Biography

Alyssa Crittenden is an anthropologist and the current Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

She began her academic career in 2011 as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at UNLV, teaching courses in human biology, reproduction, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and research ethics. Her research explores the relationship between behavior, reproduction, and the environment (ecological, political, and social) with an emphasis on nutrition and maternal and infant health and well-being. For several decades, she worked with Hadzabe in Tanzania, a hunting and gathering community that still forages for a large portion of their diet. She is the recipient of the 2021 Conrad Arensberg Award from the American Anthropological Association for furthering anthropology as a natural science. Her current work with the Hadzabe community and her current role at UNLV both reflect her steadfast commitment to equitable access to education.

Additionally, Crittenden hosts "Food, Science, and the Human Body," a video series produced by The Great Courses and National Geographic, which answers perplexing questions about the evolution of the human diet, its relationship to our bodies, and why — from historical, cultural, and biological perspectives — we eat the things we eat.

Her work, both as an anthropologist and in the domain of higher education, is published in top-tier academic journals and highlighted in popular outlets, such as The New York Times, Smithsonian, National Geographic, the BBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and on National Public Radio.