Cynthia M. Liutkus-Pierce is department chair and full professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, and served as the director of the Environmental Science Program from 2018-21.
Liutkus-Pierce is a geologist and paleoenvironmental scientist who has conducted research in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, Bermuda, Canada and throughout the United States.  Her recent research with the Turkana Miocene Project, an NSF-funded interdisciplinary collaboration involving scientists and students from more than 25 institutions/universities across the globe, focuses on reconstructing paleoenvironmental conditions in eastern Africa during the Neogene to understand the roles of climate and environmental change in the evolution of primates and our early human ancestors.

She also is lead scientist of the Engare Sero footprint project—a collaborative team of geologists, paleoanthropologists, geochronologists and volcanologists working to understand the dynamics of a group of early Homo sapiens who made over 400 footprints in a volcanic mudflow deposit in northern Tanzania about 20,000 years ago. Her work on the Engare Sero footprint site has been published in Nature's Scientific Reports and showcased by a number of news outlets including the Washington Post, National Geographic and many others. She is a committed advocate for equity and inclusion of undergraduates in research, is a National Geographic Explorer and was named a Fellow of the Explorers Club in 2017.

Liutkus-Pierce was inducted into Appalachian's Academy of Outstanding Teachers in 2016, was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2017 and was awarded the UNC Board of Governors Appalachian State University Excellence in Teaching Award that same year. Her commitment to service was celebrated in 2017 when she was awarded the Jimmy Smith Outstanding Service Award. She was selected to participate in Appalachian State University’s Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) in 2016-17 as well as the BRIDGES Academic Leadership for Women program (UNC system) in 2018.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in both geology and philosophy from Bucknell University, and a master’s and a doctorate in geological sciences from Rutgers University.