Staff & Board
The Dhody Research Institute is the first and only nonprofit to specialize in the scientific analysis of historical materials to understand human health through time. I am excited by what we may learn to improve our health. - Robert Hicks
Anna N. Dhody, MFS
Anna N. Dhody, MFS is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dhody Research Institute. She was previously the Gretchen Worden Curatorial Chair, Mütter Museum and Director, Mütter Research Institute of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. She received her BA in archaeology from Boston University, Masters in Forensic Science from The George Washington University. A forensic anthropologist, Ms. Dhody previously served as an osteologist at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and worked with the United Nations Development Programme and the Public Ministry of Peru to identify some of the estimated 69,000 “Desaparecidos'' victims of state terrorism. Ms. Dhody is a member of the Vidocq Society, a Consulting Scholar at The University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and was appointed a Fulbright Specialist in 2023 in museum studies and physical anthropology.
Susan Bardel
Susan Bardel, a founding member of the Dhody Research Institute, brings over eight years of experience serving on a non-profit educational board to her role. She is deeply committed to facilitating research efforts aimed at uncovering historical biological samples to address contemporary medical challenges, while also advancing access to evidence-based science communication. With a strong belief in the power of collaboration and a talent for posing thought-provoking questions, Susan is dedicated to realizing the vision of the DRI.
Marianne Hamel, MD, PhD
Marianne Hamel MD, PhD is a board certified forensic pathologist She received her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, completed her residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and did her fellowship training at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York. Dr. Hamel also holds a doctorate in molecular biology from Lehigh University and owns Jersey Shore Forensics, a private pathology consultation firm that handles reviews of criminal and civil cases, exhumations, and testimony in cold cases.
She is the co-curator of the Death Under Glass project, an archive of photomicrographs of human tissue that has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and has an extensive social media following on Instagram and Twitter (@deathunderglass).
Robert D. Hicks, PhD
Robert D. Hicks, PhD is an independent scholar of the history of science and medicine. Formerly, he served as director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library and William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, and degrees in anthropology and archaeology from the University of Arizona.
His most recent books are Civil War Medicine: A Surgeon’s Experience (2019) and Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War (2024), both published by Indiana University Press.
