 Watkins currently is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the American University in Washington DC.She is conducting a long term study on the W. Montague Cobb skeletal collection, which is composed of remains of African-Americans who died in Washington D.C. between 1930 and 1969

Watkins obtained a BA in Anthropology from Howard University in 1994, a MAA in Applied Anthropology from University of Maryland, College Park in 1996 and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2003.Watkins is carrying on the work of African-American anthropologists William Montague Cobb and Caroline Bond Day.