What's Happening

A quick note from the chair:

Welcome to the Anthropology Department!
Here, we’ll share stories from our amazing alumni and highlight what’s happening in our department. We’ll be updating this page regularly about every two weeks, so be sure to check back and see what’s new!

Erica Hawvermale

Erica Hawvermale earned her Master of Science in Applied Anthropology in 2020. Since then, she has worked in research and program evaluation.

In February 2022, Erica joined the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University as an Evaluation Associate. She now serves as a Senior Evaluation Associate, collaborating with several military-serving nonprofits on evaluation and capacity-building projects.

Outside her work at IVMF, Erica also leads evaluation efforts for Our Military Kids. While continuing in these roles, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Evaluation, Measurement, and Research at Western Michigan University, beginning this fall.

Erica is also active in professional service. She serves as the Professional Development and Programming Committee Co-chair for the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA). 

Erica's LinkedIn Erica's Website

Lisa Quirk

In December 2014, one of our UNT Anthropology alumni completed her MS in Applied Medical Anthropology along with an MPH—a combination that would shape a meaningful and impactful career. Drawn to anthropology by a lifelong curiosity about people, culture, and the deeper “why” behind human behavior, she followed a path guided by the idea that if she could do anything in the world, she would want to understand how people live, think, and evolve.

Today, she serves as a Clinical Research Manager at UT Southwestern, where she oversees more than 40 studies, including large multi-million-dollar projects across multiple research sites. She credits her anthropology background for helping her get there—both through the strong network she built during graduate school and through the analytical, communication, and learning skills she developed along the way. Anthropology taught her how to speak the language of academia, navigate complex systems, and approach problems with curiosity and adaptability.

The value of anthropology shows up in her daily life, too. Whether she’s observing how different clinical teams approach challenges, navigating the micro-cultures within a large medical environment, or encouraging her diverse staff to adapt to new changes, she finds herself constantly drawing on anthropological perspectives. It even helps her reflect on her own positionality and assumptions.

For current and future anthropology students, she offers honest and encouraging advice: be flexible, adaptable, and realistic about the roles you step into. Experience matters, and so does understanding the expectations and constraints of funded work. While not every career mirrors the romanticized fieldwork of early anthropologists, applied work can have tremendous impact. In her own career, she has helped cure thousands of people of Hepatitis C at no cost to them and contributed to shaping national cancer screening recommendations—work she describes as pretty incredible.

Her journey is a powerful reminder of what applied anthropology can do and the real-world change it can create. If you ever wondered where an anthropology degree can take you, her story is an inspiring example.

Micah J. Fleck

Micah J. Fleck earned his MS in Applied Anthropology from UNT in 2024. Before joining the program, he completed a BA in Anthropology at Columbia University and an Ed.M in Human Development at Harvard University. Micah is also an accomplished author and scholar, having published multiple books—including Anthropology for Beginners, an illustrated introduction to the field, and Privileged Populists: Populism in the Conservative and Libertarian Working Class—as well as several journal articles. In 2025, he began pursuing his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, continuing his work in research, writing, and expanding public understanding of anthropology.