She received her Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles. Since 1989, she has directed an archaeological project in Southwestern Tanzania dealing with the Middle and Later Stone Age and the origin of anatomically modern humans. Dr. Willoughby has published and lectured widely on these subjects. Her many professional affiliations include the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, for whom she has been (since 1994) the editor of Nyame Akuma, a bulletin on current research.