I am a biological anthropologist interested in developmental biology, human evolution, and health. My group’s research explores developmental influences on adult biology and health, the psychobiology of human fatherhood, non-genetic forms of biological inheritance, and the energetics and evolution of the human brain. Our work also addresses the history and misuse of race concepts in anthropology and beyond.

I care and think deeply about the societal implications of research in human biology, and am committed to engaging beyond anthropology and beyond academia. For example, I recently testified to the State of California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, and published a 2023 Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times highlighting how health disparities in the U.S. further justify reparations to Black Americans.

I received my PhD in Anthropology and MSPH in Epidemiology from Emory University. I am currently John D. MacArthur Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, co-director of the Health Inequality Network of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.