Ellison “Ellie” McNutt is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology and a member of the Ecology, Evolution, Ecosystems, and Society (EEES) Graduate Program. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Iowa State University in 2013 and a M.A. in Biological Anthropology from Boston University in 2015. She is a biological anthropologist, whose work focuses on the evolution of bipedal locomotion and the effect of forces on bone development in early members of the human lineage. She uses functional morphology, biomechanics, and 3D surface analyses to understand changes in foot architecture across Miocene hominoids and Plio-Pleistocene hominins. Her research primarily takes place in Eastern and South Africa.