BSC Featured Speaker: Melanie Beasley on Climate Change and Wildfire Disasters: The Role of Forensic Anthropology in Mass Fatality Response

In this talk, Dr. Melanie Beasley will discuss the 2018 wildfire season in California -- the deadliest and most destructive season. Specifically, the 2018 Camp Fire utilized more anthropologists in field operations than in mortuary operations, inverting the more typical use of anthropologists. This resulted in the recovery of 85 victims across a 153,336 acre search area in under three weeks with no false-positive cases sent to the mortuary. As one of the forensic anthropologists who worked for 7 days during the recovery process, this talk will highlight the changing role of anthropology in mass fatality management.