Faculty Bios

Dr. C. Clifford (Cliff) Boyd, Ph.D.; RPA

Professor of Anthropological Sciences at Radford University; Co-Director, Radford University Forensic Science Institute; adjunct member, Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Western District.

Dr. Boyd received his Ph.D. in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of Tennessee and is an Archaeologist (specializing in Forensic Archaeology) who has taught at Radford University for over 25 years. In conjunction with his wife, he has completed over 50 forensic cases in consultation with the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and regularly conducts training workshops for law enforcement in Search, Recovery and Excavation of covert burials. Dr. Boyd has conducted archaeological and skeletal analyses of prehistoric and historic sites in Tennessee and Virginia over the past 34 years, resulting in authoring over 130 publications or technical reports and presentations of over 100 papers at professional conferences. His current research focus is the application of archaeological and anthropological theory to Forensic Anthropology. Dr. Boyd has supervised numerous geophysical remote sensing investigations of both historic and forensic sites, including the search for missing WWII Marines from Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. He is trained in the use of GPR, proton magnetometer, and electrical resistivity equipment and is regularly called upon to assist law enforcement agencies in their searches for clandestine graves. He has recently become a member of DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) Region III with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (National Disaster Medical System). Dr. Boyd serves on the SWGANTH committee “Detection and Recovery” of forensic human remains and is an Associate Member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). (Physical Anthropology section). He recently (2008) received the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia’s Outstanding Professor of the Year award. 

Dr. Donna Boyd, Ph. D.; D-ABFA

Eminent Professor of Anthropological Sciences at Radford University; Co-Director, Radford University Forensic Science Institute; Professor of Biomedical Science at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; adjunct member, Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Western District.  

Dr. Boyd received a Ph. D in Anthropology with a concentration in Physical (Biological) Anthropology in 1988 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. In 2009, she was named a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists. Since 1989, she has taught at Radford University and is currently Eminent Professor of Anthropological Sciences and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Radford University Forensic Science Institute. Dr. Boyd has conducted bioarchaeological research on human remains from archaeological sites as well as modern forensic cases for over 20 years, receiving over $730,000 in external and internal grant funding in relation to this research. She is the author of over 70 publications and technical reports and over 70 papers on human bone presented at professional meetings. As an adjunct member of the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner-Western District (VOCME), she has completed over 180 forensic case reports for this office (including numerous child abuse cases and expert testimony on these cases) and is a specialist in human bone identification. She has also assisted this office with their NIJ grant “Using DNA Technology to Identify the Missing” (cold cases). Dr. Boyd is the recipient of numerous awards honoring her teaching and research, including the 1998 Donald N. Dedmon Professorial Excellence Award from the Radford University Foundation, the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (2006), and the United States CASE/Carnegie Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (2006). Dr. Boyd served on national SWGANTH (Scientific Working Group for Anthropology) committees on Trauma Interpretation and Education in Forensic Anthropology. She is also a Fellow of AAFS and a member of the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Service’s DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team), through which she was deployed to Haiti in February, 2010, to recover, analyze, and identify American and Haitian-American earthquake victims. Her current research is on the macroscopic and microscopic skeletal signatures of antemortem and perimortem pediatric trauma and microevolutionary change in the human mandible. She, along with her husband, received a two year grant from NIJ to sponsor a series of workshops for law enforcement entitled “Innovations in Forensic Science.” Dr. Donna Boyd was recently selected as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology as well as the American Standards Board, Anthropology Group, of the American Academy of Forensic Anthropology.

Dr. Donna Boyd VITA [PDF]