Functional morphology to skeletal pathology and paleodemography and her graduate studies focused on the evaluation of archaic hunter-gatherer remains from the subaqueous mortuary ponds of Windover and Bay West.
She has also investigated the relationship between joint surface area and long bone diaphyseal cross-sections through her analysis of the William R. Bass Collection (University of Tennessee–Knoxville), the Robert J. Terry Collection (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) and Gautier Collection (Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee, Florida).
Heather's field research has taken her to Fiji on several occasions where she has been part of a larger study concerning ritual cannibalism and foodways in modern and ancient Oceania.