Kristi L. Lewton

Kristi L. Lewton is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Education at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She also holds Adjunct Professor appointments in the Department of Biological Sciences (Dornsife College) and the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy (Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry). Additionally, she serves as a Research Associate in Mammalogy at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

• Education: BA in Anthropology (University of Washington, 2002), MA (Arizona State University, 2004) and PhD (Arizona State University, 2010) in Anthropology, Postdoctoral Preceptorship (Harvard University, Human Evolutionary Biology, 2010-2013)

Research Interests focus on primate locomotor evolution, integrating comparative morphometric and experimental biomechanics approaches. Her work examines pelvic adaptations for locomotion, modularity/integration in pelvic girdle evolution, and locomotor cost in humans. She combines laboratory experiments, museum studies, and fieldwork (South Africa, Ethiopia) for fossil hominin surveys.

Scientific Trends from her recent publications highlight interdisciplinary work in primate pelvis shape variation, human hip biomechanics, and evolutionary trade-offs between locomotion and childbirth. Her methods span finite element analysis, geometric morphometrics, and phylogenetic comparative studies.

• Scientific Awards
  • Fellow of The Linnean Society (2023)
  • Year 2 Faculty Teaching Award (2021)
  • Zumberge Individual Research Award (2017-2018)
  • Undergraduate Research Associates Program (2017-2023)
  • Short-Term Visiting Scholarship (2016)

Teaching includes human gross anatomy for medical and graduate students at Keck School of Medicine. Her NSF-funded research (BCS 1944571, 2020-2023) investigates hindlimb cortical bone adaptation in primates.