Anthropology at UNCG

Sheila Jane Blanchard

Sheila Jane Blanchard graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May of 2008 with BAs in both Anthropology and English. As an adult student returning to school for the purpose of continuing to graduate school, Sheila also held a BS in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University that she received in December of 1999. Currently, she is attending Indiana University on a Graduate Fellowship, where she has earned her MA and will earn her PhD in Anthropology in Spring 2014. As a biological anthropologist with a concentration in food studies, her work focuses on human variation and the evolution of the taste sensory system. Under the guidance of her advisor, Dr. Andrea Wiley, she uses a bio-cultural framework to analyze the importance of secondary compounds, such as those found in chocolates and chili peppers, in human evolution and how these compounds influence contemporary human nutrition.

Marianne Mashburn

I graduated from UNCG in 2008 with a degree in Anthropology and no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to travel and experience other cultures; those desires eventually lead me to a job teaching English as a second language in South Korea. My first two years were spent in a tiny village in the center of South Korea teaching in a school that had only 68 students. It was amazing to be so far out of my comfort zone in the middle of a culture that was so vastly different from what I had grown up with. My next two and half years were spent teaching at a private language school in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It was very different from the countryside in the middle of nowhere and much more exciting. Now that my time is up in Korea I’m heading to Prague to get my TESOL and then I’ll be off to new places once again.

Julia Greer

Julia Greer graduated from the Department of Anthropology with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2011. Her studies were inspired by her volunteer experiences in community development in Haiti and throughout the United States.

During her junior year of study, Julia began an internship with the National Park Service. This has led to positions in Florida, Arizona and here current post in North Carolina. Now Julia is completing a Master of Arts degree in Applied Geography combining her interests in natural disaster studies and vulnerability. She has accepted a position as a Mapping Fellow for the KaBOOM! organization bringing recreational opportunities to underserved communities.

She will present at the Society for Economic Anthropology this spring on vulnerability and inequality in natural hazard. Julia plans to continue here studies through research abroad in the coming year.

Heather Tanza

While completing her degree in Anthropology, Heather Tanza did some part-time consulting in project management and marketing.  After finding the job market less than desirable upon graduation, she turned her part-time consulting work into a full-time business.  She launched her own consulting firm, H.M. Tanza Consulting, LLC, in the fall of 2011.  Now Heather spends the majority of her time assisting clients in a variety of industries with their business management and marketing needs.

Additionally, Heather has spent a great deal of her personal time participating in networking and civic organizations, like the Women’s Professional Network, the Jaycees, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  Her contributions to such organizations have been recognized at both the local and state level.  Heather has built her reputation on her ability to identify root causes of problems, offer creative solutions, and craft a plan everyone in an organization can get behind.

Heather appreciates the education she received at UNCG.  It helped to hone many of her business skills, including her public speaking skills, which she uses often.  While her consulting work has enabled her to work with people of different cultures, including Ugandans building a school and Indians trying to better conditions for the poor, she has yet to find a way to study bones in the private sector.  Thus, Forensic Anthropology is the aspect of UNCG she misses the most.

Latosha Adams

Latosha Adams is a '12 graduate and has since moved to the D.C. Metropolitan area where she currently works for United Cerebral Palsy with their External Affairs Team on public education programs and fundraising projects, while also promoting such programs via social media. She has previously interned with American Friends Service Committee as a Communications Intern in Greensboro, NC. There, she helped organize conferences and community initiatives regarding NC immigration rights, farm worker labor protections, and social justice while maintaining the company's e-mail distribution and online presence through social media. She has also interned with Dreams for Kids DC as a PR and Marketing Intern where she assisted with the planning, promotion and marketing of local community and fundraising events benefiting at-risk and disabled youth around the DC area.

Kristen Prosser

Since graduating from UNCG in May 2012, I’ve been taking a break from the academic life. I’ve traveled to Ireland to visit friends studying abroad and returned to beloved hobbies that were neglected during my studies, such as musical theatre and working with children. My focus as an undergraduate was in cultural anthropology with an emphasis on human-environmental interactions. I’m using my time away from school to indulge in hobbies again but also to strengthen my perspective on my long-term goal, which is to work with children and adults on understanding environmental challenges and solutions and learning how to apply that knowledge to create a more socially and environmentally equitable world. I plan on attending graduate school, but I’m still in the process of deciding which program is the best fit for me. In the meantime, I’m very excited about gaining more experience working with children and adults in a teaching and facilitating role while continuing to stay knowledgeable of current environmental issues through my own personal research.

Jodi Bennett-Bradshaw, BA, MPH

Since graduating UNCG in 2009 with her BA in anthropology, Jodi has been very busy.  Jodi began working part-time for the Alice Aycock Poe Center from July 2012-January 2013 where she fulfilled the role of the Guilford, Forsyth, and Alamance County’s health Program promoter and educator. Simultaneously, she continued working as the Research Associate on the USDA funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education project until September 2012.

Since the fall of 2012, Jodi has been an Adjunct Professor at Greensboro College where she teaches KIN1100, the Personal Fitness and Wellness course in the Department of Kinesiology. Jodi is also an Instructor/Research Associate for the Undergraduate Student Excellence office at UNCG. There she teaches SAS-100, Strategies for Academic Success program. This intervention program teaches various academic, time management, and organizational skills to undergraduate students who are currently on academic probation.

Because Jodi likes to stay busy, and is devoted to education at the primary, as well as higher education levels, she also is a Substitute Teacher in the Guilford County Schools.  Jodi believes that education is the key to success – and she tries to instill this notion in her students, as well as her own rising “middle-schooler.”

Sarah V. Livengood

Sarah V. Livengood graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Archaeology. She went on to earn her Master’s degree at Georgia State University where she worked in the Bioarchaeology Lab prepping hair, bone, and teeth for isotopic analysis. Her Master’s thesis is entitled, “Refining Dietary Estimates at Machu Picchu Using Combined Dental Macro/Microwear and Isotopic Analyses.”

Currently she is a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas where she is also the Lab Coordinator for the Paleoanthropology Lab. Sarah is continuing her work on utilizing combined microwear and isotopic analyses to understand diet and reconstruct past lifeways in Bioarchaeological populations. She is also researching microwear on non-human primates’ teeth using dental textural analysis and dental topographic analysis techniques. Sarah also guest lectures on human variation, diet, and disease in various undergraduate classes, and is serving as the student representative (2011-2013) for the Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association.

Wendy Stronge

Wendy Stronge graduated from UNCG Anthropology department in December 2011,moving back to Northern Ireland where she started a studentship with Queen’s University Belfast and the Royal Victoria Hospital.  She received a scholarship from the Inter Science Institute in California and a small grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Ireland to support her research.  The project required me to compile data for a study on neuroendocrine tumour (NET) prevalence and treatment options in Northern Ireland over a ten-year period. Following this studentship, she moved to London to complete a Masters in Medical Anthropology at University College London. She is currently working on her thesis for this course, which will be looking at the role of local biologies in HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.