Rate My Professor Heather Walsh-Haney

Heather Walsh-Haney, Ph.D., serves as Associate Professor and Department Chair of Justice Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she has been a faculty member since 2005. She earned her Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology and Forensic Anthropology from the University of Florida in 2007, with a dissertation on skeletal evidence of physical activity in hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists, and industrialists. Prior to this, she received an M.A. in Physical Anthropology and Anatomy from the same institution in 1999, focusing her thesis on skeletal evidence of health, disease, and subsistence in Florida Archaic sites Windover and Bay West, and a B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Zoology in 1996, graduating summa cum laude. Her career includes roles as Program Leader for Forensic Studies B.S. and M.S. programs since 2013, Teaching Associate at the National Forensic Academy since 2013, and Assistant Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University from 2007 to 2012. Walsh-Haney has provided extensive consulting services as a forensic anthropologist to multiple Florida District Medical Examiners' offices since 2005, the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research since 2012, and international cases including Guatemalan feminicide investigations from 2009 to 2018. She has also contributed to disaster response efforts, such as with the U.S. Public Health Service in New Orleans in 2005 and the Department of Homeland Security in 2001.

Walsh-Haney's research specializations encompass functional morphology, skeletal pathology, paleodemography, forensic anthropology, and human rights, including analyses of skeletal collections like the William R. Bass Collection, Robert J. Terry Collection, and Gautier Collection, as well as field research on ritual cannibalism in Fiji. Key publications include chapters in Forensic Odontology: Principles and Practice (2017), Disturbing Bodies (2015), and The Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (2008, co-authored); articles such as 'Kana Tamata or Feasts of Men: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Identifying Cannibalism in Prehistoric Fiji' (International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2012) and 'Sí Hubo Genocidio: Anthropologists and the Genocide Trial of Guatemala's Ríos Montt' (American Anthropologist, 2013); and contributions to Forensic Entomology (2009). She holds the Diplomate certification from the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (2019), the Faculty Excellence Award from the University of Tennessee (2018), the Maggi Popkin Human Rights Award (2010), and the Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from Florida Gulf Coast University (2010), among others. Her work has advanced medico-legal death investigations, bioarchaeological analysis, and public understanding of forensic anthropology.