NFSTC Board of Directors 2011-2012

The Board reviews the current and future activities of NFSTC and makes strategic decisions regarding corporate direction. The Board of Directors meets four times a year. The members of the Board of Directors are elected by representatives of those member organizations at the annual members’ meeting. Board members are elected for a three-year term, may serve no more than two consecutive terms, and may or may not be associated with a membership organization. **Term expires in the spring of the year noted after each Director’s name.

Mitchell R. Morrissey, President

(District Attorney, Denver, CO) **2012

Mitch Morrissey has been a prosecutor since 1983 and the elected District Attorney in Denver, Colorado since 2004. His office is responsible for the prosecution of more than 6,000 felony and 21,000 misdemeanor criminal cases each year. Mr. Morrissey is nationally and internationally recognized for his expertise in DNA technology and applying that technology to criminal prosecutions. In 1989, he introduced the first DNA evidence used in a criminal trial in Denver and was instrumental in convincing the courts to accept the science. The DNA Resource section of his Web site, www.denverda.org, has become a resource for attorneys throughout the world.

Mr. Morrissey has worked extensively with the Denver Cold Case Project where over 4,200 unsolved sexual assaults and murders have been reviewed in an ongoing effort to use DNA technologies to solve those cases. Mr. Morrissey, along with the Denver Police Department, is a national leader in the use of DNA to solve burglary cases and other property crimes.

Mr. Morrissey is one of the lead proponents of using Familial DNA Database Searches in the United States and directs the Denver DNA Human Identification Research Project, which is studying the use of familial DNA searches in criminal investigations in Colorado.

James J. Cali, CPA, Treasurer

(Forensic Auditor) **2014

Currently with Bi-State Development Agency dba METRO, James Cali is a well established expert in internal and forensic auditing, working in State, local and corporate auditing capacities since 1985. His forensic accounting experience includes investigations for money laundering, embezzlement, bank fraud, securities fraud, insurance fraud, mortgage/loan fraud, terrorist financing and arson for profit. Cali has served as an expert witness providing testimony for litigation, mediations, and arbitrations.

In 2007, he received an “Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award” from the United States Department of Justice for the forensic accounting and financial investigation related to a nation-wide prescription drug diversion and money laundering case.

Mr. Cali is one of only seventy-five (75) individuals within the state of Florida selected by the Office of Homeland Security to attend an intensive forensic accounting seminar centered on Terrorist Financial Networks and Financial Forensics Techniques. He has achieved “Forensic Accountant – Expert Witness” status by testifying before State and Federal Grand Juries in addition to civil and criminal proceedings.

Benny Del Re

(Santa Clara Crime Laboratory) **2013

Mr. Del Re recently retired as Director of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Crime Laboratory, where he was responsible for planning, organizing, and directing operations.

Mr. Del Re earned a Masters in Public Administration from the College of Notre Dame and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Sacramento, majoring in Forensic Science with minor in Chemistry and Biology. Prior to joining the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office in 1989, he was a Supervising Criminalist and Criminalist for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Laboratory and a Criminalist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Criminalistics Laboratory.

Mr. Del Re is a member of several professional organizations including: American Academy of Forensic Sciences, California Association of Crime Laboratory Directors, American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, California Association of Criminalists, Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners, American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.  Mr. Del Re has also served on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory National Steering Committee; the National Center for Forensic Science; Forensic Advisory Committee and the Santa Clara County Law Enforcement Executive Council.

J.C. Upshaw Downs, M.D.

(Georgia Bureau of Investigation) **2013

James Claude Upshaw (“Jamie”) Downs, M.D., is coastal Georgia’s first Regional Medical Examiner. He has been continuously employed as a Medical Examiner since 1989 and was Alabama’s State Forensics Director and Chief Medical Examiner from 1998 to 2002. Dr. Downs has lectured extensively in the field of forensic pathology and has presented at numerous national and international meetings in the fields of anatomic and forensic pathology. He is a consultant to the FBI Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia, having authored four chapters in their manual on Managing Death Investigation and was primary author of the FBI’s acclaimed Forensic Investigator’s Trauma Atlas. He has authored several books and chapters in the field of forensic pathology and child abuse, including Abusive Head Trauma in Infants and Children: A Medical, Legal & Forensic Reference with CD-ROM and Child Fatality Review: A Clinical Guide and A Color Atlas (in press).

He has lectured regularly at the National Forensic Academy and at the FBI’s National Academy. Areas of special interest include child abuse and police use of force. Professional activities have included service on numerous professional boards and committees. He has testified in numerous state and federal courts, as well as before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

Dr. Downs is on the Board of Advisors for the Law Enforcement Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medical Examiners, the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations (Vice Chair), and the National Forensic Science Technology Center. He also serves on the Forensic Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1983 (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa), Dr. Downs completed Peace Officers Standards and Training at the Southwest Alabama Police Academy, where he distinguished himself as class president and top academic student. He received his doctor of medicine degree and his residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology and his fellowship in forensic pathology from the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston). He is board certified in anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology.

John W. Ives

**2012

John Ives, President of Eagle 32 Innovative Solutions, LLC, brings experience from his extraordinary 35-year executive career in the Intelligence Community, interacting regularly with highest levels of government and drafting special access program policy recommendations for the Secretary of Defense.

He has served as senior advisor to the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, and Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization for policy and strategic planning of threat finance and future cyber initiatives. He has coordinated sensitive national technologies with support to the National Capital Region.

Mr. Ives emerged as one of only eight Department of Defense approving authorities for Defense Information Systems, the responsibility for functional requirements trace and in-progress reviews including configuration management review of a modernized system for advanced Information Management/Technology (IM/IT) architectures for connectivity to the Global Information Grid (GIG). He articulated and codified Force Protection Authority using the Patriot Act, affiliated legislation and policy to create a third policy door juxtaposed between Intelligence Oversight and Law Enforcement Regulation resulting in FBI arrests and surveillance operations. Mr. Ives’ unique combination of business and military education and experience includes master’s degrees in organizational management and strategic studies.

Marie Samples

(New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner) **2012

Marie Samples is an Assistant Director with the Department of Forensic Biology, which is part of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, in New York City. The laboratory is the forensic DNA testing laboratory for the city, with current responsibility for the analysis of homicides, sexual assaults, and selected other cases. Within the laboratory, Marie manages a casework group and the CODIS group of criminalists.

Prior to joining the Department of Forensic Biology, Marie was a Criminalist with the California Department of Justice crime laboratory system. Her experience includes serology, controlled substance identification, clandestine drug labs, blood/breath/urine alcohol analysis, and general crime scene responsibilities.

A native Californian, Marie has a B.S. in Biochemistry from the California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo) and two master’s degrees (chemistry and biochemistry). She has been active in many professional organizations, including the American Board of Criminalistics, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the Forensic Education Program Accreditation Commission.

Susan Uremovich

(Laboratory Director) **2013

As Laboratory Director at Virginia Department of Forensic Science Eastern Laboratory, in Norfolk, Susan Uremovich is responsible for administrative oversight of laboratory operations and delivery of services, personal supervision, and quality system management.

Ms. Uremovich moved to Virginia in 2005 from New Mexico, where she was the Bureau Chief for New Mexico Department of Public Safety (NMDPS) Forensic Laboratories. Prior to that, she was a supervisor, DNA technical leader and forensic scientist with NMDPS and a criminalist with Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Tucson Police Department laboratories.

Susan received her BS in Chemistry from Bucknell University and MS in Forensic Chemistry from University of Pittsburgh. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Criminalistics and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

M. Fredric Rieders, PhD

(NMS Labs) **2013

Dr. Rieders is a laboratory director and forensic toxicologist at an internationally accredited private, independent forensic laboratory that performs DNA, serology, toxicology, drug chemistry analysis and expert testimony. He served on Pennsylvania’s Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions where he worked with the Forensic Science Subcommittee on recommendations to improve the forensic science investigation system. Dr. Rieders has qualified as an Expert in Forensic Toxicology and testified in numerous criminal, civil and arbitration proceedings.

Dr. Rieders is a Fellow of The American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a member of The Society of Forensic Toxicologists, the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, and affiliate member of The National Association of Medical Examiners where he serves on their Foundation Board. He is also a Trustee at Arcadia University where he is a faculty member and instructor in their nationally accredited Masters of Forensic Science Program. He serves on the Advisory Board for The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University School of Law; he is a Board Member at The Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at New Haven University in West Haven, Connecticut, and Chief Scientific Officer for The Forensics Mentors Institute in Willow Grove, PA.

He is a member of the Vidocq Society, who meet monthly to examine cold cases and assist law enforcement agencies in identifying leads.

Dr. Rieders was an editor of the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences publication Science, Technology and National Security, wrote a chapter in Forensic Aspects of Chemical and Biological Terrorism by Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company and has presented numerous seminars such as “Toxic Terrorism: Detecting and Pre-empting Chemical Mass Murder” at the Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University.

Dr. Rieders earned a doctoral degree in Pharmacology/Toxicology from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Beaver College, now Arcadia University in Glenside, PA.

Anthony J. Tambasco

(Mansfield Police Forensic Science Laboratory) **2014

Anthony Tambasco is currently Director of the Mansfield Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Mansfield, Ohio, where he is responsible for operation of the Forensic Science Section including Property Control, Crime Scene, Laboratory Operations and AFIS.

Mr. Tambasco earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminalistics from the State University College of New York at Buffalo and has worked in the forensic science field for over 28 years. Prior to joining the Mansfield Police Department, he worked as clinical technologist for the Johnstown Hospital in Johnstown, New York. From 1987 to 2001, he served as adjunct instructor for the Law Enforcement Program at the North Central Technical College in Mansfield.

Anthony Tambasco is a member of several professional organizations including: the Academy of Forensic Sciences, The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, the Midwestern Association of Forensic Scientists and the Forensic Science Institute of Ohio. Mr. Tambasco is currently a Diplomate and formerly a Biochemistry Fellow (1995-2001) with the American Board of Criminalistics.