In the Lab

Kelly Tapager Fox is a Collections Manager at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She has a master’s degree in bioarchaeology, specializing in human and animal skeletal remains, and has worked on archaeological sites on the East Coast and in England. She is currently overseeing the inventory and move of the Museum’s extensive archaeological collections.

Cynthia F. Bearer, M.D., Ph.D. is Chief, Division of Neonatology and William & Lois Briggs Chair of Neonatology at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics with tenure at Case Western Reserve University and Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Research.

Her laboratory is studying the impact of environmental and endogenous solvents on the development of the brain and investigating environmental exposures in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her work has been funded by NIH, CDC and U.S. EPA. Dr. Bearer is frequently invited to speak nationally and internationally. She has published more than 10 book chapters, and more than 160 peer-reviewed articles. She is a past President of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Study Group, past Chair of the Board for the Children’s Environmental Health Network, a Smith College Medalist, and the Mary Ellen Avery Awardee of the SPR/APS 2025.

Dr. Bearer has served on the Committee to Evaluate Children’s Health of the National Academy of Science, the Scientific Advisory Board for the U.S. EPA, the External Scientific Advisory Board of NIAAA/NIH; Science Advisory Board, Environmental Health Subcommittee, U.S. EPA; Member, Review Panel, National Toxicology Program for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, NIEHS/NIH; and Permanent Member, NAL and SAT study sections. She reviews for 29 journals.

Dr. Elizabeth (Ebeth) Sawchuk is a bioarchaeologist who studies modern human evolution and population history in Africa over the past 50,000 years. Her interests include how herding and farming spread into sub-Saharan Africa beginning approximately 5,000 years ago, and how ancient peoples navigated issues of climate change, shifting economic and land-use strategies, and contact with foreign groups. Her work integrates diverse lines of evidence from archaeology, skeletal biology, dental anthropology, and ancient DNA to understand how past peoples coped with major changes in their world and what lessons can be learned from their experiences.

Dr. Sawchuk has worked at field sites across eastern Africa and maintains an active research program in Kenya in collaboration with the Turkana Basin Institute and the National Museums of Kenya. Her research has been published in journals such as Antiquity, African Archaeological Review, the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Nature, Science, Science Advances, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and PLOS One (for more information, check out Dr. Sawchuk’s Google Scholar profile). Her work is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Turkana Basin Institute, and the National Geographic Society.

Dr. Sawchuk advocates for ethical research in anthropology; community-based approaches; and equity, diversity, and inclusion. She is committed to fostering equitable partnerships between archaeologists, curators, and the communities with whom they work, as well as developing best practices for museums’ stewardship of and policies for research on human remains. Recently, she co-organized the first ancient DNA and DNA conference held in Africa, hosted by the National Museums of Kenya.

Dr. Sawchuk earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Toronto and bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in anthropology, from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, she served as Banting Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada. She holds additional academic affiliations as an Adjunct Professor in Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio; a Research Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, New York; and a Research Associate with the Turkana Basin Institute, Kenya.

Research areas: Bioarchaeology, ethics, health and disease, dental anthropology, ancient DNA, Africa

Ken Schneider is the Administrative Coordinator for Research & Collections and Natural Areas at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He has been with the Museum since 2015, initially as a Seasonal Land Steward, then as Mentor Marsh Restoration Manager. Prior to coming to the Museum, Schneider worked in the nonprofit world, as a bookseller, and for many years in book publishing. Along with his colleagues, he is a 2019 recipient of the Natural Areas Association’s Carl N. Becker Stewardship Award, granted in recognition of excellence in the management and restoration of the Museum’s Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve.