Cynthia Bradbury
Cynthia Bradbury, an anthropology adjunct instructor who had been with the department since 2011, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 22, following a battle with cancer.
Learning and teaching science was Bradbury’s lifelong passion. Over the past several years, she focused that passion on the conservation of wild primates. She led a service learning lab at Zoo Boise that developed puzzles and other items for enriching the lives of the primate species there. Students greatly enjoyed Cynthia’s service learning classes and this work helped create connections between Boise State and the zoo.
“She really cared about being an effective teacher, sharing and connecting with others and making the world a better place,” said Kara Brascia, director of the Service-Learning Program. “She invested her time and her heart in Zoo Boise, and through her anthropology service-learning class she awakened in students an awareness of important societal issues, and also an interest in field research. Cynthia generously shared her enthusiasm and teaching insights with others, including with emerging instructors. She will be remembered and missed by many of us.”
Bradbury came to the discipline of anthropology in 2009 after a long career at Micron. Prior to that, she earned a masters in applied physics from Old Dominion University and completed her graduate work at NASA Langley on space station structural materials.
In 2011, Bradbury received the Claude C. Albritton Award from the Archaeological Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. This prestigious award is given to graduate students in the earth sciences or field of archaeology for research. It provided support for her master’s thesis study of the isotope geochemistry of fossils from Paleolithic sites in Saharan North Africa. After she completed her master’s in anthropology in 2011, she retired from Micron.
A quintessential lifelong learner, Bradbury completed an extensive list of professional development workshops offered through the Center for Teaching and Learning, Service-Learning and eCampus. As both a teacher and a student, she has touched the lives of many people across campus.
In addition to teaching, Bradbury kept her hand in research activities after completing her thesis. She worked with Mark Plew on isotopic research and co-authored a number of papers and conference presentations.
“She was one of the best collaborators I have ever worked with – always to detail and ever engaging,” Plew said.
Cynthia requested that memorial donations be sent to gorilladoctors.org – a very fitting way to honor her work.
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 7:51 AM / NOVEMBER 1, 2016