Leanne Nash

Leanne T. Nash has an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of California, Davis, and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are in primate social behavior and ecology. She has worked on various species of galagos in South Africa and in East Africa and on Lepilemur in southwest Madagascar. She has also worked on Galago senegalensis in captivity in a colony that was formerly housed at ASU and maintains a continuing research affiliation for work on captive chimpanzees with the Primate Foundation of Arizona.

Nash's topical areas of focus include the relationship of ecological variables to social differences among nocturnal prosimians, the role of gum as a dietary staple in some galagos and other primates and the social development of immatures. The work on captive animals has focused on sex differences in the behavior of immatures and the nature and stability of individual differences (temperament).

Nash taught both undergraduate and graduate courses. Undergraduate courses include Primatology and Primate Behavior Laboratory, as well as the introductory course in physical anthropology, Bones, Stones and Human Evolution. Graduate courses include Primatology and topical seminars. She served on or chairs several committees of graduate students.

Nash has also been active in service to national organizations. In particular, she chaired a group that hosted an extremely successful annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Tempe in 2003. That year, she was elected to a three-year term on the AAPA Executive Board.  In 2008, Nash was honored with the annual "Distinguished Primatologist" award from the American Society of Primatologists.