Pam Assid, BSN, MSN, was born in 1973 in Japan to Army parents. She graduated from Texas Christian University and was a distinguished ROTC graduate. She then entered the U.S. Air Force where she worked as a nurse, inpatient and outpatient, and has been an executive officer for the past seven and a half years. Assid maintained critical care proficiency by moonlighting in civilian facilities, most recently the county hospital in Denver. She recently returned from a second Middle Eastern deployment, where she established a field hospital that handled more than 35 combat casualties and saw 1,200 patients. Currently, she works as needed for a local emergency department and is dedicated to establishing her full-time legal nurse consulting business.

Michael Baden, MD, is one of the world's most respected forensic pathologists. He has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies in his 40-year career and is regularly called upon to participate as investigator and expert witness in high-profile murder cases -- including JonBenet Ramsey, Nicole Brown Simpson and Sunny von Bulow. Baden has served on the Congressional Select Committee on Assassinations, which conducted a reopened investigation of the John F. Kennedy killing. He was New York City medical examiner for 25 years and currently serves as co-director of the Medicolegal Investigative Unit of the New York State Police. Baden earned a bachelor of science degree from City College of New York, a medical doctor degree from New York University School of Medicine, and received post-graduate training as an intern and resident at the first medical division, Bellevue Hospital, where he also served as chief resident of pathology. He has received numerous honors and is widely published on the subjects of drug and alcohol abuse, addiction and mortality. Baden is the author of Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner and Dead Reckoning and is host of Autopsy on HBO.

Janet M. Barber, MSN, RN, earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing and Health, and an master of science degree in nursing from Indiana University. A retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force Nursing Corps, she has worked as a clinical nurse consultant, teacher, forensic educator and course developer. She is currently the editor of Critical Care Nursing Quarterly.

Patrick E. Besant-Matthews, MD, is a forensic pathologist with a wide range of experience. After graduating from the University of London, England, he followed a year of hospital experience in London with an additional year in Washington state. He received a year of forensic training while on active duty with the U.S. Army, and his subsequent experience included working as a staff pathologist, chief medical examiner, teacher and consultant. His special interests include mechanical injuries and medical/scientific/technical photography.

Nancy Cabelus, MSN, RN, DABFN, is a Connecticut State Trooper and has been employed by the Connecticut State Police for the past 17 years. She presently is a detective in the major crime squad. In this assignment, she has investigated numerous, high-profile crimes such as homicides, sexual assaults, robberies and other cases of interpersonal violence against adults and children. Cabelus received her master of science degree in forensic nursing from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. She is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) and is the founder of the Connecticut chapter of IAFN. Cabelus is an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University and also teaches forensic nursing classes at Florida Risk Management Institute in Largo, Fla. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Forensic Nurses.

Sharon Crowley, RN, MN, is the public health nurse and STD coordinator for the Disease Control Unit, Health Department in Santa Cruz, Calif., as well as the Pediatric SART Examiner/FCNS for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Center for Child Protection in San Jose, Calif. She holds a master's degree in nursing and is a clinical nurse specialist. She has experience in medical-legal examinations of adult and child sexual assault, child physical abuse, suspect exams, elder abuse and deceased victims of rape-homicide. Crowley is a founding member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the author of Sexual Assault: the Medical-Legal Examination. She was awarded the prestigious General Section Achievement Award by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 2002.

Candace DeLong was, until her retirement in July 2001, the head field profiler in San Francisco for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). She has served as liaison to the FBI's Behavioral Unit at Quantico and, as a member of the Child Abduction Task Force, lectured widely on such issues as protecting women and children and preventing sexual abuse. In April 2003, the Lifetime Channel will premier her new reality series, What Should You Do? She penned Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI in which she takes the reader step by step through the profiling process and shows how she helped solve a number of high-profile cases.

FBI special agent Brian Donnelly, PhD, earned three degrees from St. John's University School of Pharmacy: a bachelor's degree in science, a master's of science in toxicology, and a doctorate in pharmacology/toxicology. He began his career as a clinical/forensic toxicologist at Long Island Jewish Hillside Medical Center and worked as a forensic toxicologist for the Suffolk County Medical Examiner in Hauppauge, N.Y. He joined the FBI in 1985 as a special agent and organized crime/drug investigator, and has also served as a special agent examiner - chemistry/toxicology. Donnelly has been published in numerous industry publications and has been a frequent lecturer at law enforcement and forensic conferences on a national and international level. He holds professional certification as a licensed pharmacist in the state of New York and has been a certified clinical laboratory technologist, toxicology for New York City. He is a member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists and the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists. 

Mary Dudley, MD, BSN, MSN, RN, received her diploma in nursing from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a bachelor of science in nursing degree from Metropolitan University, Denver, and a master of science in nursing degree from the University of Colorado in Denver. She worked as a medical examiner and forensic pathologist for five years at the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office in Phoenix. For the last three years she has been employed as the director of the Forensic Science Center, chief medical examiner and district coroner for Sedgwick County in Wichita. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and a member of the National Association of Medical Examiners, the International Association of Forensic Nurses, ABMDI and D-MORT/NDMS. She has published five books for her four-day forensic medical examination courses that she currently teaches four times a year in Kansas and Arizona.

Diana Faugno, RN, BSN, CPN, FAAFS, graduated with a degree in nursing from the University of North Dakota. Her past nursing experience includes medical/surgical, labor and delivery, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care nursing. She is currently district director of forensic health services, which includes a child abuse program, sexual assault team, and a family violence program in San Diego. She was certified in pediatric nursing in 1990 and became a sexual assault nurse examiner in 1991. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Science and the American Board of Forensic Examiners as well as a charter, founding member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN). Faugno's presentations to the scientific community are numerous, and she has been quoted in the Journal of the American Medical Association. She is co-author of Color Atlas of Sexual Assault, the first book of its kind in the nation, and is currently completing Sexual Assault Across the Life Span.

Barry Fisher received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry from City College of New York, and an master of science degree in organic chemistry from Purdue University. He also holds an MBA from California State University, Northridge. He joined the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department crime laboratory in 1969, and has worked most of the sections of the lab and supervised the trace evidence and toxicology sections. In 1987 he was appointed crime laboratory director. Fisher is a past president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association of Forensic Sciences, and the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. He serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Forensic Sciences and The Journal of Forensic Identification. His textbook, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigvation, now in its sixth edition, enjoys wide popularity. Fisher has lectured internationally on forensic science laboratory management practices, quality assurance and related topics. He is also a part-time lecturer at UCLA Extension, and has taught at California State University, Los Angeles, Department of Criminal Justice.

Belinda Howell has a widely-varied background in law, drama, languages and finances. She received her doctor of jurisprudence from Texas Tech University School of Law and her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin with a minor in Italian. She currently is an independent investment consultant in Austin, Texas with Choice Investments, where she provides financial education and recommendations to individuals and small businesses. Previously, she practiced personal injury law with Mithoff & Jacks, LLP, was a psychiatric nurse, was in-house counsel at Cook-Fort Worth Children's Medical Center and an assistant district attorney in the Lubbock County district attorney's office.

John Piakis, DDS, DABFO, earned a bachelor of science degree from St. John's University, N.Y., and a DDS degree from Georgetown University Dental School. He served as a captain of the U.S. Dental Corps for the U.S. Army and was awarded the Army Accommodation Medal for Meritorious Service in the Republic of Vietnam. Besides having a private practice in general dentistry in Phoenix, Ariz., he is a forensic odontologist for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office. He is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a diplomate in the American Board of Forensic Odontology and a member of the American Society of Forensic Odontology. He has extensive training in and has presented numerous lectures and seminars on forensic dentistry and odontology.

Bruce T. Sackman graduated from Long Island University with a master's degree in government administration in 1975. He served as a special agent with the U.S. Department of Defense from 1975 to 1979. Since, he has served as a special agent with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector. While at the Department of Veteran Affairs, he rose through the ranks to his current position of special agent in charge of the Northeast Field Office, a title he has held since 1996. As the special agent in charge, he is responsible for criminal investigations involving VA programs from West Virginia to Maine. Specifically, he has been involved in the investigation of numerous suspicious death cases at VA medical centers including the investigation of three serial killers. Sackman has a total of 29 years of government service.

Diana Schunn, RN, BSN, SANE-A, has been the manager of the SANE/SART program at Via Christi Regional Medical Center in Wichita, Kan. since 1993. She was instrumental in starting the first SANE/SART program in Kansas and has been active in starting SANE programs throughout Kansas, Nebraska and other states. Schunn serves on a variety of hospital and community committees. She also is the co-executive director for the Kansas Sexual Assault Network. Schunn received the 1999 Heart of Nursing Healthcare award and the 2000 Attorney General Carla Stovall's Crime Victims' Outstanding Individual award. She has attended more than 1,000 hours of continuing education with the focus on sexual assault and forensic nursing, completed more than 450 examinations on sexual assault patients and has proctored more than 3,000 examinations.

Brad Simpson is a member of the Nevada State Attorney General's Domestic Violence Prevention Council and the Southern Nevada Domestic Violence Task Force. He currently serves the Las Vegas Metro Police Department as a section lieutenant in the Crimes Against Youth and Family Section, supervising the domestic violence detail, general investigations detail and the victim service detail. He also has experience supervising the department's sexual assault, child sexual abuse, juvenile and abuse/neglect details. He is currently a licensed marriage and family therapist and has extensive training in the issues of domestic violence and previous work experience in sex offender treatment programs.

William Smock, MD, FACEP, is an associate professor, director of the Clinical Forensic Medicine Training Program and the medical director of the sexual assault nursing program in the Department of Emergency Medicine for the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Louisville, KY. He is a former assistant medical examiner for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office in Louisville, KY, and currently serves that office as a forensic consultant. He is a staff emergency physician at several hospitals in the Louisville area, and the police surgeon and tactical physician for the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Floyd County, Ind. Sheriff's Department. He is board certified in emergency medicine and is a fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Tascha Boychuk Spears, PhD, RN, received a doctorate degree from the College of Law and Social Sciences Justice Studies program at Arizona State University in 1991. For the past fifteen years, Spears has conducted forensic interviews of more than 3,500 children who reported maltreatment or witnessed violence. She has served as a consultant to law enforcement agencies throughout the nation, as well as internationally, on cases involving child witnesses to crimes. Her recently released book, Children Who Witness Homicide and Other Violent Crimes, describes interview strategies and counseling methods used with children who have witnessed violence. Spears is the recipient of numerous local and national awards for providing services to children. She currently teaches in the Department of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Paulette Sutton, MS, MT, (ASCP), CLS is considered one of the foremost authorities on bloodstain pattern interpretation and analysis. She holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and an master of science from the University of Arkansas. She is currently the assistant director of forensic services, University of Tennessee; Shelby County Medical Examiner's Office. She has received many honors and awards, including the FBI Outstanding Service Award. She sits on the forensic science publication review board for CRC Press, and has lectured extensively throughout the United States. Sutton is frequently consulted as an expert and serves as an expert witness in the areas of serology and bloodstain pattern interpretation on a state and federal level.

Charles Wetli, MD, currently is the chief medical examiner in the division of medical-legal investigations and forensic sciences in the Sidney B. Weinberg Center for Forensic Sciences in Suffolk County, N.Y. Wetli is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the St. Louis University School of Medicine. After serving in the U.S. Army for three years, he joined the Dade County Medical Examiner's Office and served as deputy chief from 1980 to 1995. He was then appointed chief medical examiner for Suffolk County, N.Y. Over the years, Wetli has published more than 85 scientific articles and is recognized for his expertise on the effects of cocaine abuse, particularly with sudden death in police custody. His office was responsible for the autopsies and identification of the victims of the TWA Flight 800 disaster, and scientifically identified all 230 victims, a first in civil aviation investigations.