Last year, Joanne Devlin, De Ann Pendry, and Lee Jantz were all promoted to distinguished lecturer after their many years of excellence in teaching and undergraduate student administration in the anthropology department.
Joanne Devlin teaches Anthropology 110 each semester and a variety of upper division courses that help complete our major curriculum. She is also assistant director of the Forensic Anthropology Center, director of Undergraduate Studies, and coordinates the graduate professional training series at the Forensic Anthropology Center. Devlin’s recent bio-anthropological research includes an anthropology course reader and co-PI role on grants from National Institutes of Justice.
De Ann Pendry was promoted to distinguished lecturer in 2017. Pendry teaches Introduction to Cultural Anthropology every fall and spring semester. Her advanced undergraduate courses are well attended. Her recent published research has focused on immigration policies and immigrant rights here in Tennessee. She is a co-founder of the Allies of Knoxville’s Immigrant Neighbors and created educational materials for Humanities Tennessee.
Lee Meadows Jantz was promoted to distinguished lecturer in 2017. The associate director of the Forensic Anthropology Center, Meadows Jantz is responsible for the Body Donation Program and curation of the William M. Bass Donated and Forensic Skeletal Collections. Meadows Jantz taught Human Osteology every year for decades and regularly teaches summer programs with the Forensic Anthropology Center. She was an instructor for the National Forensic Academy for over a decade and has served as a consultant to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
In spring 2018, Jan Simek’s presidential portrait was unveiled. With warm congratulations and short tributes from Jimmy Cheek and others, Simek saw the portrait, which he had not seen until the cloth was removed at the ceremony. Never one for ostentation, Professor Simek said it was a bit strange to have a portrait of him, but wonderful, and then expressed his gratefulness to serve the University of Tennessee and thankfulness to all those who made the progress possible during his tenure as president.
Barbara Heath was promoted to professor and elected president of the Society for Historical Archaeology. A longstanding member of SHA, she has previously served on the board of directors and chair of the membership committee. Professor Heath began serving a two-year term as SHA president-elect in January 2018. Her term as president begins in 2020. Professor Heath has also served on the executive board of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, as the president of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists. She is a long-standing member of the steering committee for the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery based at Monticello in Virginia.