determinants of Elders’ Social Status in American and Independent Samoa” | Research Director and Research Assistant Professor University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Epidemiology and Environmental Health | 
| (PhD – August 2004) | “Perceptions of Partner Violence among a Sample of Self-Identified Puerto Rican and Non-Hispanic White Men and Women in Cuyahoga County” | Vice Dean, Faculty Development and Professor Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine | 
| Francis Manzella (PhD – May 2019) | “What Medical Tourism Tells Us About Global Health Diplomacy and Governance: An Organizational Analysis of Civil Society in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil” | |
| Jonnie Marks (PhD – May 1998) | “Gut Feelings, the Holy Spirit, and a Processed World: Embodied Knowledge of Breast Cancer Risks in African-American Women“ | |
| Kate E. Masley, Ph.D., CD (DONA) (PhD – August 2007) | “Living the ‘Latina Paradox’: An Ethnography of Pregnant and Postpartum Mexican Immigrants in Northeast Ohio” | Special Lecturer Oakland University School of Health Sciences | 
| Dale McCall (PhD – 1976) | “A Study of the Relationship between the PTC Tasting Polymorphism and the Peroxidase of Human Saliva with Reference to Extrathyroidal Metabolism of Iodine” | |
| (PhD – May 2013) | “It’s Just Gym: African-American Adolescent Girls Enacting Physicality-Informed Identity in School Settings” | Assistant Professor University of Alabama Department of Anthropology | 
| Kathryn McGowan (PhD – January 2005) | “A Body History of Polio-related Impairments in the United States” | |
| (PhD – May 2003) | “Aging with Grace: Health Evaluation and Identity among African-American Elders” | Senior Investigator Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research | 
| (Ph.D., August 2014) | “Subjective Well-Being, Bicultural Citizenship and Identity: An Ethnography of Turkish-German Adolescent Girls in Berlin, Germany” | Co-Founder The Birth Geeks — Doula and Childbirth Educator Doula Group of Evansville | 
| (Ph.D., May 2019) | “Making Medicine Amish” | Director of Impact Girls Empowerment Network | 
| (PhD – May 1993) | “Making Babies: Routine Ultrasound Imaging and the Cultural Construction of the Fetus in Montreal, Canada” | Associate Professor Emeritus University of Victoria Department of Anthropology | 
| Michelle Nebergall (PhD – August 2014) | “Understanding Perceptions of Risk Among Youth in a South African Township” | Clinical Trial Manager Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center | 
| (PhD – August 2009) | “Nahua People of the Sierra of Manantlan Biosphere Reserve: Livelihoods, Health Experiences, and Medicinal Plant Knowledge in Mexico” | Associate Professor Southern Utah University Anthropology | 
| Kinuko Omori (PhD – January 1994) | “Sociocultural Influences on Child Health and Nutritional Status in Karen Highlanders of Thailand” (Deceased) | |
| (PhD – May 1991) | “Medical Treatment Choice and Health Outcomes in the Northern Peruvian Andes” | Professor Emeritus University of Alabama Department of Anthropology | 
| Gregory Pappas (MD – 1986; PhD – May 1986) | “The Magic City: An Ethnography of Unemployment in a Working Class Community” | Administrator Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology | 
| Isabel Parraga (PhD – May 1992) | “Dietary Beliefs, Nutritional Patterns and Nutritional Status of Urban Aymara Women and Children“ | Emeriti Associate Professor Case Western Reserve University Department of MS in Public Health Nutrition | 
| (PhD – January 2001) | “Culturally Appropriate” Mental Health Care: Wilderness Therapy for Navajo Youth” | Chief Executive Officer Museum of Us | 
| Raakhee Patel (PhD – May 2021) | “An Ethnographic Study of Doctor-Patient Communication within Biomedicine and Its Indian Variant in Mumbai” | |
| Jessica Price (PhD – May 2002) | “Culture: An Exploration of Unregulated Circulation and Consumption of Biomedicines in a Central African Town” | |
| (PhD – August 1973) | “The Principles and Theory of Radiocarbon Chronology and a Radiocarbon Chronology for LIthic Variation in the Northeastern United States during 3,000 to 500 Calendrical Years B.C.” | Adjunct Professor University of Nebraska, Lincoln Anthropology | 
| James Ross (PhD – June 1981) | (Deceased) | |
| Sarah Rubin (Ph.D., August 2014) | “Struggling and Coping with Life: Maternal Emotional Distress in a South African Township” | Associate Professor Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine | 
| (PhD – May 1997) | Gender, Poverty, and AIDS in Kabarole, Western Uganda: The Sociocultural Context of Risk and Preventative Behaviors” | Professor Makerere University Department of Sociology | 
| Christina Saunders Sturm (PhD – May 2002) | “Breast Cancer Illness Narratives: Examining the Experience of Living with Breast Cancer “ | Research Professional | 
| (PhD – 1984) | “Fort Walton Development: Mississippian Chiefdoms in the Lower Southeast“ | Research Associate Professor University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Archaeology / Anthropology | 
| (PhD – 2018) | “Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States.” | Assistant Professor University of Nebraska Omaha | 
| Megan Schmidt-Sane (PhD – May 2020) | “Men Managing Uncertainty: The Political Economy of HIV in Urban Uganda“ | Postdoctoral Researcher Institute of Development Studies, Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform | 
| (PhD – May 1995) | “Andalusian Carnaveleros and Hermanos: Cultural Schemata and Reconstructive Retrieval in Autobiographical Memory “ | Professor Pennsylvania State University Department of Applied Linguistics | 
| (PhD – 1995) | In Search of the Light in Your Eyes: Anthropological and Epidemiological Perspectives of Vitamin A Deficiency in Nelali Children “ | Associate Scientist Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health | 
| (PhD – August 2013) | “Navigating at a Double Crossroads: The Role of Subsistence in the Subjective Wellbeing of Dena’ina Athabascan Youth in Alaska“ | Senior Researcher Southcentral Foundation | 
| Joanna Skilogianis (Ph.D., January 2001) | “Great Expectations vs. State Expectations: Fertility Limitation among Women in Urban Greece ” (Deceased) | |
| (Ph.D., January 2002) | “Hazards and Help-Seeking in Inner-City Cleveland: The Child’s Perception of Neighborhood Danger, Safety, and Support “ | Associate Professor Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine | 
| David Stothers (Ph.D., 1974) | “The Princess Point Complex” (Deceased) | |
| (Ph.D., January 1977) | Speech in Louisiana Cajun Community ” (Deceased) | |
| Elena Timpeanu (Ph.D., August 1993) | “The Rise of Complex Society in the Eastern Carpatho-Danubian Region (Last Millennium B.C.)(Romania, Iron Production, Dacia) “ | |
| (Ph.D., January 1991) | “Treatment Choice, Disease Outcome and Stigma: An Investigation of Leprosy Patients and Illness Behavior in Thailand “ | Associate Professor Mae Fah Luang University | 
| (Ph.D., May 2011) | “Gardening Together: Social Capital, Health Inequality, and the Cultivation of Urban Community “ | Associate Professor Cleveland State University College of Sciences and Health Professions | 
| (PhD – May 2018) | “Growing Old with Daughters: Aging, Care, and Change in the Matrilocal Family System in Rural Tibet.” | Postdoctoral Fellow Yunnan University Department of Ethnology | 
| (Ph.D., 1982) | “The Curlee Site (8Ja7) and Fort Walton Development in the Upper Apalachicola-Lower Chattahoochee Valley, Florida, Georgia, Alabama“ | Professor University of South Florida Department of Anthropology | 
| (Ph.D., May 1987) | “Patterns of Marital Exchange and Phenotypic Differentiation in the Jirels of Nepal” | HEB Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Genomics Director, South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute Professor, School of Medicine University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | 
| Margaret Winchester (Ph.D., January 2011) | “Living with Globalization: The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Treatment in Uganda” | Independent Consultant | 
| Nyamdorj Yandag (Ph.D., may 2000) | “Basal Metabolic Rate of Mongolian Pastoral Nomads” | Social Secretary Embassy of India, Ulaanbaatar | 
| Pamela Zahorik (Ph.D., January 1991) | “Juvenile Diabetes: A Study of Children’s Perceptions of their Illness (Diabetes)“ | |
| Yan Zhang (PhD – May 2020) | “A Landscape of Dementia Care: Politics, Practices, and Morality in Shanghai, China” | Research Fellow Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine | 
| Maggie Zraly (Ph.D., January 2008) | “Bearing: Resilience Among Genocide-Rape Survivors in Rwanda” | Mental Health and Psychosocial Support & Equity Advisor The MHPSS Collaborative | 
