Vicki Wedel, PhD, F-AAFS

2007 University of California President s Postdoctoral Fellowship, UC Berkeley - Anthropology

2006 PhD - University of California, Santa Cruz, CA - Anthropology Dissertation Patterns of Bone Remodeling among Enslaved and Freed Historical African Americans

2001 MA - University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK - Anthropology Thesis Adult Health in a Middle Mississippian Population from Northeastern Arkansas: The MacDuffee Site

1998 MCJA - Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK - Criminal Justice Administration

1997 BA - University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK -Letters

Fellowships:

2006-2007 University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship

2004-2005 University of California President's Dissertation Year Fellowship

2001-2002 University of California at Santa Cruz Dean's Fellowship

1994 American Physiological Association Fellowship, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Department of Physiology

1993 National Institutes of Health Minority Summer Research Apprenticeship, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Department of Anatomy

Professional Consulting

• 2017-present Forensic Anthropologist, Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, CA
• 2001-present Forensic Anthropology Consultant, Various California Counties

Select Instructional Workshops

• "Determining Age and Season at Death Using Dental Cememtum Increment Analysis". (2007) Presented with Dr. Alison Galloway and Lauren Zephro at the International Association for Identification annual meetings in San Diego, CA
• "Methods of Body Recovery and Scene Preservation". (2003) Presented with Dr. Alison Galloway for the Oakland Evidence Recovery Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Academic Employment

• 2014-present Associate Professor, Anatomy, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA
• 2008-2014 Assistant Professor, Anatomy and Dental Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA
• 2007-2008 Assistant Professor, Biological Anthropology, University of California, Merced, CA
• 2006-2007 University of California President s Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California Berkeley Department of Anthropology, Berkeley, CA
• 2004-2005 Teaching Fellow, University of California at Santa Cruz Department of Anthropology, Santa Cruz, CA
• 2002-2003 Instructor University of California at Santa Cruz Department of Anthropology, Santa Cruz, CA

Additional Employment

• Forensic Anthropologiest, Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team Region IX, National Disaster Medical Service, Department of Health and Human Services

• Co-Block Lead for FOM2 HEENT/Neuroscience/Psychiatry Block
• Medical Gross Anatomy
• Intensive Summer Anatomy Course
• Head and Neck Anatomy for Dental Medicine Students

My research focuses on developing new methods for use in the identification of human skeletal remains. Currently, I am working on projects involving dental cementum increment analysis and its efficacy in determining age and season-at-death. I also work on better understanding blunt force vs. ballistic

• 2016 - Using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis to Determine Age and Season at Death in Guatemala. Western University of Health Sciences Intramural Grant ($20,000)
• 2014 - Using Dental Cementum to Determine Season at Death Using Deciduous Teeth. Co-PI, Creighton University George F. Haddix President's Research Award ($15,000)
• 2011 - Validating Cementum Increment Analysis for Determining Season at Death. Co-PI, American Society of Forensic Odontology ($2500)
• 2009 - Determining Season at Death PI, Forensic Sciences Foundation ($1900)
• 2008 - Skeletal Evidence of Evolution PI, University of California. Center for Research on Teaching Excellence ($5,000)
• 2005 - Determining Season at Death Using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis PI, Forensic Sciences Foundation ($500)
• 2004 - Biological effects of slavery and emancipation PI, Sigma Xi ($810)

• 2019 National Faculty in Anatomy, National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME).
• 2016 College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Faculty Award for Lifelong Learning in Teaching Innovation
• 2015 College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Faculty Award for Lifelong Learning in Teaching Innovation
• 2014 Inducted as Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Science Physical Anthropology Section

• American Association of Physical Anthropologists - Member
• American Anthropological Association - Member
• American Academy of Forensic Sciences - Fellow
• International Association for Identification - Member

• COMP Preclinical Subcommittee - Chair
• COMP Curriculum Committee
• CDM Curriculum Management Committee
• CDM Student Performance Committee
• COMP Curriculum Exploration Task Force - Co-chair

Books

• 2014 Wedel, VL and A Galloway (Eds.). Broken Bones: An Anthropological. Analysis of Blunt Force Trauma, 2nd Edition. Charles C. Thomas: Springfield.

Refereed Manuscripts

• 2016 Wedel, VL; Wescott, DJ. Using dental cementum increment analysis to estimate age and season of death in African Americans from an historical cemetery in Missouri. International Journal of Paleopathology. 15:134-139. Nov. 2016.
• 2014 Wedel, VL On Bodies in Formation: An Ethnography of Anatomy and Surgery Education. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 154:165. DOI:10.1002/ajpa.22478.
• 2013 Wedel, VL, G Found, and GK Nusse. A 37 Year-Old Cold Case Identification Using Novel and Collaborative Methods. Journal of Forensic Identification 63(1): 5-21.
• 2007 Wedel, VL. Determination of Season at Death Using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis. Journal of Forensic Sciences 52(6):1334-1337.
• 2007 Wedel, VL. Losing the Race: Ancestry, Identity, and the Problem of Human Variation. In Race and Anthropology, Race in Anthropology, special themed issue of the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers 95:7-22.
• 2004 Wedel, VL. Skeletal Biological Assessment; pp. 19-20 in Morgan, D.F., and Drass, R.R., Salvage Excavations at the Jewett Site: A Washita River Phase Village in South-Central Oklahoma. Oklahoma Archaeology 52(2):9-55.

Dissertation

• Wedel, VL. (2006) Patterns of bone remodeling among enslaved and freed historical African Americans. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Recent Refereed Abstracts

• 2019 V. Wedel. Validating the Use of Dental Cementum Increment Analysis to Determine Season-at-Death in Humans and Other Mammals. 67th Symposium of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy. Proceedings of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, Abstracts, 19.
• 2019 V. Wedel and TP Gocha. Reassessing determining season at death using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis (DCIA) in young adults. Proceedings of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, XXIV:65.
• 2017 V. Wedel. Expanding cementum annulation theory and method. New Approaches to Burnt Human Bones and Teeth: the Bioarchaeology of Cremations and Tooth Cementum Annulation. Austrian Academy of Sciences Institute for European and Oriental Archaeology.
• 2017 V. Wedel and K. Hermsen. Out of the Mouths of Babes: Cementum Annulation in Human Deciduous Teeth. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. S64:405.
• 2015 V. Wedel. Making the preparation phase of the flipped classroom active. Proceedings of the American Dental Educators Association. http://bit.ly/1tsloKr.
• 2015 V. Wedel and K. Hermsen. Dental Cementum Increment Analysis Can Determine Four Seasons at Death. Proceedings of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. XXI:A105.
• 2013 V. Wedel, SB Hsieh, and K. Hermsen. A Large, Known Season Validation of Determining Season at Death Using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis. Proceedings of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
• 2012 Hsieh, SB and VL Wedel. I’d give my eye teeth for dental cementum increment analysis. Proceedings of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
• 2011 V. Wedel and D. Wescott. Detecting a historical epidemic using dental cementum increment analysis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
• 2011 A. Cordy-Collins and VL Wedel. Season at Death Among the Moche Giants of Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
• 2008 Wedel, VL. Bone remodeling in historical African Americans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
• 2006 Goode-Null, SK, JE Howson, VL Wedel, LM Rankin-Hill, and EG Medford. The lived experiences of enslaved children: growth and nutritional status in historical context. Abstracts of the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association 105:252.