Members
Commissioner Biographies
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Co-Chairs: Deputy Attorney General NIST Director and Under Secretary of Vice-Chairs: Commission Staff: Commission Members: |
Michael “Jeff” Salyards, Ph.D. Ex-Officio Members: |
Co-Chairs:
Office of the Deputy Attorney General
NIST Director & Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology
Vice-Chairs:
Nelson Santos
Mr. Santos serves as a Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He began his career in 1987 as a Forensic Chemist in Miami, Florida and has held supervisory/managerial positions in Miami, Chicago and Washington, DC. In 2006, Mr. Santos was promoted to the Senior Executive Service, where he is responsible for directing the operations of eight regional laboratories, six sub-regional laboratories and one research laboratory. In 2010, he moved into his current position as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Forensic Sciences. In this capacity, he leads the largest de-centralized forensic science laboratory system in the federal government consisting of over 550 scientific, technical, and administrative personnel. Mr. Santos has lead significant efforts to enhance DEA laboratory system operations to include achieving ISO accreditation of all DEA laboratories; implementing a system-wide integrated laboratory information management system (LIMS); developing and implementing DEA’s first centralized training program for forensic chemist; enhancing the quality assurance program’s oversight role in laboratory operations; reorganizing drug research activities and functions; streamlining and automating the delivery of digital evidence analyses results and reorganizing the latent print program to provide for increased technical oversight. Throughout his career Mr. Santos has been active in the national and international forensic science community holding several key leadership positions in prominent organizations. From 2010-2013, Mr. Santos served as the Chair of Interpol’s Forensic Science Symposium Committee where he was responsible organizing Interpol’s triennial forensics conference serving forensic science managers. He was the DEA member-representative to the White House Subcommittee of Forensic Science and served for five years as Chair of the Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs (SWGDRUG). Mr. Santos Chaired the Council of Federal Forensic Laboratory Directors (CFFLD) for three years, and from 2004-2006 he served on the Board of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD). He remains an active member of ASCLD, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Forensics Committee and Interpol’s Forensic Science Managers Organizing Committee. Mr. Santos holds a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Florida International University and a Master in Public Administration from George Mason University.
John Butler, Ph.D.
Dr. Butler has authored 150 scientific articles and invited book chapters. In 2011, ScienceWatch named him the #1 worldwide high-impact author in legal medicine and forensic science for the previous decade based on citations to his work. He has served as an invited guest to the FBI’s Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) for 14 years and currently chairs the Autosomal STR Interpretation Committee. As a member of the World Trade Center Kinship and Data Analysis Panel (2002-2005), he aided the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner in their work to identify the remains of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also served for four years (2009-2013) on the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences Science Advisory Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the International Society for Forensic Genetics and serves an Associate Editor for Forensic Science International: Genetics and on the editorial board for the Journal of Forensic Sciences.His awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2002), the Department of Commerce Silver Medal (2002) and Gold Medal (2008), the Arthur S. Flemming Award (2007), the Edward Uhler Condon Award (2010), Brigham Young University’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Honored Alumnus (2005), and the Scientific Prize of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (2003).
Jonathan McGrath, Ph.D.
Dr. McGrath serves as Senior Policy Analyst with the Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences (OIFS) in Washington, DC, and serves as the NCFS Designated Federal Officer (DFO). Prior to joining DOJ, he served eight years as a Forensic Scientist/Chemist and Science Officer for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laboratories and Scientific Services Directorate. In 2007, he joined the newly established CBP Southwest Regional Science Center in Houston, TX where he performed laboratory analysis to support CBP examinations of imported merchandise and forensic evidence, including digital evidence, latent prints, and controlled substances. Dr. McGrath frequently conducted mobile security operations and trainings to support the CBP Office of Field Operations and Office of Border Patrol. In 2011, he transferred to CBP LSSD Headquarters where he managed several forensics, trade, and WMD programs. Dr. McGrath earned his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Dallas in 2001 while completing the UD liberal arts Core Curriculum. While pursuing a M.S. in Forensic Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002, he performed an internship at the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007 where he participated in the Sam Nunn Security Fellowship Program to examine the impact of science and technology on public policy, and published several papers on his research of thermoresponsive nanomaterials.
Danielle M. Weiss
Danielle Weiss is currently a Lead Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton working as a senior-level policy and strategy consultant and technical advisor to the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences. Ms. Weiss provides analytical research, project management and technical support on a variety of portfolios and special projects involving the forensic sciences, medicolegal death investigation and missing persons issues, sexual assault response, and the law. She has been key to the development and expansion of a first-of-its-kind database system and resource center, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for which she was a lead member of the team that won a Service to America medal in 2011. Ms. Weiss also provides leadership support for two of NIJ’s very successful forensic programs: Using DNA Technology to Identify the Missing and Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence to Exonerate the Innocent. She provided technical editing for and managed the production of the most up-to-date definitive resource on the science and landscape of fingerprint identification, Fingerprint Sourcebook, one of NIJ’s most popular products. She managed or contributed to the development of numerous training programs for scientists, attorneys, medico-legal death investigators and sexual assault first responders, including “Law 101,” “DNA for the Defense,” “DNA: A Prosecutor’s Practice Notebook,” and “DNA Collection and Utilization in Sexual Assault Cases: The Role of the First Responder.” As the liaison on a number domestic and international partnerships, Ms. Weiss drafted and oversaw the development of Memoranda of Understanding between NIJ and the Netherlands; Australia; New Zealand; and the United Kingdom, to advance relationships among forensic science researchers and encourage collaborative projects. Most recently, she is managing the development of a best practices guide for the collection and processing of biological evidence in sexual assault cases, titled, National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Prior to coming to NIJ, Ms. Weiss was a Senior Attorney in the DNA Forensics Division of the National District Attorneys Association, where she developed and provided forensic science trainings for prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, scientists and law enforcement officers offered at the National Advocacy Center and other locations around the country. She has worked as an attorney, a correctional officer and a private investigator, and has written many articles dealing with the forensic sciences, the law and other criminal justice issues. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western New England University, a Juris Doctorate from Western New England University School of Law, and a Master’s degree in Forensic Sciences from the George Washington University.
Lindsay DePalma
Lindsay DePalma is an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton working as a technical consultant to the Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences (OIFS). Ms. DePalma provides executive-level analysis and support for strategic planning and program development relevant to the DNA Initiative and other NIJ forensic programs and activities. In previous years, Ms. DePalma has supported NIJ's DNA Backlog Reduction, DNA Research and Development, DNA Unit Efficiency and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Response Team (SANE/SART) Portfolios. She served as a member of the Biological Evidence Preservation Technical Working Group and assisted in drafting the Best Practices handbook for Biological Evidence Preservation. In addition to supporting NIJ, Ms. DePalma has supported the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Chemical and Biological Defense Division in the BioAssays program with developing, evaluating and validating early detection assays for tier 1 and tier 2 select agents and toxins. Prior to Booz Allen Hamilton, Ms. DePalma was the manager of the Immunobiology Department at a private biotechnology company in Maryland. Ms. DePalma provided clinical trial support by monitoring patients and non-human primates' immune responses to a HIV gene therapy and HIV vaccine developed by the company. She holds a Bachelor's degree from James Madison University in Integrated Science and Technology, and a Master's degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.
Commission Members:
Thomas Albright, Ph.D.
Dr. Thomas Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he joined the faculty in 1986. He is an authority on the neural basis of visual perception, memory, and visually guided behavior. His laboratory seeks to understand how perception is influenced by attention, behavioral goals, and memories of previous experiences. Dr. Albright currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. He served as co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Scientific Approaches to Eyewitness Identification, which produced the 2014 report Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification. Dr. Albright is director of the Salk Institute Center for the Neurobiology of Vision, adjunct professor of psychology and neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, and visiting centenary professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program. Dr. Albright received a Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University.
Suzanne Bell, Ph.D.
Dr. Bell is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico. She obtained a BS degree in 1981 from Northern Arizona University with a dual major in chemistry and police science (criminal justice) and an MS in Forensic Science from the University of New Haven in 1983. She worked at the New Mexico State Police Forensic Laboratory from 1983-1985 and for the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1985-1992. She obtained a PhD in Chemistry from New Mexico State University in 1991 and returned there to complete a post-doctoral appointment. She joined the Chemistry Department at Eastern Washington University in 1994. She worked with the Washington State Patrol to establish a BS option in the chemistry department in forensic chemistry. In 2003, she moved to a research position and joined the faculty of West Virginia University in the Chemistry Department, Analytical Division where she assists both the department and the Forensic and Investigative Sciences (FIS) in the forensic chemistry track. She oversees MS students from FIS program as well as her chemistry PhD students. To date, she has mentored nine graduating PhD students. She was tenured in 2011 and is now a Professor with research interests in gunshot residue, forensic toxicology, ion mobility spectrometry, and chemical data analysis. Dr. Bell is active in international forensic science education and training, having traveled to China, Portugal, and Brazil to present workshops and teach forensic chemistry. She is a member of the Scientific Working Group for Seized Drug Analysis (SWGDRUG) as well as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) and the American Chemical Society (ACS). She has written several text and reference books including Forensic Chemistry, the Oxford Dictionary of Forensic Science, and the 4th Edition of An Introduction to Forensic Science (editor).
Frederick Bieber, Ph.D.
Dr. Frederick R. Bieber is a Medical Geneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. His work focuses on the forensic aspects of DNA-based human identification. He has testified as an expert witness in state, federal, and military courts. As an officer in the United States Army Reserve he served at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). Professor Bieber served on the World Trade Center Kinship and Data Analysis Panel (KADAP), working with the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the DNA-based identification of victims of the September 11th attack on the twin towers, and as a member of the Hurricane Victim DNA Identification Expert Group (HVDIEG), assisting the Louisiana State Police in the identification of victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Dr. Bieber has served as a member of numerous state and federal forensic advisory boards, including the Scientific Advisory Board of the Virginia Department of Public Safety and the FBI DNA Advisory Board. He currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the National DNA Databank of Canada, the DNA Subcommittee of the New York State Forensic Commission, and as Chair of the Quality Assurance oversight committee of the United States Army DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). He served as Senior Advisor in Forensic Science to the Executive Office of Public Safety in Massachusetts, and to the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Services and Public Protection. For his public and community service Dr. Bieber has received many awards, including Distinguished Service and Public Service Awards from the Massachusetts District Attorney's Association, Massachusetts House of Representatives, Massachusetts State Police, Louisiana State Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Casadevall’s major research interests are in fungal pathogenesis and the mechanisms of antibody action. In the area of biodefense, he has an active research program to understand the mechanisms of antibody-mediated neutralization of Bacillus anthracis toxins. In recent years, Dr. Casadevall has become interested in problems with the scientific enterprise, and with his collaborators, he has shown that misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted publications. Dr. Casadevall has suggested a variety of reforms to the way science is done. He has served in numerous NIH committees, including those that drafted the NIAID Strategic Plan and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Biodefense Research. He also served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the science on the FBI investigation of the anthrax terror attacks of 2001. He served as a member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity from 2005–2014 and currently co-chairs the NIAID Board of Scientific counselors. The author of more than 630 scientific papers, Dr. Casadevall is the editor-in-chief of mBio, the first open access general journal of the American Society of Microbiology, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Previously he served as director of the division of infectious diseases at Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, from 2000–2006, and as chair of the department of microbiology and immunology from 2006–2014. In 2008, he was recognized by the American Society of Microbiology with the William Hinton Award for mentoring scientists from underrepresented groups. He has been elected to AAAS Fellowship, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association of Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine). Dr. Casadevall received both his M.D. and Ph.D. (biochemistry) degrees from New York University.
Cecelia Crouse, Ph.D.
Dr. Crouse is currently the Crime Laboratory Director of the ASCLD-LAB ISO-17025 accredited Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Crime Laboratory. She has been with the PBSO laboratory for 21 years including sixteen years as the Manager of the Forensic Biology Unit. She received a B.S. from Michigan State University and Ph.D. from the University of Miami, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and conducted a Post-doctoral Virology Fellowship in the Department of Ophthalmology of the UM Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Crouse was a Plant Genetics Research Associate with Eli Lilly and Company. Dr. Crouse has authored or co-authored over forty scientific manuscripts and invited book chapters. Research and forensic validation studies have been presented at over sixty meetings both nationally and internationally. Dr. Crouse has been a past or present member of the following: Accreditation and Certification Interagency Working Group (IWG) under the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee (NSTC) on Forensic Science, Florida Association of Crime Laboratory Directors, United States American Prosecutors Research Institute DNA Faculty Member; Attorney General Janet Reno’s Laboratory Funding Group for the National Commission for the Future of DNA Evidence. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Attorney General’s Initiative on DNA Laboratory Analysis Backlog. the FBI Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis, National Institute of Justice DNA Technical Working Group; The National Institute Justice Advisory Board for DNA Expert Systems, Journal of Forensic Science Editorial Board, Department of Defense Quality Assurance Oversight Committee for the US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, International Commission on Missing Persons Expert Panel Review Quality Assurance Quality Control as well as local and state committees and several law enforcement advisory boards.
The Honorable Gregory Champagne
Mr. Gregory Champagne is the elected Sheriff of St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, serving in this capacity since 1996. Previously, he was a felony prosecutor for the 29th Judicial District of Louisiana, from 1982–1996, where he prosecuted thousands of cases, including several capital murder cases. Sheriff Champagne is the first vice president of the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) and will assume the presidency in June 2016. He is also a past president of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and was named Louisiana Sheriff of the year in 2003. He chairs NSA’s Legal Advisors Committee and is a longtime member of the Louisiana State Law Institute’s Criminal Justice and Procedure Committee. He also is a gubernatorial appointee on the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. Sheriff Champagne earned a B.A. in Government from Nicholls State University and a Juris Doctorate from the Louisiana State University Law Center. He and his wife, Alice, a retired adult education teacher, have been married for 34 years and have two children and three grandchildren.
Gregory Czarnopys
Gregory Czarnopys has worked at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) since 1989 when he began his career as a forensic chemist at the Forensic Science Laboratory - Washington. As a manager, supervisor and chemist, he has dedicated himself to scientific methods that advance ATF’s ability to solve violent crime and provide unbiased expert testimony in criminal proceeding. Mr. Czarnopys provided forensic support following the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993; the 1996 explosion of Trans World Airlines Flight 800, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in East Moriches, New York, killing 230; the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; the D.C. snipers in 2002, the Atlanta abortion clinic bombings between 1996-1998; Washington, DC serial arson cases and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Over the years, Czarnopys has assumed increasing levels of responsibility at ATF as a supervisor and manager. In 2001, he was named chief, Arson and Explosives Section, FSL-W; in 2007, he was named chief, FSL-W, and in 2007, he became the deputy director, ATF Laboratory Services. As a leader in the forensic science community, Czarnopys has directed numerous projects, task forces and programs that have advanced scientific disciplines around the world. As a National Response Team (NRT) chemist, from 1991-2000, he led research that addressed ATF concerns regarding contamination at the scene of explosions related to clothing worn on the scene, training and remediation of explosives. The completion of his study resulted in the establishment of ATF protocols and procedures regarding the processing of explosive materials both on the scene and in the laboratory. Other scientific projects shepherded by Czarnopys during the last 15 years include disciplines such as DNA, trace evidence, tobacco analysis, fire research and the NIBIN program all of which are at the forefront of ATF’s efforts to solve violent crime and protect the public. He recently oversaw the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) -17025 accreditation of all four ATF laboratories. As a result of his efforts, ATF is a leader within the forensic science community and is a sought after partner in field. Czarnopys received a bachelor of sciences degree in criminalistics from Michigan State University (1988) and has attended ATF supervisory and managerial training classes since 2001. In 2007, he attended a two-week leadership training program presented by the prestigious Center for Creative Leadership. In addition, he completed the formal segment of the ATF Leadership Development Program and the Treasury Executive Institute/Executive Forum. Mr. Czarnopys is an expert guest speaker and an active participant in scientific forums such as the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD), past member of the Subcommittee on Forensic Sciences and is the current chair of the Council of Federal Forensic Laboratory Directors.
Deirdre Daly
Ms. Deirdre Daly was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut on March 13, 2014. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2014, and was sworn in on May 28, 2014. Ms. Daly is the first woman to be nominated and confirmed as the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut. Ms. Daly was the U.S. Attorney in an acting or interim capacity since May 14, 2013. She currently serves as a member of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and as a member of the National Commission on Forensic Science, which the Justice Department established in 2013 to improve the reliability of forensic science. Between 2010 and 2013, she was the First Assistant U.S. Attorney, during which time she assisted in the oversight of both the Criminal and Civil Divisions. From 1985 to 1997, Ms. Daly was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she prosecuted a wide range of cases, from racketeering and murder to corruption and fraud, and she later served as the Assistant-in-Charge of the White Plains office for 3 years. After leaving the Justice Department, Ms. Daly was a partner at Daly & Pavlis LLC, a Connecticut law firm with a practice focused on corporate and commercial litigation, white- collar criminal investigations, SEC enforcement actions, and corporate internal investigations and monitoring. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Georgetown University Law Center, Ms. Daly served earlier in her career as a law clerk for the Honorable Lloyd F. MacMahon, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
M. Bonner Denton, Ph.D.
M. Bonner Denton received his Bachelor of Science-Chemistry and Bachelor of Arts-Psychology degrees in 1967 from Lamar State College of Technology and his Ph.D. - Chemistry in 1972 from the University of Illinois. Today Denton is a Galileo Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Arizona. Research interests include analytical instrumentation, optical spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, separation science, and scientific imaging. Over the years Denton and his group have developed methodologies that are today widely used in the field of forensic science. He pioneered the development of high resolution array detector technology for both ultra-sensitive spectroscopic analysis and microscopic imaging. The high performance achievable in modern Raman, Fluorescence and Atomic Emission Spectroscopies, is directly traceable to contributions made by Denton and his research group. Currently Denton is applying new advanced detector innovations leading to the development of ultra-trace level explosives detection instrumentation capable of detecting small quantities of explosives at over forty meters standoff distances. Denton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy; and Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He has published over 200 peer reviewed publications and holds 15 patents in the field of chemical instrumentation.
Jules Epstein
Jules Epstein is Professor of Law and Director of Advocacy Programs at Temple Beasley School of Law, where he teaches Evidence. He has published extensively regarding the death penalty, eyewitness identification and evidence, and is faculty for the National Judicial College, teaching Evidence and Capital Case courses. In the area of forensics, Professor Epstein has worked on two DNA workgroups and in capital case trainings for NIJ, and on a working group on latent print issues for the National Institute for Standards and Technology that led to publication of LATENT PRINT EXAMINATION AND HUMAN FACTORS: IMPROVING THE PRACTICE THROUGH A SYSTEMS APPROACH ((NIST Interagency Report 7842, 2012) He is co-editor of THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE REVIEW (ABA, 2013) and THE FUTURE OF EVIDENCE (ABA, 2011) and served as section editor for the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, 2nd Edition. Professor Epstein has lectured on forensics to judges and attorneys.
John Fudenberg
John Fudenberg is the Coroner of The Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner (CCOCME) in Las Vegas, NV. The Coroner is an appointed position and functions as the head of the department, Clark County employs six full-time and eleven part-time board certified forensic pathologists. The CCOCME also employs 30 Medicolegal Death Investigators who are all ABMDI certified. There are nearly 17,000 deaths annually in Clark County and the office in vestigates nearly 75 percent of those deaths. CCOCME is the only Coroner’s Office accredited by both the International Association of Coroner’s and Medical Examiners (IAC&ME) and the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME). John has been employed with the CCOCME for 13+ years and has 16+ years of law enforcement experience from Minnesota and Las Vegas. John is the Past President for the International Association of Coroner’s and Medical Examiners (IAC&ME), served as the Chair of the Scientific Working Group on Medicolegal Investigations (SWGMDI) and the Chair of the Medicolegal Subcommittee of the OSAC.
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S. James Gates, Jr., Ph.D.
Sylvester James (Jim) Gates, Jr., a theoretical physicist known for his work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory at the frontiers of his field, received B.S. (mathematics & physics) degrees in 1973 and a Ph.D. (physics) in 1977 all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His thesis was the first at MIT on supersymmetry, a topic that has dominated fundamental theoretical physics since. He is currently University System of Maryland Regents Professor, the Toll Professor of Physics, and Center for Particle and Theory Director. He serves
on the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST), and the Maryland State Board of Education. His scientific work, together with that on STEM (science, technology, engineering, & mathematics) education policy, lead to engagements with the public and policy makers around the globe on the topics of science, STEM education and policy, and diversity. Since 1972 he has taught as a college-level instructor (mathematics/Physics) at the Univ. of Maryland, M.I.T., Caltech, Howard Univ., and Gustavus Adolphus College. He has been recognized as the recipient of College Science Teacher of the Year (Washington Academy of Sciences-1999), and the Klopsteg Award (American Association of Physics Teachers -2005). Since 1996, with ‘‘Breakthrough: The Changing Face of Science in America,’’ he appeared in seven documentaries with an eighth (‘‘Mystery of Matter: A Search for the Elements’’) scheduled for broadcast in 2014. This led to recognition with the Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award (AAAS-2006). His presence on the web is such that over one million hits have been recorded on websites affiliated with his activities. Prof. Gates is the recipient of the 2011 Medal of Science, the 2013 Mendel Medal, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts & Science, the American Physical Society, the National Society of Black Physicists, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, being a Fellow of the last three organizations and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. His election to the NAS makes him the first African-American physicist so recognized in its 150 year-long history.
Dean Gialamas
Dean Gialamas is the Division Director (civilian Chief) for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Technology and Support Division. In his role, he leads and manages the Department's technology services, which includes communications, fleet, information technology, records, biometric identification, forensic sciences, crime analysis and law enforcement information sharing programs. With over 1,100 sworn and technical personnel and a budget over $216 million, the Division supports the entire Department in the application of science, technology and innovation services to public safety. Previously he served as Crime Lab Director for both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, each ASCLD/LAB ISO 17025 Internationally accredited entities. Over his 24-year career in forensic science, he has worked in both public and private forensic laboratories. He is an active member of several professional organizations and has been appointed to several state and federal task forces and workgroups regarding forensic science issues. He served on the editorial board of the Forensic Science Policy & Management Journal, on the White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science Interagency Working Group, and is a Past-President of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors and the California Association of Crime Laboratory Directors. Mr. Gialamas also served as an instructor for several criminal justice agencies and universities, and he currently consults on forensic science management and leadership principles and issues. He holds dual majors in Chemistry and Biology from UC Irvine and a Master’s degree in Criminalistics from Cal State Los Angeles. He is professional certified in forensic science by the American Board of Criminalistics and is a proud graduate of the West Point Leadership and Command Program.
Paul Giannelli
Paul C. Giannelli is a Distinguished University Professor and the Albert J. Weatherhead III & Richard W. Weatherhead Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia, where he served as Articles Editor of the Virginia Law Review. His other degrees include an LL.M. from the University of Virginia, an M.S. in Forensic Science from George Washington University, and a B.A. summa cum laude from Providence College. After law school, he served as both a prosecutor and defense counsel in the military. Professor Giannelli has written extensively in the field of evidence and criminal procedure, especially on the topic of scientific evidence. He has authored or co-authored twelve books, including Scientific Evidence (5th ed. 2012), and has written over 200 articles, book chapters, reports, book reviews, and columns, including articles in the Columbia, Virginia, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Fordham, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Hastings law reviews. Other articles have been published in specialty journals at Northwestern, Georgetown, Texas, and N.Y.U. In addition, his work has appeared in interdisciplinary journals, such as the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Issues in Science and Technology (National Academies), International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, and the Journal of Forensic Sciences. He is also co-author of a chapter on forensic science in Federal Judicial Center/National Academy of Sciences, Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (3d ed. 2011). Professor Giannelli’s work has been cited in nearly 700 judicial opinions throughout this country (including seven decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court), as well as in foreign courts. In addition, he has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and served as: Reporter for the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Standards on DNA Evidence; co-chair of the ABA Ad Hoc Committee on Innocence; and a member, National Academy of Sciences, Bullet Lead Elemental Composition Comparison Committee.
Randy Hanzlick, M.D.
Randy Hanzlick, MD, is a board-certified forensic pathologist, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Pathology at Emory University School of Medicine, and retired Chief Medical Examiner for Fulton County, Georgia. Born in Ohio, he graduated college and medical school at Ohio State University where he also did his pathology training. After completing his forensic pathology training in Atlanta, Georgia, he remained in Atlanta and has worked in the field of death investigation since the early 1980s. He is a Past-President of the National Association of Medical Examiners and former Pathology/Biology Section Officer for the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Dr. Hanzlick is active on numerous committees for professional organizations and on multiple federal panels and projects related to death investigation and death certification, such as the CDC Guidelines for Investigation of Sudden, Unexplained Infant Death and the NIJ Guide for Death Scene Investigators. Author of two texts, several manuals, multiple chapters, and about 200 publications, Dr. Hanzlick’s major interest areas include the development of professional guidelines, improvement in death investigation practices, death certification and mortality data, electronic data system development and data sharing, and the role of the medical examiner in public health surveillance and epidemiological research. Dr. Hanzlick was also a primary developer of the original NamUs system for unidentified deceased individuals.
He has received multiple awards including The National Association of Medical Examiners’ Lifetime Service Award (2007) and Milton Helpern Laureate Award (2014), and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Distinguished Fellow Award (2009).
Hon. Barbara Hervey
Judge Barbara Parker Hervey was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in November 2000. Prior to her election, she worked for 16 years at the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in San Antonio, Texas, where she prosecuted landmark cases and trained office personnel.
Judge Hervey is currently a Commissioner on the National Commission of Forensic Science, an advisor to Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE), an advisor on the American Law Institute’s panel to rewrite the Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault and Related Offenses, and an advisor for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is also the Chair of the Court of Criminal Appeals’ Grants Committee, which awards approximately $18 million per biennium to educate participants in the Texas criminal-justice system; the Chair of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, which identifies areas of the criminal-justice system that can be strengthened; a member of the Rules Committee of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; and the Court’s liaison to the State Bar of Texas.
Formerly, she was a member of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions and the Governor’s Ad Hoc Committee to Rewrite the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. She also was a faculty member for the National College of District Attorneys, was recognized as a distinguished alumna from St. Mary’s University School of Law, and was awarded the Rosewood Gavel for Outstanding Judicial Service. Judge Hervey is an accomplished author and has spoken at more than 250 lectures, including at the National Academy of Sciences and the White House Subcommittee on Forensic Science. She also participated in a wrongful-conviction study conducted by the International Association of Police Chiefs in 2013.
Judge Barbara Hervey is a native of New Jersey and earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1975 from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her Juris Doctor in 1979 from St. Mary’s University School of Law. Judge Hervey and her husband, Richard Langlois, live in San Antonio, Texas, and have three children and two grandchildren.
Susan Howley
Susan Smith Howley has worked with the National Center for Victims of Crime since 1991, serving as its Director of Public Policy since 1999. From 2002 through 2005, she also served as the Center’s Director of Victim Services. During that time, she has worked to promote the rights and interests of crime victims, advocating for laws and policies that help victims pursue justice and recover from crime. She has also led major projects to improve the national response to victims, including co-leading Vision 21: Building Capacity, a project to examine the challenges and solutions to building the capacity of crime victim service providers, and directing a project to develop recommendations to bridge the gap between research and practice in victim services. She also oversees the National Center’s work to promote victim-centered policies and practices in the processing of backlogged sexual assault forensic evidence. Ms. Howley has served on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women, the Victims Advisory Group to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the Sexual Assault Advisory Committee for the Peace Corps. She was the 2011 winner of the Congressional Victims’ Rights Caucus’ Lois Haight Award for Excellence and Innovation. She received a J.D. in 1987 from Georgetown University Law Center.
Ted Hunt
Ted Hunt is Chief Trial Attorney at the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in Kansas City, Missouri. He has been a prosecuting attorney for over 22 years. In that time, he has prosecuted more than 100 felony jury trials, the vast majority of which have involved the presentation of forensic evidence. He is a teaching faculty member for a number of organizations that train prosecutors, law enforcement, and laboratory analysts on various aspects of the courtroom litigation of forensic evidence. Mr. Hunt is also a member of the Board of Directors for the American Society of Crime Lab Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB); a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Forensic Science Committee; and a member of the Missouri Crime Laboratory Review Commission.
Linda Jackson
Linda Jackson currently serves as Director of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (VADFS). VADFS provides scientific analysis of evidential material for all law enforcement agencies, Commonwealth’s attorneys, medical examiners and other agencies in the Commonwealth as prescribed by law; provides expert testimony at trial; maintains a DNA Data Bank; and trains law enforcement personnel on forensic related subjects.
Ms. Jackson has a B.S. degree from Wake Forest University and an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She began her career with DFS in 1995 as a Controlled Substances Examiner and then was promoted to Mass Spectrometer Operator, Section Supervisor, Controlled Substances Section Chief and Chemistry Program Manager before assuming her current position. As Director, she has worked to increase laboratory transparency by offering all Breath Alcohol instrument records and test results on the VADFS website. She has worked with the Department of Criminal Justice Services to publish annual seized drug statistics for use by Virginia public safety and public health agencies and is a member of Governor McAuliffe’s Opioid Executive Leadership Team.
Ms. Jackson was a member of the international Scientific Working Group for Seized Drug Analysis (SWGDRUG) from its inception in 1997 until 2014 and served as the Vice Chair from 2013 - 2014. She has been a certified assessor for the ASCLD/LAB-International program since 2004. She currently serves on the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Forensic Science Graduate Academic Committee. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), the Association of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD), the ASTM E30 Committee on Forensic Science and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Forensic Scientists (MAAFS). She served on the White House Subcommittee on Forensic Sciences Interagency Working Group on Standards, Practices and Protocols from 2009 - 2012.
Hon. Pam King
Pam King is a Minnesota District Court Judge, presiding in criminal, civil, family, juvenile and probate matters. She was appointed to the bench in October 2015. Previously, Ms. King was a member of the Minnesota Public Defender’s Trial Team. In this role, she worked statewide representing criminal defendants in cases involving complex litigation and/or forensic science. She also consulted with public defenders on a variety forensic issues including DNA, pathology, toxicology and drug chemistry. In 2011 she was named one of Minnesota Lawyers' Attorneys of the Year for her role in Minnesota's source code litigation. She was part of the Minnesota State Public Defender DNA Institute, working with a small group of lawyers to become proficient in forensic DNA testing and interpretation. She presents and teaches in Minnesota and nationally on forensic science issues and litigation skills. Ms. King is a fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, as well as a member of the Olmsted County and Dodge County Bar Associations. She was previously a member of Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice, National College of DUI Defense and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She graduated from William Mitchell College of Law and completed undergraduate at Drake University. Prior to working for the Minnesota State Public Defender, Ms. King had a private practice representing clients in the areas of criminal and family law.
Marc LeBeau, Ph.D.
Marc A. LeBeau, PhD, is the Chief Scientist of the Scientific Analysis Section of the FBI Laboratory. He has worked as a Forensic Chemist and Toxicologist for the FBI since 1994 and has testified in federal, state, and county courts throughout the United States.
Dr. LeBeau holds a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and Criminal Justice from Central Missouri State University (1988) and a Master of Science degree in Forensic Science from the University of New Haven (1990). He was employed in the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s Office (1990-1994), before beginning his career with the FBI. In 2005, he received his Doctorate in toxicology from the University of Maryland – Baltimore.
As a Fellow of the American Board of Forensic Toxicology, Dr. LeBeau is active in numerous scientific organizations. He is a member and Past-President of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists. Additionally, Dr. LeBeau serves as the President-Elect of The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS).
Dr. LeBeau has served as the chairman of the Scientific Working Group on the Forensic Analysis of Chemical Terrorism (SWGFACT) and co-chair to the Scientific Working Group on the Forensic Analysis on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism (SWGCBRN). He was also a co-chair of the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Toxicology (SWGTOX). He is currently the Toxicology Subcommittee Chair of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC), Chair of the AAFS Standards Board’s Toxicology Consensus Body, and a Commissioner on the National Commission on Forensic Science.
In 2004, Dr. LeBeau won the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Scientific Advancement, the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) International Visionary Award in 2008, and the Alexander O. Gettler Award from the Toxicology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 2015.
Julia Leighton
Julia Leighton is the former general counsel for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). As general counsel, Ms. Leighton advised the PDS’s Board of Trustees, the PDS management team, and PDS lawyers on a wide variety of legal issues. Ms. Leighton is also a former member of the D.C. Bar Legal Ethics Committee and a former member of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee. While serving as general counsel, Ms. Leighton was also a member of PDS’s Forensic Practice Group and was a 2001 founding member. Prior to becoming PDS’s general counsel, Ms. Leighton spent eleven years litigating criminal cases; eight years as a staff attorney at PDS, and three years as a trial attorney in the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Leighton received a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin College Magna Cum Laude, and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, Cum Laude.
Hon. Bridget Mary McCormack
Justice Bridget Mary McCormack joined the Michigan Supreme Court in 2013. Before her election, she was a law professor and associate dean at the University of Michigan Law School. Justice McCormack continues to teach there as a Lecturer. Justice McCormack is a graduate of the New York University Law School. She spent the first five years of her legal career in New York, first with the Legal Aid Society and then the Office of the Appellate Defender. In 1996, she became a faculty fellow at the Yale Law School. In 1998, she joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty and where she taught various clinical courses as well as criminal law and legal ethics. As the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, she substantially grew Michigan’s clinical offerings, founding new clinics focusing on Domestic Violence, Pediatric Health, Mediation, Low Income Taxpayers, International Transactions, Human Trafficking, Juvenile Justice, and Entrepreneurship. In 2008, she cofounded the Michigan Innocence Clinic, in which she supervised students representing wrongfully convicted Michiganders. The clinic was the first law school innocence clinic exclusively handling non-DNA cases and exonerated seven people in its first three years. Her clinic innocence work focused, in large part, on forensic science issues. Justice McCormack currently chairs the Supreme Court's Limited English Proficiency Implementation Advisory Committee and participates with a number of professional organizations including the American Bar Association Access to Justice committee, the American Bar Association Working Group on Pro Bono and Public Service, the advisory board of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, the judicial elections committee of the National Association of Women Judges, and serves as a board member of the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification. In 2013, Justice McCormack was elected to The American Law Institute.
Peter Neufeld
Peter Neufeld co-founded and co-directs the Innocence Project, an independent non-profit. The Project currently represents hundreds of inmates across the country seeking post-conviction release through DNA testing. In its twenty- five years of existence, the Innocence Project has been responsible in whole or in part for exonerating more than half of the three hundred and forty-seven men and women to be cleared through post-conviction DNA testing. The Innocence Project has been transformed from a clinical program with the single focus of exonerating the wrongfully convicted into a leadership role in identifying and addressing the systemic causes of wrongful convictions while at the same time enhancing public safety. The Project has been instrumental in reforming police practices in eye witness identification, interrogation, and forensic science. In February 2000, Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted, co-authored by Peter, Barry Scheck, and Jim Dwyer was published by Doubleday. The second edition was published by Penguin in 2003. In 2014, Peter collaborated with the New York Hall of Science on the creation and publication of the interactive iBook, False Conviction: Innocence, Guilt & Science authored by Jim Dwyer. In addition to his pro bono responsibilities at the Innocence Project, Peter is a partner in the law firm Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin, specializing in civil rights and constitutional litigation. From 1995 to his resignation in 2016, Mr. Neufeld served on the New York State Commission on Forensic Science which regulates all state and local crime laboratories. He is also a trustee of the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A 1972 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Peter received his law degree in 1975 from New York University School of Law.
Phil Pulaski
During March 2014, Chief Phil T. Pulaski retired as Chief of Detectives of the NYPD with more than 33 years of law enforcement experience. Previously, he was Deputy Commissioner of Operations and Commanding Officer of several large commands including the Intelligence Division, Counterterrorism Bureau, FBI / NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force, Detective Borough Manhattan, Detective Borough Bronx, Special Investigations Division and Forensic Investigations Division. Chief Pulaski also served as a Managing Attorney in the Legal Bureau, a captain in the Internal Affairs Bureau, Commanding Officer of the Arson and Explosion Squad, Acting Director of the Police Laboratory and Coordinator of the NYPD’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) investigative programs. As Chief of Detectives, he was responsible for more than 3600 personnel assigned to more than 150 Detective Squads and units. He successfully managed scores of major investigations including murdered police officers, shot police officers, serial killers, quadruple homicides, mass casualty incidents and civilian deaths resulting from police action. Additionally, he significantly re-engineered the Detective Bureau; and, implemented innovative new investigative operations, integrity programs, management protocols and computer systems. Chief Pulaski also served as personal adviser to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly on all forensic science matters; and, managed all of the NYPD’s forensic, digital/ multimedia, investigative and other physical evidence programs. He significantly re-engineered the operations of the NYPD Police Laboratory, Crime Scene Unit, Latent Print Section, Bomb Squad, Forensic Artist Unit, Computer Crimes Squad and Medical Examiner Liaison Unit; and, was responsible, together with the Director of the Police Laboratory, for ensuring the Police Laboratory was accredited twice under the ASCLD/LAB International Program and once under the Legacy Program. Shortly after September 11, 2001, as Commanding Officer of the FBI / NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force, Chief Pulaski managed, together with his FBI counterpart, terrorism related investigations and intelligence operations including the 9-11 World Trade Center attack and October 2001 anthrax attacks. During his tenure, the Joint Terrorist Task Force interdicted several serious threats to NYC. Chief Pulaski holds a Juris Doctor from St. Johns University School of Law, Queens NY; and practiced law for the NYPD and privately for 30 years. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from Manhattan College, Bronx NY; and worked for 4 years as an engineer for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He also worked as an adjunct assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice for 3 years. Currently, Chief Pulaski is studying for a LLM advanced law degree at Touro Law School in Suffolk, NY.
Matthew Redle
“Matt” Redle is the County and Prosecuting Attorney for Sheridan County, Wyoming. He was first elected to that position in 1986. Mr. Redle is a graduate of the Creighton University School of Law. Since 2004, Matt has served on the Permanent Rules Advisory Committee, Criminal Division for the Wyoming Supreme Court. Mr. Redle is a Past Vice-President of the National District Attorneys Association Board of Directors. He is a Vice-Chair and member of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Council. Mr. Redle is a member of the ABA Criminal Justice Standards Committee. Mr. Redle is a member of the Juvenile Prosecutor Leadership Network at the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University. He has spoken on topics relating to science, the law and legal ethics at events sponsored by the American Academy of Forensic Science, the American Bar Association, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Institute of Justice, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the Criminal Justice Section of the Indiana State Bar, among others. On September 9, 2009 Mr. Redle was privileged to testify before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in a hearing entitled “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States.”
Sunita Sah, M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D.
Dr. Sunita Sah is an expert on judgment and decision making. Her research focuses on institutional corruption, transparency, improving decisions, unconscious and unintentional bias, influence, professionalism, and advice. Incorporating organizational behavior, psychology, and behavioral economics theory, Dr. Sah studies how professionals who give advice alter their behavior as a result of conflicts of interest and the policies (such as disclosure and second opinions) designed to manage them. She serves on the National Institute of Science and Technology Human Factors Committee. Dr. Sah’s work has been published in top academic journals in medicine, management, economics, and psychology and has received coverage in the international press, radio, and television. She has won numerous best paper awards from the Academy of Management, Society of Business Ethics, Society of Judgment and Decision-Making, and Society of Personality and Social Psychology. She also serves on the editorial board of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Dr. Sah teaches Critical and Strategic Thinking at Cornell University, where she is currently an assistant professor of management and organizations and the Balen Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Prior to Cornell, Dr. Sah held academic positions at Georgetown University (teaching ethical decision making) and at Harvard and Duke Universities. Before entering academia, Dr. Sah worked as a medical doctor for the U.K.’s National Health Service going on to be senior consultant and European marketing director at IMS Health Consulting. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.B.A. with distinction from London Business School, an M.B. Ch.B. in medicine and surgery, and a B.Sc. (Hons.) in psychology from the University of Edinburgh.
Michael “Jeff” Salyards, Ph.D.
Dr. Salyards is the Executive Director of the Defense Forensic Science Center. He has served in this position since December 2012. From 2009-2012, he served as the Chief Scientist. Before coming to this position, he was a Principal Analyst with Analytic Services and authored a study about the best methods to train military personnel to collect forensic material during the conduct of military operations. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from Montana State University, a Masters of Forensic Sciences from The George Washington University and has completed a Fellowship in Forensic Medicine from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. A former Director of the Defense Computer Forensic Laboratory and AFOSI Special Agent, he has 29 years of combined experience in investigations, forensic consulting and teaching. He served as the Deputy for Operations and Assistant Professor at the Air Force Academy Chemistry Department and was honored with the Outstanding Academy Educator Award. Dr. Salyards has served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, the Department of Justice National Steering Committee for Regional Computer Forensic Laboratories, the Council of Federal Forensic Laboratory Directors, the ASCLD Board of Directors, and as a Commissioner for the Forensic Education Programs Accreditation Commission. He was appointed to the Organization of Scientific Area Committees Forensic Science Standards Board in 2016. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and has an impressive list of publications and presentations. In January of 2014, he was appointed to the National Commission on Forensic Science. Dr. Salyards is a retired commissioned officer in the United States Air Force. He has been married for 25 years and has three daughters.
Ex-Officio Members:
Hon. Jed Rakoff
Jed S. Rakoff is a Senior United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, as well as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches an upperclass seminar on Science and the Courts. . Prior to taking the bench in 1996, Judge Rakoff was a federal prosecutor (7 years) and a criminal defense lawyer (18 years). He is currently co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Scientific Approaches to Eyewitness Identification, and he previously served on the National Research Council's Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI's Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters and on the Federal Judicial Center's Committee on the Development of the Third Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. From 2007-11, he was on the Governing Board of the MacArthur Foundation Initiative on Law and Neuroscience. He has a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.Phil. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
David Honey, Ph.D.
Dr. David A. Honey currently serves as the Director, Science and Technology, and as the Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Science and Technology. In this assignment he is responsible for the development of effective strategies, policies, and programs that lead to the successful integration of science and technology capabilities into operational systems. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Honey served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Research, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering), from 31 August 2009 - 4 November 2011. Before that, Dr. Honey was the Defense Sector General Manager and a Senior Vice President in a small business pursuing innovations in national security. Dr. Honey also served on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He has also served as the Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office, Director of the Advanced Technology Office, and Deputy Director and Program Manager of the Microsystems Technology Office. Dr. Honey is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who began his military career as a pilot (B-52D/H and FB-111) and later transitioned into managing a wide variety of technical programs involving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. He received a B.S. in Photographic Science from Rochester Institute of Technology; an M.S. in Optical Science from the University of Arizona; an M.S. in Engineering Physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT); and a PhD in Solid State Science from Syracuse University.
Marilyn Huestis, Ph.D.
Professor Dr. Dr. (h.c.) Marilyn A. Huestis recently retired as a tenured senior investigator and Chief, Chemistry and Drug Metabolism Section, IRP, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, after 23 years of conducting controlled drug administration studies. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Maryland Baltimore. She is most proud of mentoring doctoral students in Toxicology, directly overseeing the research of 18 distinguished new toxicologists, and international scientists from more than 20 countries training within and outside her laboratory. Her research program focuses on mechanisms of action of cannabinoid agonists and antagonists, effects of in utero drug exposure, oral fluid testing, driving under the influence of drugs and the neurobiology and pharmacokinetics of novel psychoactive substances. Professor Huestis’ research also explores new medication targets for cannabis dependence. She has published 444 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and more than 500 abstracts were presented at national and international meetings. Professor Huestis received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College (cum laude), a master's degree in clinical chemistry from the University of New Mexico (with honors), and a doctoral degree in toxicology from the University of Maryland (with honors). Professor Huestis received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki in Finland in 2010. Other important awards include, 2016 Marian W. Fischman Lectureship Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, 2016 Saferstein Memorial Distinguished Lecturer at Northeastern University to be awarded April 2016, Excellence in Scientific Research, Women Scientist Advisory NIDA Investigator Award March 27, 2015, Norman P. Kubasik Lectureship Award, AACC Upstate New York Section May 7, 2015, Distinguished Fellow Award from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) in 2015, The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) Alan Curry Award in 2010, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Outstanding Contributions in a Selected Area of Research Award in 2008, the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT) Irving Sunshine Award in 2007, the AAFS Rolla N. Harger Award in 2005, and the Irving Sunshine Award for Outstanding Research in Forensic Toxicology in 1992. The journal Clinical Chemistry featured her as an “Inspiring Mind”. She currently serves on the National Commission on Forensic Sciences, and the Organization of Scientific Area Committee on Toxicology, World Anti-doping Agency’s Prohibited List Committee, Transportation Research Board Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and the National Safety Council’s Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division Executive Board. Professor Huestis is President of Huestis & Smith Toxicology, LLC, Senior Scientific Advisor to NMS Labs, a consultant to the Department of Transportation, and advises many diagnostics companies. She is past president of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, past Chair of the Toxicology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the first woman president of The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists.
Gerald LaPorte
Mr. LaPorte serves as the Director of the Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), where their mission is to improve the quality and practice of forensic science through innovative solutions that support research, development, technology, evaluation, and information exchange for the criminal justice community. His primary duties are to manage over $450 million in grant funds and to provide expert analysis and advice on agency-wide programs or issues of national impact relating to forensic science. Mr. LaPorte received his Bachelor of Science and Business Administration degrees from the University of Windsor (Canada) and Master of Science in Forensic Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Over the course of his 20 year career, he has worked with the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner Office (Alabama), a private clinical and forensic toxicology laboratory (Texas), the Anne Arundel County Police Department Crime Laboratory (Maryland), and the Virginia Division of Forensic Sciences. Prior to joining NIJ, Mr. LaPorte was the Chief Research Forensic Chemist for the United States Secret Service. Mr. LaPorte has over 15 publications and presented over 80 lectures and workshops. He is a member of various organizations including the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Mid-Atlantic Association of Forensic Scientists, American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, and the American Bar Association. Mr. LaPorte has served on various committees including ASTM, SWGDOC, and co-chair for the Standards Practices and Protocols Interagency Working Group within the Subcommittee on Forensic Science. Mr. LaPorte received the “MAAFS 2005 Forensic Scientist of the Year” award, as well as numerous commendations, including the “Law Enforcement Public Service Award” from the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia. He has testified as an expert over 75 times in international, federal, and state courts.
Patricia Manzolillo
Ms. Manzolillo began her career with USPIS in 1996 in the Memphis Forensic Laboratory as a Forensic Document Examiner. In 2003 she was promoted to Assistant Laboratory Director in the National Forensic Laboratory in Dulles VA and assumed her current position of Laboratory Director in January 2009. Ms. Manzolillo is responsible for all forensic services supporting USPIS and USPS investigations. This includes the 45,000 square foot National Forensic Laboratory, the Digital Evidence Unit’s 20 field locations and 68 forensic and administrative personnel in seven primary and 18 sub-categories of testing. Ms. Manzolillo received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1992 and a Master of Science in Forensic Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1996. Ms. Manzolillo has co-authored papers in several peer reviewed journals. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors and was chair of the ASTM E30 Committee on Forensic Sciences from 2008 through 2013. Ms. Manzolillo is certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners. From 2009 to 2012 she represented the USPIS on the OSTP National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Forensic Science. Ms. Manzolillo chaired the Subcommittee’s Interagency Working Group on Accreditation and Certification leading thirty federal, state and local forensic scientists in the development of white papers on accreditation, certification and proficiency testing. Ms. Manzolillo has led numerous projects in her career including collaboration with a Department of Energy National Laboratory on a project funded by a grant from the US Technical Support Working Group to study the individuality of handwriting. Ms. Manzolillo also led the USPIS National Forensic Laboratory to successful accreditation by ASCLD-LAB in 2010 achieving a goal that had existed for over 10 years.
Frances Schrotter
Frances E. Schrotter is senior vice president and chief operating officer at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In this position, she has primary responsibility for the Institute’s activities supporting and facilitating the participation of U.S. interests in domestic, regional, and international standardization activities. Ms. Schrotter works closely with government agencies and public-sector stakeholders to explore how the private sector can assist in addressing their standardization needs. In addition, she collaborates with the ANSI constituency and other affected interests to identify the need for new standards and conformance programs and works with these groups to facilitate their timely implementation. Her role encompasses management of the ANSI administrative operations, including membership, communications, education and training services, and human resources, as well as overseeing the Institute’s cross-stakeholder forums for homeland defense and security, nanotechnology, electric vehicles, nuclear energy, energy efficiency, and identity theft protection and identity management. Since joining ANSI in 1976, Ms. Schrotter has worked with numerous domestic and international committees developing standards in dozens of industries, including the information technology standards arena, where she served as the first international secretariat of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology. Ms. Schrotter was born and raised in New York City.
ANSI is a not-for-profit membership organization that brings together organizations from both the private and public sectors dedicated to furthering U.S. and international voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessments. ANSI accredits national standards developing organizations and approves American National Standards. It is the sole U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ANSI is also a member of the International Accreditation Forum, the Pacific Area Standards Congress, and the Pan American Standards Commission.
Kathryn Turman
Kathryn M. Turman is the Assistant Director of the FBI's Office of Victim Assistance in Washington, D.C. She oversees assistance to victims of federal crimes across the FBI, including services to child victims, Native American victims, victims of terrorism, and U.S. citizens who are taken hostage in foreign countries. She created and oversees the multi-disciplinary FBI Victim Assistance Rapid Deployment Team, a uniquely experienced cadre of FBI victim specialists, agents, evidence recovery specialists, and disaster management specialists that has provided crisis response to victims of more than 20 incidents of terrorism and mass violence across the US in the past 10 years. Ms. Turman served in the Department of Justice from 1991 until 2002, first as Director of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Program, as Chief of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and as Deputy Director then Director of the Office for Victims of Crime before moving to the FBI in January 2002. Ms. Turman created the first forensic child interviewing program in the Federal government and authored the first publications for victims and victim services providers explaining the role of DNA evidence in the criminal justice process. Under her leadership the Office for Victims of Crime sponsored innovative programs such as a telemedicine program by which forensic pediatricians located in urban hospitals could examine and consult with local physicians and nurses on child abuse cases in Indian Country and rural communities. Ms. Turman has served on numerous national task forces, boards, and Federal Advisory Committees, including the White House Hostage Policy Review, the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Federal Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Response Team, American Indian/Alaska Native Initiative. Ms. Turman authored a number of professional articles and Department of Justice publications for victims and law enforcement professionals on issues such as reunification of missing children and victim and family management and assistance after terrorism and mass casualty incidents. For her overall leadership on behalf of victims she received the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the highest award provided by the Department of Justice in 2001. She was a 2005 recipient of the National Crime Victims Services Award from the Attorney General, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, and National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citations for her work on the Pan Am 103/Lockerbie prosecution and on the Hostage Policy Review Team. Ms. Turman was a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2007 and the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service in 2015.
Rebecca Ferrell, Ph.D.
Rebecca J. Ferrell, Ph.D., is Program Director of the Biological Anthropology Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she also serves as co-lead of NSF's forensic science efforts. She received her doctorate in Anthropology from the Pennsylvania State University, after which she was a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Population and Health and an assistant professor of Anthropology at Howard University. Dr. Ferrell specializes in skeletal and dental anthropology, and is interested in using the skeleton and dental microstructure to understand stress, health, aging, and mortality in past and present human populations. She has also conducted research on human reproductive aging and the evolution of menopause, and is broadly interested in research on aging. In 2009, she transitioned to federal research administration as a Scientific Review Officer at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she served as a designated federal official for the peer review of grant proposals. At both NIH and NSF, she has served on working groups to address regulatory and processual challenges in peer review. Since arriving at NSF in 2014, Dr. Ferrell has managed a diverse portfolio of research on human and primate evolution, behavior, and biology. She is also working with colleagues across NSF and at other agencies to identify and cultivate basic research with relevance to forensic science, and to launch a forensic science Industry-University Cooperative Research Center.
Troy Lawrence
Troy Lawrence is a twenty-eight year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department and is currently a sergeant assigned to the Digital Forensic Lab. He grew the lab from a one-person, part-time, position to six examiners (sworn and civilian) that processes computers, mobile phones, and forensic video. Troy began his forensic career in 2000 and attended the 2001 International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) training event in Orlando. He earned his Certified Forensic Computer Examiner (CFCE) on September 13, 2001. Mr. Lawrence served many roles for IACIS. He was a peer-review coach, certification regional manager, and chairman of the Recertification committee prior to being elected to the IACIS Board of Directors. He served 3 years as Secretary and since 2012 has been the Director of Training. He continues to assist in the teaching of various topics including the Managing a Digital Forensic Lab course that he co-wrote. Mr. Lawrence is a past member and former president of the local High Tech Crime Investigator Association (HTCIA) chapter. In 2003, Mr. Lawrence testified before the Texas House of Representatives regarding mandatory lab accreditation for digital evidence. As a result of his testimony, he was invited to join the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE). As a SWGDE member, he frequently contributes to the writing of Best Practices and Quality Assurance manuals for the Digital Evidence community. Mr. Lawrence serves as a subject matter expert in various classes for the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and has served as a part-time instructor for various forensic training programs. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas Wesleyan University.