Just Skeletal Remains Identification

Dr. Heather Garvin-Elling is currently an Associate Professor of Anatomy at Des Moines University, where she teaches medical students, continues her human skeletal research, and conducts forensic anthropology cases for the State of Iowa. Dr. Garvin began her journey in forensic anthropology as an undergraduate volunteer at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida. Graduating with a B.A. in Anthropology, and B.S. in Zoology, she then earned a M.S. in Forensic and Biological Anthropology from Mercyhurst College and completed a Ph.D. in Functional Anatomy and Evolution from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. From 2012-2017, she taught undergraduate and graduate students in Forensic Anthropology at Mercyhurst University, and was heavily involved in casework and research. Dr. Garvin became a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology in 2017 and has served on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Forensic Sciences since 2015. Her research interests include forensic anthropological methods, human skeletal variation, functional morphology, 3D scanning and geometric morphometrics. She has more than 30 publications and 50 national presentations related to this research and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a Member of the American Association of Physical Anthropology.