Felicia Madimenos

Felicia Madimenos is an Associate Professor at Queens College, CUNY, specializing in biological anthropology. Her research focuses on human health variation, particularly among the Shuar forager-horticulturalists in Amazonian Ecuador. She co-directs the Shuar Health and Life History Project, investigating the biological consequences of market integration and ecological adaptation. Her work bridges evolutionary medicine, global health, and skeletal biology.

Education: Ph.D., University of Oregon (2011).

Research interests include evolutionary perspectives on osteoporosis, infectious disease epidemiology, and the health impacts of economic transitions. She emphasizes participatory methods in remote Indigenous communities, leveraging point-of-care testing and biomarker analysis.

Key publications address cortisol patterns, helminth infections, gut microbiome shifts, and bone density disparities. She has received the Nick Norgan Award for impactful epidemiological research (2013).

Her projects integrate interdisciplinary collaborations with Ecuadorian health providers and global academic partners. Current efforts focus on sustainable health interventions, community engagement, and understanding chronic disease mechanisms through evolutionary frameworks.