Speakers

Anna Barbaro as President of the Worldwide Association of Women Forensic Experts, an honor member of various scientific associations, reviewer for several international scientific journals and is a  Member of the Editorial Committee of international scientific journals. Anna has been an invited speaker at various national and international conferences, is an organizer of courses and conferences about Forensic Sciences, and a member of the Scientific Committee of several courses and conferences. She is the Director of the Studio Indagini Mediche E Forensi (SIMEF) laboratory (Italy), a researcher at the University of Alcalà (Spain), and professor in several degree and post-degree courses about Forensic science.

Bióloga de la Universidad Javeriana con 8 años de experiencia en genética forense e identificación humana, en la actualidad se desempeña como analista de laboratorio en Servicios Médicos Yunis Turbay, en la ciudad de Bogotá, Colombia. Profesional con 10 años de experiencia en genética forense y análisis de quimerismo para seguimiento de transplantes de médula ósea. Formación de auditor interno en norma ISO/IEC 17025:2017 e ISO 9001:2015

Jo-Anne Bright is a Senior Science Leader within the Forensic Biology group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR) New Zealand, where she has worked since 1999. Jo is one of the co developers of STRmix™, expert software for the interpretation of forensic DNA profiles and the new Australasian standard.

Alexandra Burgess graduated from MIT in 2016 with a degree in Neuroscience, where her passion for science and data took root. In 2018, she began pursuing a doctorate in Biology at Boston College, driven by her growing interest in molecular cell biology where she honed her scientific skills.

This led her to collaborate with her grandmother, applying her scientific expertise and love of data to research violent individuals and explore the emerging field of computational forensics. Throughout her doctoral program, Alex consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation, a mindset she carries into her current work. Her ultimate goal is to deepen the understanding of violent behaviors and contribute to reducing violence and mass shootings in the United States.

Ann Wolbert Burgess, with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom (Boston College), co-founded one of the first hospital-based crisis intervention programs for rape victims at Boston City Hospital.  Dr. Burgess has testified as an expert witness in 32 states and has received grant and pub­lished articles on the topics of rape trauma, child sexual abuse, child pornography, serial offenders, crime classification, post-traumatic stress, elder abuse, mental disorders and standards of nursing practice.

John M. Butler holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Virginia. He has written five textbooks on Forensic DNA Typing (2001, 2005, 2010, 2012, and 2015) and given hundreds of invited talks to scientists, lawyers, and members of the general public throughout the United States and in 26 other countries so far. Dr. Butler is a NIST Fellow (highest scientific rank at NIST) and Special Assistant to the Director for Forensic Science in the Special Programs Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Ms. Jocelyn Carlson serves as the chair of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) Quality Assurance (QA) Committee. She has 15 years of experience in the forensic DNA field and has been with the FBI Laboratory for the last 9 years. 

Michael Coble, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Executive Director of the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a member of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. He serves as a commissioner of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and is an invited guest at the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM).

John Collins is a High-Stakes Leadership Consultant and Executive Coach at Critical Victories, a company he founded to help people, teams, and organizations thrive in high-pressure environments where perfection is an expectation and failure is a ticket out the door.  He is also among the most respected forensic experts in the United States, recently publishing his first book on leadership and management in forensic science, which was released by Academic Press just last month. 

Jeffrey Deskovic, Esq., M.A., is an internationally recognized wrongful conviction expert and the founder of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, which has freed 15 wrongfully convicted people and helped pass nine laws, including: video-taping interrogations; identification reform; the Commission On Prosecutor Conduct, and Discovery Reform. Under Jeff’s supervision, The Foundation is trying to free 13 innocent people while pursuing policy initiatives in NY, PA, and CA. The motivation for his advocacy work is that he was wrongfully imprisoned for sixteen years- from age 17 to 32- despite a negative DNA Test, based upon a coerced, false confession, prosecutorial misconduct, fraud by the medical examiner, and an inept public defender before being exonerated via the DNA Database. A documentary short about his life post-exoneration and advocacy work, “Conviction”, is available on Amazon Prime. 

Kelly Elkins, PhD, is Professor of Chemistry and co-Director of the TU Human Remains Identification Laboratory at Towson University and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Chemical Society.

Kimberly Gin retired from her role as Coroner for Sacramento County in 2022 and now runs her own consultancy, Kim Gin Professional Solutions, LLC. As the First Past President of the California State Coroners' Association and a member of the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, she is well-regarded in her field. Her notable achievements include utilizing Rapid DNA to identify disaster victims in the Camp Fire and Santa Barbara Dive Boat Fire and using Investigative Genetic Genealogy to solve multiple cold cases.

Dr. Glynn, who joined the University of New Haven in 2014, teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in forensic science, focused on forensic biology, forensic DNA analysis, and forensic/investigative genetic genealogy (F/IGG). Her research interests are focused F/IGG, and a broad range of applications for this novel investigatory tool. This includes investigating the effects of degraded samples and novel technologies, establishing best practices, the international feasibility of this tool, historical applications, and ethical considerations, to name just a few. Her other research interests include Rapid DNA analysis, RNA (mRNA and miRNA) analysis, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) applications, and DNA Methylation markers.

Ed Green received his B.S. in Genetics at the University of Georgia in 1997 and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. He was a pioneer in the field of high-throughput sequencing of ancient DNA as the lead bioinformatics scientist on the Neanderthal genome project. He is currently Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz and founder of Dovetail Genomics, Claret Bio, and Astrea Forensics.

Ms. Grossweiler is the National DNA Index System Program Manager in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's CODIS Unit. Lisa has over 33 years of experience in the forensic DNA field, serving in the private and public sectors. She joined the Federal DNA Database Unit of the FBI Laboratory in 2010 as a DNA Examiner and in 2019 transferred to the CODIS Unit where she accepted her current role as NDIS Custodian.

Dr. David Gurney, JD/PhD is an assistant professor of Law & Society and Director of the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center at Ramapo College. He is president of the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Accreditation Board and a board member of the Forensic Genealogy Special Interest Group of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Dr. Hares is the Rapid DNA Implementation Program Advisor for the FBI’s Biometric Analysis Section.  He joined the DNA Analysis Unit II of the FBI Laboratory in 2000 as a Forensic Examiner.  In 2006, Dr. Hares transferred to the CODIS Unit where he served as the NDIS Custodian for over 13 years. 

In March of 2017, Ms. Horan joined the Kings County District Attorney’s Office as a DNA Specialist in the Forensic Science & Cold Case Unit. She became the first forensic scientist to be hired on staff at a prosecutor’s office in New York State. Ms. Horan is responsible for providing training in serology and DNA testing for staff attorneys and local law enforcement. She also assists in grand jury and trial preparation for all DNA prosecutions and works with the NYPD Cold Case Squad in their homicide investigations.

Special Agent (SA) Mark James has 20 years of law enforcement experience as an FBI SA assigned to the Baltimore Field Office investigating gangs, narcotics, and violent crimes. Since March 2020, SA James has been the East Region Team Leader of the FBI Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Team, which is responsible for conducting IGG on violent crime and unidentified human remains cases on the East Coast of the United States. The East Region FBI IGG Team has been responsible for the successful resolution of numerous violent crimes—including rapes and murders—and the identification of unknown homicide victims.

Head of the Sector of DNA Databases, Custodian of the National DNA Database and Coordinator of the Steering Committee of the Brazilian Network of DNA Databases from 2019 to 2023.

After over twenty years as a practicing forensic DNA analyst, most with the US Army Crime Lab, Tim Kalafut made a mid-life career change into the world of academia. His new role allows him to have freedom to take on new projects, and hopefully shorten the learning curve for the next generation of forensic scientists.

Jarrah Kennedy began her career at the Miami-Dade County Crime Laboratory where she spent ~ 1 ½ years as a serologist prior to being called back to the Midwestern US. Since then, she has spent over 16 years at the Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory as a serologist and DNA analyst. Currently, Jarrah serves as a Vice Chair for the Human Forensic Biology Subcommittee (OSAC).

Professor Turi King is a Canadian/British geneticist. She started her career as an archaeologist in Canada before reading for a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge before moving into genetics, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA fingerprinting being on her PhD panel. She combined these two areas of expertise leading on how to excavate under clean conditions and then leading the genetic identification of the remains of King Richard III. She now co-presents BBC DNA Family Secrets where she uses DNA to help people find missing family and learn more about their ancestry.

Eugene is actively involved in the community and is a member of many forensic working groups.  Throughout his career, he seems to be directly involved with standards and guidelines – both following them and helping to write them.  He has been a participant of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) for more than 17 years and a participant of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science since its inception. 

Michelle Madrid has 22 years of crime laboratory experience, most of which has been in the DNA and Crime Scene units. She is currently serving as the Assistant DNA Technical Leader for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Michelle's areas of interest include researching and validating new methods and technologies.

Alyse Margetts is a distinguished forensic DNA analyst and casework supervisor with over a decade of expertise in the field. In 2020, Alyse transitioned into a training coordinator role to meet the ever-growing training demands of the unit. As a training coordinator, she worked closely with the technical leader to develop new training programs that emphasized theoretical knowledge, hands-on learning, and speaking opportunities.

Dr. Marshall has extensive graduate and undergraduate teaching experience in the forensic disciplines of serology, DNA, and microscopy. Her research interests include low copy number DNA, human and wildlife DNA identification challenges, nanoparticle technology, pressure cycling technology, and PCR enhancement.

In 2016, Candace Matthews became the crime scene supervisor at the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, where she currently serves as the CSU Manager. She also holds positions as the RDSTF Region 6 Forensic Lead, is a board member of the Florida Sheriff’s Association Cold Case Committee, and she served as the FDIAI Region 3 Director for three years.

Wendy has collaborated with organizations such as Bode Technology, Redgrave Research, DNA Doe Project, and the Cold Case Coalition. She also served as a Practitioner-In-Residence at the University of New Haven, Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences. In this role, she contributed to the Online Graduate Certificate Program for Forensic Genetic Genealogy during the 2022 and 2023 cohorts, further enriching her expertise and sharing her knowledge with aspiring professionals in the field.

Mary Merchán Merchán is a forensic DNA analyst, with fourteen years of experience in the Genetics Group of the Attorney General of Colombia. The main areas of her work include forensic human identification from skeletal remains, analysis of crime scene evidence, validation of the next generation sequencing techniques for implementation in missing persons cases, and management and supervision of the quality system of the laboratory accredited under the NTC ISO/IEC 17025:2017. 

Juan Carlos Alvarez, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Associate Director of the Genetic Identification Laboratory at the University of Granada in Spain, where he has worked since 1991. He is the coordinator of the identification program for victims of the Spanish Civil War at the region of Andalusia and responsible for the DNA Database.

Dr. Nicole Novroski is currently an Assistant Professor in the Forensic Science Program (Dept of Anthropology) at the University of Toronto. Her research focus throughout her PhD, and now as a faculty member, is DNA mixture deconvolution. Nicole is also exploring a variety of new approaches and methods for forensic DNA typing. 

Craig O’Connor is a Deputy Director in the Department of Forensic Biology at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, the largest public DNA Lab in the country with over 200 analysts and technicians. He manages the daily operations in the department ensuring that the analytical work conforms to state and national accreditation requirements and federal quality assurance standards.

Rachel Oefelein is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at DNA Labs International (DLI) and Laboratory Director. Since joining DNA Labs International in 2014, Rachel was instrumental in implementing STRmix™ for five profiling systems, rootless hair shaft testing, and Next Generation Sequencing in three profiling systems. She also innovated and implemented DLI’s successful SpentShell™ technology for fired cartridge casings.

Coordinadora del proceso de Genética Forense Servicios Médicos Yunis Turbay y Cía. S.A.S. Bacterióloga y Laboratorista Clínico con 23 años de experiencia en genética forense y análisis de quimerismo para seguimiento de transplantes de médula ósea en Servicios Médicos Yunis Turbay y Cía. S.A.S

Dixie Peters is the Technical Leader of the Missing Persons Unit at the UNT Center for Human ID. She received her BS in Biology from Texas Christian University and MS in Forensic Genetics from the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

Adminitrador Nacional de la Base de Datos de ADN en el Ministerio del Interior de España / Msc en Biología - Especialidades Biosanitaria y Genética / Diplomado en Ciencias Policiales / 15 años de experiencia en el laboratorio de ADN de Policía Nacional como perito genetista

Julie Conover Sikorsky is a Forensic Scientist Supervisor, a.k.a. Forensic Biology Unit Manager, at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has been employed by the PBSO for over twenty years, first as a Senior Forensic Scientist, then as the manager of the FBU. Julie is also a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and ABC certified in molecular biology.

Ms. Rachel Singer has served as an Assistant District Attorney for 20 years. She began her career at the Bronx District Attorney's Office in the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Bureau, where she prosecuted both domestic violence and sexual assaults cases involving adults and children.

Mark Smith has been employed with the Arizona Department of Public Safety for 21 years and currently supervises the Technical Support Unit, covering both the statewide Breath Alcohol and Law Enforcement Rapid DNA Programs. Prior to that, he was the DNA Database supervisor and has processed casework for nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA cases.

Meradeth Snow is a professor of anthropology specializing in degraded and problematic DNA from forensic and archaeological contexts. She also runs the Forensic Anthropology program at the University of Montana, working with several States in the region for recovery and casework.

Melissa Taylor is a Senior Forensic Science Research Manager within the Special Programs Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her work within the Forensic Science Program focuses primarily on integrating human-factors principles into forensic sciences, process mapping, and expert decision-making.

Samantha Wandzek is the Technical Leader of Signature Science’s Forensic DNA Laboratory in Austin, Texas. Ms. Wandzek oversees all technical aspects of the laboratory including validation and implementation of all forensic methods. In addition, she continues to function as a Forensic DNA Analyst by reporting and performing technical review of DNA analyses and case files.

Regina Wells has been employed by the Kentucky State Police for 19 years and the supervisor of the DNA Database for 3 years. She also serves as the State CODIS Administrator for Kentucky.

Patty Wetterling is a nationally recognized speaker and educator on the issues of child abduction and sexual exploitation. In 1990, she co-founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center with her husband, Jerry, three months after their 11-year-old son, Jacob, was abducted by a masked gunman near their home in St. Joseph, Minnesota. In the decades since, Patty’s relentless search for her son has led her to become a visionary of hope, a catalyst for change, and an inspiration to parents everywhere.

Dr. Ray Wickenheiser, is the retired Director of the New York State Police Crime Laboratory System, formerly headquartered in Albany, New York.  Ray is now located in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he provides forensic consulting and training. His areas of expertise include crime lab administration, quality management, conflict resolution, forensic DNA and mixture interpretation, serology, hair and fiber trace evidence, physical matching and comparison, glass fracture analysis, forensic grain comparison and forensic investigative genetic genealogy. 

Richard Wivell is a Senior Scientist within the STRmixTM  team at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited, New Zealand where he has worked since 2008.  Before moving to New Zealand, Richard was a Forensic Scientist for the Metropolitan Police Service and the Forensic Science Service in the UK.

August Woerner is an Assistant Professor in the department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Much of August’s current research focuses on whole genome sequencing, particular, its application to forensic genetic genealogy.