Ann MacPhetridge, Promega

Mirna Ghemrawi

Mirna, a vivacious young woman from Lebanon is currently a second year PhD student at Florida International University, working in Dr. Bruce McCord’s laboratory.

Mirna’s research is focused on the development of a quick and easy way to identify species in forensic samples.

Mirna has wanted to be a forensic scientist from the time she was a young child watching forensic shows in Lebanon. Her curiosity and self-confidence seep into every conversation she has, and you can’t help but smile at the twinkle in her eye as she describes the love she has for her family.

Driven by a desire to utilize what she’s learned to help improve the forensics field in her home country, she doesn’t hesitate to question the status quo as demonstrated by her emailing John Butler ask for clarification on his book. I couldn’t imagine being so bold!

Mirna hopes that the next generation of female scientists can remember the strength that is inside them and they will pursue their dreams despite challenges that come their way.

Fabiana Taglia

Originally from Italy, Fabiana’s research is focused on developing alternative sequencing techniques. She attends Florida International University and like Mirna, is working in Dr. McCord’s laboratory.

A mother of a young son, Fabiana isn’t your typical PhD student. She enrolled in her PhD studies in her early 30s, making her about 10 years older than most of her peers. Fabiana has no regrets about the path she followed because she recognizes how her experiences helped shape her into the scientist she is today.

Her fascination with forensics began as a young girl, when she used her mother’s face powder to highlight fingerprints after reading an article in a science magazine.

Her biggest lessons so far have been that the science doesn’t always go your way, and it’s important to come to terms that you can’t do it all every single day.

“Achieving a work life balance is a challenge, so all you can do is try your best,” she reflected. If Fabiana had a superpower, she hopes that it would be “the power to increase the amount of DNA found in trace evidence”, something most analysts would heartily agree with.

Rachel Kieser

Rachel is a 5 year PhD student at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, working in Dr. Bruce Budowle’s laboratory. The focus of her research is on finding methods to get better profiles from challenging samples. Rachel hopes that these methods could then be successfully applied to unidentified remains and missing persons cases.

She chose forensics because she has always “loved that double helix--there’s something about it that’s so beautiful”. Unlike most teenage girls who watched One Tree Hill or Glee, Rachel spent time watching the murder mysteries that her father enjoyed. Additionally, growing up in the heydays of the CSI television series, she recognized early on that forensics would be an ideal approach to incorporate everything she loves about science.

Speaking with conviction and enthusiasm, her advice to the next generation would be to trust their instincts, “stick to their guns” and seize opportunities when they come along. She wishes there were more opportunities for those in research but is hopeful that the situation is changing.

Rachel’s choice for superpower was the most unique of those I interviewed. She would like to be able to ride the “Magic School Bus” into an experiment gone wrong, so that she could quickly determine where things went wide of the mark and correct it for the next round of experiments.

Allison Sherier

Allison also studies at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, where her pursuit of forensics brought her to Dr. Bruce Budowle’s laboratory. She is pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences.

Her undergraduate work was in animal science, specifically, beef cattle reproduction. When she realized that this type of work was not likely to result in significant improvements to the human condition, she chose DNA forensics as her area of study.

She grew up in a time when the CSI TV series exploded and the general public developed a fascination with serial killers and true crime stories, which also influenced her decision to pursue forensics study.

Allison is a mother of an infant son and is grateful to her supportive colleagues who lent a hand after her son dealt with several medical challenges after his birth. She credits Dr. Budowle for creating a safe working environment where being a mother and a graduate student weren’t mutually exclusive.

Allison recognized early on in her journey that it’s critical to one’s success to be in tune with your wants and needs, and then to advocate for yourself to get those needs and wants met. Her hope for future forensic scientists is that they don’t have to fight as hard as she did to prove that she was worthy of a position.

Like Fabiana, she has no regrets about her journey in forensics. Every step in her path was a learning experience that she used to help her find her way.

Each “Up and Comer” has an appreciation for the path their lives have taken, in spite of numerous challenges each faced.

In Mirna’s case, she left her family in Lebanon after receiving a Fulbright fellowship. Being away from family has been difficult at times, but her belief in herself and her desire to help others in her home country helps her work through the homesickness. Fabiana and Allison are successfully juggling the responsibilities of motherhood and their studies due, in part, to the supportive laboratory environments each is working in. Rachel manages her stressful schedule through channeling her creative streak into art such as resin sculptures of skulls or sewing unique nursery themed stuffed animals for friends and colleagues.

If these women are just a small sample of the future of forensics, I am confident that the next 20-30 years will bring even more innovative advances in our field.

Tiffany Vasquez

Tiffany is employed at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, serving several roles before taking an Assistant Technical Leader position.

Originally from the West Coast, she and her husband relocated to the East Coast so that he could pursue his doctorate work at SUNY-Stony Brook.

It seems straightforward to supervise staff, but for Tiffany, the hardest part of being a leader is that it’s often hard to get people to want to follow you. To combat this, she focuses on leading by example, by concentrating on the technical challenges of the work, and being the best that she can be in the technical aspects of her role, anticipating that those who work for her will also try to reflect those efforts.

Tiffany also views mistakes as a learning opportunity, not only for herself, but also for her team. For her, the key is to learn from mistakes made in order to move past them and to recover from them.

Although she’s been at the OCME for nearly twenty years, she still gets excited to go to work, especially when she knows that there is some problem that needs to be solved. She’s particularly motivated by the teaching and training that her current role enables her to do.

Tabitha Bandy

Tabitha is the DNA Supervisor and Technical Leader at the Nashville Police Department. Her undergraduate work focused on recombinant genetics and chemistry and she originally pursued a career in research.

Looking back at her start, Tabitha feels she was in the right place at the right time for a forensics position. After taking a job with the State of Kentucky doing HIV and Hepatitis testing, she left after three months to pursue a position in the forensics laboratory. Shortly after she started in the forensics laboratory, the original CSI television series debuted and the field exploded, with applications doubling.

After moving into management, she truly began to understand the impact that she could have on the lives of those she works with. She often tells her people that they are the reason she gets up in the morning and values her team so much that she calls them the “Dream Team”.

A perfect day for her would start off by emptying out her email inbox with absolutely nothing on her To-Do list. Following that, she would spend the day traveling with her family, but somehow they could go everywhere that her family wants to visit. Hitting every sight on their wish list just might require a “perfect” week.

Susan Greenspoon

A Forensic Molecular Biologist with the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences, Susan pursued a position in forensics after questioning whether she wanted to remain in research while she was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in a molecular neuroscience lab.

In the time she’s been in forensics she’s seen an increase in the proportion of forensic scientists being women, but also a significant increase in the number of women taking leadership roles, including more female crime laboratory directors and more female program managers and technical leaders.

Susan’s advice for new leaders, whether male or female, would be to truly listen to their staff when they share concerns or misgivings about moving in a particular direction. She passionately believes how critical this is to having a productive, functional group of scientists who enjoy coming to work each day.

During our interview, Susan shared with me a story of one of her prior students who was presenting a poster at this year’s ISHI. Her face lit up as she proudly described what it feels like to see her students excelling and becoming leaders in their own rights.

Susan has a robust appreciation for her peers and colleagues, who in her words, “to the person, they care a lot about their performance, they care a lot about producing the most objective, data driven analysis of a case.”

Across the board, their roles as mothers have directly, or indirectly, shaped how they lead their teams. While none “mother” their staff, they do help to cultivate and develop their teams by creating a safe working environment, where mistakes are quickly forgiven, and each team member feels appreciated and valued.

Always on their minds is the knowledge their work has impact on people’s lives, and the responsibilities that come with that role.

Susan’s personal philosophy emphasizes keeping an open mind and truly listening to her staff. She recognizes the power of learning from your team and appreciating that you can’t possibly know it all.

Tiffany’s approach is to help develop newer analysts by fielding any questions they may have on their cases, as well as helping more experienced analysts work through more challenging cases.

Tabitha sees protecting her team from the political pressures as a key facet of her role. While each woman’s approach is slightly different, it was clear to me that they value their teams and work hard to do right by them.