Kimberly Congdon, PhD
Dr. Congdon has been on the Basic Sciences faculty at Touro University Nevada since 2016. She has a PhD in Anatomy from the University of Missouri, a Master's degree in Anthropology from CUNY Hunter College, a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Stony Brook University, and an Associate's degree in Veterinary Science Technology from SUNY Delhi.
She has worked as a biology professor at Southern Utah University, and as an archaeological technician for the Louis Berger Group. Dr. Congdon is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute, has performed anthropological field work in Ethiopia and South Africa, and is the Early Career Liaison to the American Association of Physical Anthropology's Executive Committee.
Dr. Congdon teaches Human Anatomy to medical students, physician assistant students, and master's students at Touro. She also performs research into human and non-human locomotion and skeletal growth and development.
- A.A.S. in Veterinary Science Technology, SUNY College of Technology at Delhi, 2002
- B.S. in Biology, Stony Brook University, 2006
- M.A. in Anthropology, CUNY Hunter College, 2009
- Ph.D. in Integrative Anatomy, University of Missouri, 2015
Touro University Nevada:
- Physicians Assistant Human Anatomy
- Osteopathic Medicine Human Anatomy
Southern Utah University: - Human Anatomy Lecture
- Human Anatomy Laboratory
- General Biology I Laboratory
- Human Biology Lecture
- Human Biology Laboratory
- General Biology II Lecture
- General Biology II Laboratory
- Biomedical Ethics
- Dr. Congdon is interested in the relationship between form and function in the locomotor skeleton of humans and other mammals. This includes both the ways in which the skeleton is affected by our activities during our lifetimes, and how evolutionary forces shape the skeleton. Her current research focuses on how strength training vs. cardiopulmonary training impacts aspects of musculoskeletal development at different ages. She also engages in anthropological research, studying the form and function relationship of the skeleton of climbing primates, and how those relationships inform our interpretation of the human fossil record.
- Her current projects include a study of sex-based shape differences in the tibia and how they relate to clinical problems, the impact of vertical climbing on balance and motor skills, the impact of exercise on susceptibility to respiratory infection, and the relationship between long bone cross-sectional geometry and locomotor pattern.
- 2013 Leakey Foundation Grant ($13,500)
- 2016 Touro University Nevada Mentored Student Research Grant Award ($3,000)
- 2017 Touro University Nevada Mentored Student Research Grant Award ($3,000)
- Congdon, KA and MJ Ravosa (2016) Get a grip: Substrate orientation and digital grasping pressures in strepsirrhines. Folia Primatologica, 87: 224-243.
- Harcourt-Smith, WH, Z Throckmorton, KA Congdon, B Zipfel, A Deane, M Drapeau, S Churchill, L Berger and J De Silva (2015) The foot of Homo naledi. Nature Communications, 6.
- Berger, LR, J Hawks, DJ de Ruiter, SE Churchill, P Schmid, LK Delezene ... KA Congdon, AS Deane, M Dembo ... P Wei, B Zipfel (2015) Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife, 4:e09560.
- Congdon, KA (2017) Phalangeal Curvature in The International Encyclopedia of Primatology, ed. Fuentes, A. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Ravosa, MJ, KA Congdon and RA Menegaz (2013). Experimental approaches to musculoskeletal function in primates. in A Companion to Paleoanthropology, ed. Begun,DR. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Congdon, KA (2012) Interspecific and ontogenetic variation in great ape pedal phalangeal curvature. International Journal of Primatology, 33: 418-427
- Congdon, KA, AS Hammond and MJ Ravosa (2012). Differential limb loading in miniature pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus): A test of chondral modeling theory. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215: 1472-1483.
- 2014 MU Life Sciences Week 1st Place, Social and Behavioral Sciences Division ($750)
- 2014 William S. Politzer Student Travel Award ($500)
- 2009-14 Life Sciences Research Fellowship, University of Missouri, Columbia ($88,000)
- American Association of Anatomists, member since 2015
- American Association of Physical Anthropology, member since 2007
- 2016-present: Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Department, Touro University Nevada
- 2014-2016: Lecturer, Department of Biology, Southern Utah University
- 2011-2012: Teaching Assistant, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine
- 2009-2014: Life Sciences Research Fellow, University of Missouri
- 2007: Archaeological Technician, Louis Berger Group
