Jenna Watson, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Translational Anatomy in the Department of Radiology at UMass Chan Medical School and teaches in the pre-clinical human anatomy curriculum for first and second year medical students. Dr. Watson joined the UMMS faculty in 2024 after earning a MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Dr. Watson is a trained anatomist and biological anthropologist who uses human skeletal morphology, pathology, and stable isotope analysis of bones ond teeth to explore human-environment interactions, human health and disease, and diet and geographic mobility in past human populations. Dr. Watson's research explores health, diet and migration in late medieval-early modern populations from Romania, and was funded by a Fulbright research grant. Her research interests and practical experience include bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, anatomy education, human skeletal biology, paleopathology, and epidemiology/public health. She also worked with the UTK's Forensic Anthropology Center assisting with the Body Donation Program and community outreach, forensic casework, and grant-funded research projects on human decomposition and rapid DNA analysis.

Dr. Watson also earned a BA in anthropology from Wellesley College in 2013 and then served with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC)-FEMA Corps for 10 months providing administrative support to FEMA's disaster preparedness, response and recovery projects in Missouri (Kansas City), Texas (Denton) and at FEMA headquarters in Washington DC. From 2014 - 2016 she worked as the executive assistant to the executive director at a global non-profit, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), whose mission is to use medicine and science to document and call attention to mass human rights atrocities.

Dr. Watson is passionate about guiding students through the human anatomy experience, especially in the anatomy lab and the ways it prepares students for the many aspects of clinical practice. She is also interested in finding ways to bridge her anatomy and anthropology background with medical education and believes that a hollsitic view of the human form, specifically the ways the anatomical and biological interact with social and cultural factors, is essential for medical learners as it informs patient-provider interactions.