Over nearly three decades at Chico State, forensic anthropologist P Willey has helped solve hundreds of cases—bringing answers to families, justice to victims, and national recognition to the University.

Willey arrived on campus in 1989, the same year he earned board certification from the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. From day one, he jumped into teaching, sharing his deep knowledge through dozens of courses and mentoring around 15 master’s students through their thesis work in the Department of Anthropology.

That same year, he also began his work at Chico State’s Human Identification Laboratory (HIL), which provides forensic services to agencies across California. There, Willey conducted hundreds of skeletal examinations and assisted law enforcement in crime scene recoveries—turning bone fragments into stories and silence into answers.

Beyond California, Willey consulted for the Department of Defense’s Casualty and Memorial Affairs Office for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (formerly the Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii). In 2004, Willey served as morgue supervisor and senior anthropologist of the Mass Graves Project in Iraq, which sought to document atrocities in the country.

In Butte County, Willey played a key role in the victim search and recovery effort for the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. More recently, he assisted with the search, recovery, and identification efforts of fire victims in Lahaina, Maui, following the terrible wildfire in 2023, and this year he traveled to Los Angeles to assist in the Eaton Fire recovery effort.

Within the anthropology department, Willey chaired numerous committees and served as the HIL director. Nationally, he served as a board member and vice president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and as a member of the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology.

Willey has been recognized by his peers nationwide for his scholarship and contributions to the field of forensic and biological anthropology. In 2019, he was the recipient of the T. Dale Stewart Award, a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Willey has authored and co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He also co-authored, edited, and co-edited books on the history of anatomical dissection and medicine, Custer’s Last Stand, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Willey worked closely with students during his career at Chico State and that continues into retirement. After a pit of human remains was discovered at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Willey collaborated with colleagues and students to secure two National Park Service contracts to study the discovery. The results of their work culminated in a book, “Archaeology and Bioarcheology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco,” published by the University of Florida Press in 2023.