My research and educational background allows me to engage with NWU students' varied cultural and biological interests. I conducted fieldwork and research in Peru and Chile for my masters degree which investigated dietary change from the pre-Inka to the Inka in the Lluta Valley near Arica, Chile. In order to do this, I developed a reference collection of botanicals, lived and worked among the Aymara and local population, and worked in an agricultural laboratory to process my coprolite samples. In order to analyze the samples, I examined macroscopic residues and microscopic residues including pollen and starch using light and scanning electron microscopy.

I lived and worked in South Korea for four years and four months. Especially my two years working at a Korean airline allowed me to make ethnographic observations of corporate Korean culture and to travel extensively throughout Asia.

My Ph.D. research brings together my biological and cultural interests. This research will focus on Sudanese mothers living in households on welfare in Omaha, Nebraska. The main objective for this research is to reveal linkages between community resource availability, household food security, and Sudanese mothers’ food security and nutritional status.