Anne Burrows
Candidate Statement: AAA has been my professional home for 20 years. I came here as an eager graduate student and never left. Although I belong to other professional organizations, AAA has always been the most important. The AAA community made me feel welcome, and valued and has mentored me through the process of finding a job, getting tenure and promotion, as well as becoming an independent researcher. Without the organization and the people who make it, I wouldn’t be where I am today. As President-Elect, I would want our organization to continue being this home for members of all levels and all interests.
While my vision for our organization is broad, I would focus on two things in particular: 1) I want to further develop our mentorship program into one that is formalized for our student, post-doc, and junior faculty members. This goal would also continue to build on the significant achievements our society has made in the arena of diversity, equity, and inclusion for our current and future members. 2) I want to work to develop a procedure where the coming open access transitions for our three professional journals include a mechanism to defray these publishing costs so that students and investigators with little funding can still publish their research in our professional journals. It’s particularly important to help our members with this issue and I am eager to work with AAA executive leadership and Wiley to come up with solutions. Additionally, I want to make sure that AAA remains the home base of members who focus primarily on anatomical education as well as those who focus primarily on bench research. My current service as a member of the Board of Directors has given me a chance to work on AAA’s strategic goals and I look forward to the opportunity to continue working on them. I pledge that I would bring my energy, enthusiasm, and teamwork skills to the organization to serve our membership and the AAA of today and tomorrow.
Current Position/Institution: Professor and Endowed Chair, Department of Physical Therapy, Duquesne University
Ph.D. Institution: Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 1995
Earlier Positions: Assistant Professor (1995-2001), Slippery Rock University; Associate Professor (2007-2013), Duquesne University
Teaching: [Current] Gross Anatomy I and Gross Anatomy II (graduate and upper-undergraduate students); Are Dogs our Best Friends? (undergraduate students); [Past] Medical Gross Anatomy (medical and graduate students); Dental Gross Anatomy, Dental Head & Neck Anatomy, Dental Neuroscience (dental and graduate students); Pathophysiology (graduate students); Primate Fossil Record (upper-undergraduate students)
AAA Committee/Roles: Board of Directors (2020-present); Nominating Committee (2016-2019); Chair of the Short Term Visiting Scholarship Selection Committee (2013-2015); Membership Committee (2012-2015); Chair of the Young Anatomist Publication Award Committee (2012-2014); Symposium Organizer 2012, 2016, 2022
Other Professional Memberships Currently Maintained: American Association for Biological Anthropologists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Primatological Society
Other Professional Offices Currently Held: None
Research Interest: Morphology of the craniodental complex in gum-feeding primates, with an emphasis on origin of the toothcomb; the evolution of the domestic dog through the lens of self-domestication in humans; the evolution of facial expression in mammals; and anatomical education for allied health students with an emphasis on building curricula that focus on the needs of each allied health profession.