Dawn Marie Alapisco
Dawn Marie Alapisco is an applied anthropologist who has earned two degrees from Oregon State University – an honors bachelor of science in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology (2012), and a master’s degree in Applied Biocultural Medical Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (2018). Alapisco’s undergraduate thesis centerd on a forensic analysis of a skeleton found in neighboring Scio, Oregon, and her graduate work focused on the curation of the Umm el-Jimal Osteological Research Collection from Umm el-Jimal, Jordan.
In 2008, Alapisco began working in support of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) activities at OSU, initially by counting artifacts. During her tenure as a master’s degree-seeking student, she was hired by the program as a physical anthropologist. In 2018, she became NAGPRA coordinator at OSU, her two primary focuses being the appropriate curation and repatriation of human remains and cultural items held by OSU to the 574 Federally Recognized Tribes at a Federal level, and the inventory of an expanded list of cultural items for the nine Oregon Tribes.
A former geriatric nurse, Alapisco has also worked with the Office of Research Integrity and the Anthropology program during her years at OSU. She was born in Los Angeles and raised primarily in California.