Alumni News

Class of 2026

Meet our Grads

Lisette Victoria San Pedro (’22) graduated from Duke law school in May 2026 and will move to Vero Beach, FL to practice Trusts & Estates law. What she valued most from her time in the Department of Anthropology is the sense of belonging she found. Anthropology not only shaped her academic experience, but fundamentally transformed how she connects with others. “Our country needs professionals trained in Anthropology.”  Lisette encourages students to take as many Anthropology courses as they can and engage deeply in fieldwork and site-based learning whenever possible. Lisette stated, “take full advantage of being able to learn for the love of learning! Even more so with fieldwork, since you are unlikely to have those opportunities again.”

Sydney Comstock (’20) is living in Atlanta, Georgia and going to the Rollins School of Public Health. She will be in the Behavioral Science and Health Education Department getting a certificate in Maternal and Child Health. Sydney valued the small department that truly cared for the students and their future careers. She felt as though every professor would make time for her and genuinely wanted to get to know her as an individual. A degree in Anthropology introduced her to new ways of approaching problems in the world as well as pointed her in the direction of public health and medical anthropology. She encourages students to connect with professors and take on new opportunities! 

Qianxu Ding (’20) was an Associate Project Manager at ByteDance (developer of Tik Tok etc.) in Beijing, China and she joined the Strategic Communications program at Columbia University in Fall 2020. Qianuu stated that studying Anthropology helped her gain all the soft skills that she currently uses on her job. She thinks the department provided her with a lot of opportunities to explore and to do what she is interested in. The creative thinking development, the research & analytical skills, the management organizing skill, and presenting skills –  these are all the things she learned from different Anthropological processes. Qianxu encourages students to do what they like and there will be a lot more things they’ll discover from their Anthropological studies that they can use for their future jobs and life.

Jay Thompson (’20) is a consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP and lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoyed the small community and stated that his degree enhanced his critical thinking skills. His advice was to focus on relationship building with professors and study abroad that enhance your views and sense of purpose.

Kate Deeley (’09) is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Georgia Gwinnett College. Kate lives in Marietta, GA with her husband, her two kids and our dog. From the Anthropology Department at Wake, Dr. Deeley learned how to design and carry out a research project, how to seek advice from the faculty, and develop relationships with them, and, most importantly, that she loves Anthropology and its way of studying and seeing the world. Her degree has shaped her career in fairly obvious ways, since she now teaches Anthropology courses. Dr. Deeley’ s field school in archaeology taught her how to dig and gave her the skills she needed to be successful in graduate school and as a professional archaeologist. She loves that Wake insists on a four-field approach to Anthropology and that even if you study archaeology, you still get to learn a lot about biological anthropology and cultural anthropology. Dr. Deeley said to take advantage of every outside-of-the-classroom opportunity you can – present research papers, go on field trips, participate in the Anthro Club’s public outreach activities. 

Lisa Bendino-Anderson (’97) After earning her MA in Anthropology at Wake Forest, she has worked as a Museum Anthropologist across eight institutions. For the majority of her career, she has served in administrative roles. She is currently the Vice President of Museum Affairs for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York and resides in New Hartford, New York. Anthropology provided her with the ability to approach her work from a holistic perspective, drawing from the theory and practice of Applied Anthropology to better understand the impacts and relationships between and social institutions and communities. Lisa believes that Museum Anthropologists are well-suited to lead engagement strategies that can lead to positive social change.  

Jeremy Goldstein (’97) received his M.A. in 1997, and worked as a field Archeologist for the DOD MIA recovery and identification program. He taught 5-12 for 25 years and is now Vice President of Programs at the Trust for the National Mall, an NPS partner organization in Washington, D.C.  Anthropology is applicable in many careers, and he managed to find himself in multiple career experiences that have been fulfilling and eclectic. Anthropology is versatile- it creates a perspective on culture, organizations, and culture that not many of your peers have.

Kelly Collis (’87) has been a registered nurse, working primarily in critical/intensive care, for nearly 30 years. She currently resides in Hot Springs Village, AR.

Mark Aldenderfer (’72) Retired; Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Living in Santa Fe, NM.  Ph.D in Anthropology from Penn State (1977), Taught at SUNY-Buffalo, Northwestern, UC Santa Barbara, Arizona, and UC Merced. He no longer teaches but continues his field research in the Himalayas and writing up over 40 years of data. “Anthropology at WFU MADE my career. Weekend archaeology plus participation in two WFU field schools convinced me to have a life in anthropology.” Dr. Aldenderfer stated that his degree gave him the fundamentals of the field that have served him well over all of these years. He expressed, “If you find you love anthropology, do your best to participate in a wide range of research topics. Learn to collaborate in research; understand interdisciplinary research because you can’t do it alone. Build a network of colleagues and peers.”