Looking for a captivating speaker for your academic event? Our speaker’s bureau connects faculty members with knowledgeable anthropology professionals. Discover a diverse range of experts specializing in various branches of anthropology. From cultural anthropology to archaeology and more, find the ideal speaker to enrich your classroom, workshop, conference, or event. Browse profiles, explore areas of expertise, and make direct contact to discuss engagement details. Elevate your academic experience with the expertise of our speakers today!
| Speakers | Bio | Specialization | Location | In Person | Virtual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aixa Alemán-Díaz | Aixa is AGU’s (nonprofit) Program Manager, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Aixa continues her research with two funded new projects in Puerto Rico. Prior to AGU, Aixa was the Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has worked at the NSF, NOAA, USEPA, and NIH in the US federal government. She also has done scientific and educational consulting, and volunteer/service in the United States and Puerto Rico. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from American University. | Cultural and Environmental Anthropology; Science and Technology studies | Washington DC metro | Yes | Yes |
| Alexandra Mack | Alexandra Mack (she/her) leads innovative problem solving and strategy development based on a deep understanding of the surrounding culture and activities. She has brought this combination of customer-centered design, innovation, market research, opportunity identification, business planning, and cultural change to projects across verticals, including health care, retail, software, and financial services, and is currently Director of Research at Ad Hoc, LLC where she is responsible for defining approaches and articulating a forward-thinking vision for user research and related design and experience work with our government clients. She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence with Yale Ventures, where she has mentored student venture teams and advised faculty innovators looking to translate technologies into businesses. | design, innovation, strategy, civic tech, business | Connecticut | Yes | Yes |
| Amanda (Mandy) Eversole | Originally from the Pacific Northwestern United States, Mandy relocated to the Golden state of California to study people and plants. A former consumer loan officer of eight years, at age 30, she decided it was time to reinvigorate her professional life. After finding Anthropology, she realized her life's goal and attained her Bachelor of the Arts in Anthropology, with a minor in Native American studies, from Washington State University. Mandy currently lives as a digital nomad in Northern California, works full-time as an Archaeologist with the United States Forest Service, and is a graduate student at California State University's Chico Anthropology program. She spends her free time in her "van, down by the river" and moonlights as a comedic actor. | Digital Nomadism, Governmental Archaeology, Post-Fire Archaeology, Fire Ecology | Northern California, United States | Yes | Yes |
| Andrew Marley | Driven by a keen desire to help organizations unpack and address sticky subjects like corporate culture, organizational change, and strategic planning.I trained in applied anthropology in Silicon Valley and have had the opportunity to work with organizations of various sizes across a variety of fields, ranging from a three-person non-profit to multi-national corporations employing tens of thousands. I pull from my training in anthropology, futures research, and lean thinking to illuminate and clarify people and process problems. | UX Research, Organizational Culture, Futures Research and Thinking | Cincinnati, OH | Yes | Yes |
| Asiyah Kurtz | Asiyah Kurtz is an applied anthropologist and researcher in the field of cultural sustainability. Originally from Memphis, TN, she earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Memphis where she focused on community development and organizing. Her master’s research at Goucher College connects culture to development in the local arts economy. As Executive Director of a community-based arts organization in Camden, NJ, Asiyah leads the organization using an equity-driven, assets-based approach. She subscribes to Octavia Butler’s school of thought that “There is nothing new under the sun but there are new suns.” | art, craft, Black feminist theory, alternative economy, community development, cultural traditions | Camden, NJ | Yes | Yes |
| Autumn D. McDonald | Autumn D. McDonald, owner of ADM Insights & Strategy, is a Market Researcher, Sociocultural Anthropologist, and Insights Maven with over two decades of experience in research, insights, and analytics, leading client-side insights teams at numerous Fortune 500 companies and research in industries around the globe. | Business Anthropology, Market Research, Consumer Research | Washington, DC, USA | Yes | Yes |
| Bryan Clancy | Culture is built by Human Aspiration. How much one understands culture is how one engages in the world that surrounds you. As a Sales performance consultant I am committed to coaching, teaching and learning in cohorts to make each professional better at what they do. The culture of communication starts by listening and observing and that is why I hope to actively hear what people are Saying, Doing and Believe, all around me.”Anthropology may not provide the answer to the question of the meaning of life, but at least it can tell us that there are many ways in which to make a life meaningful.” Thomas Hylland Eriksen | Corporate Anthropology, Business Anthropology | Dublín, Ireland | Yes | Yes |
| Chris Green | I am the Director of Collections & Exhibits at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. I have a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from University of Pennsylvania, specializing on the influence of museums on the Indigenous independence movement of Kanaky/New Caledonia. My background is in NAGPRA compliance, repatriation, cultural resource management, and museum education. | Museums, non-profits, cultural resource management, repatriation | Monterey, CA | Yes | Yes |
| Dominique Desjeux | Most often, companies and public authorities ask anthropologists how societies and human behavior are going to change, and how to innovate in the face of global warming. There are no a priori answers. We need to carry out qualitative surveys in a new, exotic, and unknown world, the future. I propose an approach in terms of strategic anthropology, based on observation of the games played by social players, their practices, and their material, social and symbolic constraints. The understanding of these constraints varies according to the scale of observation, the itinerary of practices, and life cycles. My contribution is mainly methodological. It enables us to understand the new social logic of innovation and change in different societies around the world, to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, raw materials, and animal protein. | Anthropology of daily life and organization | France | Yes | Yes |
| Elizabeth K. Briody | Elizabeth K. Briody has been involved in cultural-change efforts for 35+ years—first at General Motors Research and later through her consulting practice, Cultural Keys. Her projects have spanned many industries including automotive, health care, research institutions, aerospace, insurance, consumer products, and petrochemicals. Among her books are Transforming Culture and The Cultural Dimension of Global Business (9th ed.). She leads the Anthropology Career Readiness Network to improve student preparation for careers. She is Past President of NAPA and served as AAA Secretary. In 2020, Briody was honored by the Society for Applied Anthropology’s Bronislaw Malinowski award for lifetime achievement. | Organizational culture and change | Troy, MI | Yes | Yes |
| Emily Altimare | I have worked as a practicing anthropologist in consulting for nearly a decade and now I am inside a large Fortune 500. My specialization has been organizational culture, employee experience and effective communication. My PhD is in Anthropology from Michigan State University and I have a masters from Northern Arizona University in Applied Anthropology. | Lean manufacturing , change management, corporate culture, business plan deployment, operational excellence and manufacturing | Midwest, Michigan, USA | Yes | Yes |
| Emily Levitt | I've been a user researcher/insights strategist for 6+ years, working at tech companies small and large, focusing on products as broad as cloud gaming (Google Stadia), dating apps (OkCupid) and AI-enabled work productivity tools (Dropbox). I've also been a consultant at boutique firms and big 4 consulting power houses. Lots of reinvention along the way! | stakeholder management & persuasion; story telling; partnering with quant/data science | NYC | Yes | Yes |
| Gideon Singer | Digital garbologist working to solve plastic pollution and help build the circular economy with spatial data science, ethnography, and a commitment to participatory methods. | GIS and Spatial Data Science | Baltimore, Maryland | No | Yes |
| Inga Gruß | I'm a cultural anthropologist and have worked in applied health care research since completion of my PhD at Cornell in 2015. I first worked for 6 years in health services research with Kaiser Permanente in Portland, OR and have worked the last two year in clinical outcomes assessment with different consultancies (based in Ann Arbor, MI). In general, I'm available to speak in-person locally or anywhere virtually. | Health services research, health care consulting, clinical outcomes assessment, patient-reported outcomes research | Ann Arbor, MI | Yes | Yes |
| Jara Pallas-Brink | Jara Pallas-Brink is a cultural anthropologist with 15 years of experience in ethnographic research. While her primary area of study is food access and community resilience in urban US, she has a wide range of interdisciplinary experience in academia and research consulting, including contributions to peer-reviewed publications. Currently, she is a Qualitative Research Manager at Human8, a global consultancy that connects brands with people and culture. Jara uses her skills as an ethnographer to help clients think through challenges and solve complex problems. | food and culture, alternative food systems, kinship, care, community resilience, qualitative research methodology, AI in ethnography, applied anthropology, market research | Michigan | Yes | Yes |
| Jeff Solomon | First, I love working with students whenever I get the chance! I am a cultural anthropologist (doctorate, 1995) with decades of experience doing applied research in settings outside the traditional academy. My work has been in three realms: health care (e.g., U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs), education (e,g., Harvard University in non-faculty role), and user experience research, which is my current role at Nationwide Mutual Insurance. I’d love to share lessons learned about working outside the academy and answer questions students might have. I’ve learned that how one talk about and presents research—especially research using qualitative methods—is very different from how this is discussed in academia. | Qualitative methods, user experience research, interviews, focus groups, ethnography | Boston area/southern New Hampshire | Yes | Yes |
| Jenessa Mae Spears | As an Anthropologist at Consilience Group, I manage a portfolio of projects and serve as a consultant to nonprofits, government agencies, philanthropy, and health systems. I design and support community-driven solutions to persistent and complex social problems. I partner with organizations to build capacity for high impact initiatives, identify and foster partnerships, and (re)design systems for equity and sustainability. | Practice, applied, engaged, design, nonprofits, organizations, government, philanthropy, business, consulting, health systems, holistic service systems | Memphis, TN | Yes | Yes |
| Kat Hutton | I am an ethnographer and qualitative researcher who has been freelancing in private sector tech for the past two years. I graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019 with my MA in medical anthropology, where I studied surveillance capitalism and its impact on well-being. I have over seven years of experience using qualitative methods, and my specialty is to uncover the cultures that products/brands create and help build better relationships between service users and providers. | Qualitative methods, UX research, ethnography, service design | Vancouver, BC, Canada | Yes | Yes |
| Kate Gillogly | After an earlier career of applied anthropology in international settings (agricultural development, community development) in SE Asia and the South Pacific, returned to the US. Have mostly worked on issues of environment and social justice in urban and semi-urban settings. Currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where we focus on learning and doing as much as lectures. Current work is on cultural understandings and transformations of watersheds, as well as adaptations to global climate change. | environmental anthropology, agricultural development, kinship | SE Wisconsin (Greater Chicagoland / Milwaukee) | Yes | Yes |
| Katherine Metzo | I've worked in academia, grassroots policy, market research and design. My obsession with the craft of ethnography is the thread that has followed me in each of these spaces, which is really about understanding how to find the relevant answers to both stated and unspoken questions and framing our findings in ways that engage a variety of audiences and illuminate fundamental aspects of the human condition. I love mentoring others in finding their path in using the anthropological worldview in the day-to-day of their profession, regardless of where that might be, physically, technically, philosophically. | UX Research; Policy Research; the craft of research; employee-facing research; what makes you stand out in a job search (interview question strategy, case studies and portfolios) | Charlotte, NC | Yes | Yes |
| Kira Collins | I'm an Applied Cultural Anthropologist and Strategist working in a marketing agency. I'm passionate about using ethnography to gain empathetic insight into audience and user needs and crafting strategic design solutions that meet business goals. I have 7 years of experience conducting qualitative anthropological research in the private and public sectors and I have 3 years working in brand and marketing strategy. My specialty lies in understanding the cultural spaces around a brand and unearthing commonalities with audiences which make relevant marketing tactics feasible and impactful. I'm happy to speak on and answer questions around research, data, insights, anthropology, strategy, and more. | Brand and Marketing Strategy; Consumer Anthropology; UX/UI Research; Market Research; Audience Research | San Diego, CA | Yes | Yes |
| François Lamé | Socio-anthropologue de formation et expert en storytelling, je mets les méthodes anthropologiques, linguistiques et neurocomportementales au service des marques, des organisations et des entreprises depuis plus de dix ans. "Toute EXPERIENCE qui ne devient pas un RECIT est une EXPERIENCE perdue. Tout RECIT qui ne devient pas une ACTION est une histoire sans lendemain !" | UX/CX/EX, récit stratégique, design fiction | France | Yes | Yes |
| Lucie Audigier | After a master in anthropology with the EHESS (France), I became a teacher of sociology and economy in high school for seven years. It was a wonderful experience. I also had the chance to travel, open myself to new cultures, and speak four languages. But I wasn’t challenged enough, I couldn’t express fully my creativity. So I did a coaching program to help me figure out what was the best career fit for me. It became crystal clear that I was made to be a UX Researcher, studying users' behaviour to make their journey as smooth as possible. I'm now Lead User Researcher at The Innovation Loop, a French start-up working to help innovation & research to get funding. I'm working remotely so I can continue to travel around. | User research | Toulouse-France | Yes | Yes |
| Matt Artz | Matt Artz is an innovative anthropologist, designer, strategist, product manager, and entrepreneur, specializing in user experience, product development, and consumer insights. His groundbreaking design work has attracted attention from Apple's Planet of the Apps and the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Pitch Competition and his visionary ideas have been showcased on TED, UNESCO, UserZoom, UX Planet, Towards Data Science, Product Coalition, and Zapier. | Business, Design, & Digital Anth. UX & Product mgmt. | Philly/NYC | Yes | Yes |
| Natalia Zlachevsky | I am a social anthropologist graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have a master's degree in gender, society and politics (thesis in progress) and postgraduate courses in applied anthropology and anthropology of design. For fifteen years I have been working in social projects in the non-profit sector. Ten years ago I was part of the foundation of the organization engineering without borders argentina where I currently work in the training area. I also work in a program of digital inclusion of indigenous women from the gender area of FLACSO Argentina. I coordinate a degree in strategic management of social projects at the National Technological University. My interest is in participatory methodologies for the design, formulation and management of social projects. I have specialized in designing and facilitating workshops and trainings in intercultural contexts. I can formulate and coordinate projects with a human rights, intercultural and gender perspective. I have experience in training trainers and professionals to work in complex social contexts, as well as in coordinating work teams. In addition, I always seek to systematize the projects in which I have participated in order to build knowledge, learning and stories that reach people. I have studied in a university program in communication for social organizations, as well as several script and writing courses and I have coordinated editorial projects in the social sector. I have a background in interdisciplinary teams, especially with engineering professionals and architects and I am interested in building bridges between the technological world and the territories. | Social Projects, Education, Designing | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Yes | Yes |
| Noor Mohammad | Completed Master of Anthropology in 1999. Since the last 22 years served at least 19 INGOs, NGOs and Universities. Namely, ICDDR,B; BRAC, BRACU, University of Dhaka, BRRI, BCAS, NGO Forum, Govt. and autonomous institution and aligning others. Vast knowledge of interview board and research interviewing. A rare combination and Master piece served 20 organizations in 20 years in Bangladesh! Where getting a job is too hard. | Social/Cultural Anthropology , Medical Anthropology, Social Research on Public health | Bangladesh | Yes | Yes |
| Racine Brown | Racine Brown is a user experience researcher (UXR) and applied biocultural anthropologist by training. Racine has had an eclectic career so far. After completing a dissertation on the linkages between livelihoods, food security, and obesity, he did post doctoral work on traumatic brain injury in a VA health services research center. Subsequent UXR work includes startup consulting in the fintech and property tech spaces, digital consulting and leadership in the telecom space, and internal tools research for Google as a UXR for AnswerLab. He is always happy to share his experience with students and aspiring practitioners. | user experience research; business strategy research; consulting; enterprise software; improving workflows | Columbus, OH, USA | Yes | Yes |
| Reshama Damle | I am a Human-Centered Designer with technical training in languages, linguistics and Anthropology. A deep thinker in synthesizing multiple data points into story-based and inclusive products and as an interactive media developer, I produce, direct, and shape media products for web applications, training software, online educational tools, film, video and other interactive media. I am a creative and empathetic leader with an appetite for language learning and performance art and also the director of sNAPAshots: Conversations with Practicing, Professional and Applied Anthropologists with the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. | Human Centered Design | Vancouver, Canada | No | Yes |
| Richard Rosenow | Richard Rosenow is an expert in the field of people analytics with a broad track record of experiences. His industry knowledge and expertise in the field have enabled him to design and implement innovative solutions and have established him as a thought-leader in this space. With a passion for empowering HR professionals, Richard is dedicated to sharing his expertise and lowering the barriers to entry for those looking to enter the field. As the Vice President of People Analytics Strategy at One Model, Richard is tasked with sharing best practices, developing People Analytics communities, and creating cutting-edge research that supports HR and People Analytics leaders. He is committed to staying at the forefront of industry developments and actively participates in the People Analytics community by attending and promoting meetups, broadcasting open roles in People Analytics, and sharing his insights on the field via LinkedIn. | 10+ | Pittsburgh | Yes | Yes |
| Robert J. Morais | Anthropologist with career in advertising and market research, and a Lecturer at Columbia Business School. Previously Principal/Co-owner of a market research firm for 11 years, preceded by 25 years with advertising agencies rising to Chief Strategic Officer. Books: Advertising and Anthropology; Ethics in the Anthropology of Business; The Language of Branding; Refocusing Focus Groups; and Social Relations in a Philippine Town. Articles in Forbes, Ad Age, Huffington Post, American Anthropologist, Human Organization, Culture and Organization, Journal of Business Anthropology, Teaching Anthropology, Philippine Studies. PhD in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh and a certificate from NYU's Stern School of Business. | Business anthropology, market research, mixed methods, consumer insights, product innovation, business ethics | Metro New York, USA | Yes | Yes |
| Scarleth Herrera | Scarleth Milenka is a digital anthropologist/ethnographer in AI (Artificial Intelligence)- She’s the Founder, Executive Director and principal Digital Anthropologist at Orez Anthropological Research- an independent non-profit founded to educate, explore and advance research in digital anthropology. The vision for Orez is to advance research and have a better understanding of how relationships of humans interrelate with digital technologies. Scarleth Milenka is a long time member of Broward County Archaeological Society & Palm Beach Museum of natural history, Florida, Florida Anthropological Society attending and participating in workshops, lectures & events since 2015. Scarleth Milenka is fully bilingual in Spanish and English. | Digital Anthropology in AI, Data science, Big Data, Digital Ethnography, Digital Humanities, | Fort Lauderdale, Florida | Yes | Yes |
| Shawn Collins | I've spent twenty years in the aerospace and energy industries, earning a PhD in Anthropology and MS in Mechanical Engineering along the way. My work is at the interface of engineering puzzles and organizational puzzles. In addition to my professional work I've published academic research articles in anthropology and management journals. | Business anthropology | Indianapolis, IN | Yes | Yes |
| Suanna Crowley | Suanna Crowley is an applied anthropologist and consultant working with universities, nonprofits, and individuals to amplify data and discovery. Using an anthropological lens, she examines networks of communication to create effective messaging campaigns that connect broad audiences with scientific and cultural understanding. In 2019, she designed the social media plan that helped to elevate the first-ever picture of a Black Hole in front of 4.5 billion people across the globe. Suanna's background is in archaeology, environmental sciences, and cultural resources management, leading domestic and international teams. Beyond this multi-disciplinary work, she is an avid mentor of students and early career professionals. Suanna teaches, writes, and speaks about ways of bringing anthropological training and insight into many sectors. | Communication Anthropology, Science Communication, Digital Media, Public Relations, Public Policy, Branding & Marketing, Archaeology & Cultural Resources Management, Environmental Science | Boston, MA | Yes | Yes |