Texas State University students receive 3 out of 20 NIJ awards

Three applied anthropology graduate students from Texas State University – Theresa De Cree, Kelsey Fox and Ivanna Robledo – have received Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF) from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).

Of the 20 awards presented nationwide under this program in 2024, TXST was the only institution to receive multiple awards, with its three GRF recipients representing 15% of the national awardee pool.

Additionally, since each scholarship provides up to $180,000 and many awardees receive lesser amounts, the fact that the TXST 2024 GRF recipients received the maximum award – each the highest award ever received by a graduate student at TXST – means that the total award total is $540,000, nearly 25% of the $2.3 million awarded by NIJ in this year’s GRF competition.

The NIJ GRF provides three-year funding to support graduate students whose dissertation research is relevant to criminal and/or juvenile justice. This program contributes to the mission of the U.S. Department of Justice by expanding the pool of researchers dedicated to providing scientific solutions to problems related to criminal justice policy and practice in the United States.

With these three awards, TXST graduates have now received nine GRFs since 2019, which is particularly impressive given the program’s two-year hiatus in 2021 and 2022.

Research on bone remodeling

De Cree is a third-year doctoral student in applied anthropology. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master of Science summa cum laude in Forensic and Biological Anthropology from Mercyhurst University.

Her dissertation project, “Defining the Properties of Osseointegrated and Ingrowth Bone Around Orthopedic Medical Devices and Their Effect on Fracture Risk in Elderly Populations: A Forensic Anthropological Perspective,” is relevant to the criminal justice system in the United States due to the prevalence of elder abuse Fractures and arthroplasties in these individuals.

Her project specifically addresses the need for more research on the varying rates of bone healing depending on age and skeletal element, as outlined by the NIJ’s Forensic Science Research and Development Technology Working Group (TWG).

Her dissertation committee chair is Daniel J. Wescott, Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at TXST (FACTS). In his statement of support, Wescott wrote that De Cree’s project will contribute to the field’s understanding of bone remodeling, with applications in forensic anthropology and orthopedic medicine.

“For her dissertation, she is using the micro-CT system to study how bone is integrated into medical orthopedic implants and how this information can inform us about how bone responds to biomechanical loads,” Wescott said. “This project will not only make a significant contribution to leveraging our knowledge of bone biology, but the information can also be applied to forensic anthropology casework.”

Equivalent forensic identification

Fox is a fourth-year doctoral student in applied anthropology. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Louisiana State University.

Her dissertation project, for which she previously applied to NIJ’s GRF program in fiscal year 2023, is titled “Enhancing Equitable Forensic Identification: An Evaluation of Pelvic Morphology for Parity Detection and Age Estimation in Unidentified Skeletal Remains.”

By highlighting the increased mortality risk women face during pregnancy and childbirth due to interpersonal violence and maternal mortality, and by prioritizing data collection on Black women, Fox’s project has proven relevance to ensuring fair and impartial criminal justice administration in the United States United States .

Her dissertation committee is chaired by Michelle Hamilton, Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. In her statement of support, Hamilton wrote that Fox’s project fills a knowledge gap about pelvic changes associated with childbirth, which limits the ability of forensic anthropologists to accurately assess the age and parity status (i.e., whether someone carried a pregnancy to term) of unknown female remains.

“This research is valuable and has the potential to provide forensic anthropologists and forensic authorities with additional individualizing components to include in analyzes of the unidentified skeletal remains of women in both parturient and nulliparous status,” Hamilton said.

Identifying deceased migrants along the border

Robledo is also a fourth-year graduate student in applied anthropology whose successful application is the result of a resubmission from the fiscal year 2023 competition. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a concentration in Biological Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Master of Arts in Anthropology with a concentration in Biological Anthropology from TXST.

Her dissertation, “A Multimethod Genetic, Craniometric, and Isotopic Approach to Estimating the Geographic Origin of Unidentified Latin American Remains,” addresses a pressing problem in her field—the identification of deceased migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border—with the potential for widespread impact practical implications.

Her dissertation committee chair is Nicholas Herrmann, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Anthropology and director of geophysical surveys for Operation Identification, a humanitarian project under FACTS tasked with identifying and repatriating unidentified human remains in South Texas.

As Herrmann wrote in his statement of support, Robledo’s project “impacts the multitude of unknowns across Latin America by taking a broader geographical perspective and incorporating innovative technologies.”

Her project is relevant to the U.S. criminal justice system because it addresses the difficulty of identifying the remains of Latin American individuals by assessing their geographic origins. Their project responds to calls from the TWG and the Organization of Scientific Area Committees to evaluate novel forensic methods to improve their accuracy and reliability for geolocation and identification of human remains.

For more information about the award, visit the NIJ Graduate Research Fellowship Program page.

Republished with permission from Texas State University