Kristi L. Lewton, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

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Kristi L. Lewton is a biological anthropologist and evolutionary anatomist, and is a  Professor of Clinical Medical Education at the Keck School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Division of Integrative Anatomical Sciences at the University of Southern California.

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Kristi received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2002, her M.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University in 2004, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from ASU in 2010. From 2010-2013 she held a Postdoctoral Preceptorship at Harvard University in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. From 2014-2015 Kristi was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine where she developed the Physician Assistant Gross Anatomy Course and served as its course director. Kristi joined USC in 2015, where she holds a primary appointment in Keck School of Medicine, adjunct professor positions in Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, and a Research Associate in Mammalogy position at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

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In addition to lab-based research on postcranial morphology, Kristi currently conducts fieldwork in Ethiopia and has previously worked in archaeological excavation in Arizona and conducted fieldwork in South Africa. She has collected data at museums around the world, including in the UK, France, Madagascar, and South Africa, as well as in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Tempe, AZ, Cambridge, MA, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.