About Me

I graduated from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed my Pathology residency at the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed a Forensic Pathology fellowship at the King County Medical Examiner in Seattle, Washington.

I am board certified by:

• The American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Forensic Pathology
• The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigation (ABMDI) in Medicolegal Death Investigation

I have current active medical licensure in:

• Iowa
• California
• Florida
• Indiana

I am a Fellow of the National Association of Medical Examiners and was President of NAME in 2013. I am also a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. I served on the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Cold Case Working Group and assisted with the publication of their document on national best practices. I currently sit on the Board of Directors for the ABMDI. I have served on the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) General Forensics Research and Development Technology Working Group (TWG) for many years and am a Peer Reviewer for the Office of Justice Programs.

I have over 6,300 forensic examinations including over 580 homicides and have testified over 520 times in criminal and civil courts in multiple jurisdictions. I have also testified before the California State Senate Committee on the Judiciary  on issues of child homicide and before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on issues of forensic science.

I have served as a forensic pathologist for multiple jurisdictions around the country. My positions have included:

• Locum tenens Forensic Pathologist for Marion County Coroner's Office (Indianapolis, Indiana).
• Chief Medical Examiner for the Polk County (Des Moines, Iowa) Medical Examiner
• Chief Forensic Pathologist for the Stanislaus County (San Joaquin, California) Coroner
• Chief Medical Examiner for Santa Clara County (San Jose, California) Medical Examiner-Coroner
• Chief Medical Examiner for Brown County (Green Bay, Wisconsin) Medical Examiner
• Assistant Medical Examiner for the City and County of San Francisco, CA
• Staff forensic pathologist to the Sacramento County California Coroner