Dr. Jim Caruso is a native of Chicago and received his undergraduate and medical training at the University of Illinois. He completed Pathology training at Duke University Medical Center and Forensic Pathology training at the Office of the Maryland Medical Examiner as well as the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner. During his Navy career, Dr. Caruso completed Fight Surgeon and Diving Medical Officer training and also served as the Deputy Chief Armed Forces Medical Examiner. Dr. Caruso has been the Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for Denver, Colorado since 2014, and he has authored dozens of book chapters and peer-reviewed publications. He is presently on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners and also serves as the Treasurer of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Nikki Cooley is currently a Research Analyst, Senior for the Department of Health and Welfare. She is the analyst and program manager for the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (also known as SUDORS). Nikki was born and raised in Boise; graduating from Boise State University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Health Science Degree emphasizing in Health Informatic and Information Management. Nikki worked in the health care system before starting with the Department of Health and Welfare in March of 2020. Nikki is the first to work with the SUDORS data in Idaho and has been doing it for the last (almost) 4 years. In her spare time, Nikki is running around after her 1 and 2 ½ year old children.

Ryan Gausman D-ABMDI, spent 22 years as a deputy, detective, and sergeant for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office in Washington State. During his career he wrote thousands of investigative reports, many of which he had opportunity to defend in court. He most recently spent 5 years as a deputy and chief deputy coroner for Kittitas County Washington. In these roles he has investigated and testified in a number of high profile, highly sensitive cases. He has also been involved in training others to conduct complete, comprehensive investigations, and to prepare reports that stand up to the test of courtroom scrutiny.

Sara is a board-certified forensic anthropologist (D-ABFA) employed at the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner trained in outdoor scene processing and the laboratory analysis of human remains. She is also broadly interested in the use of technology to document outdoor crime scenes and factors affecting variability in the human skeleton, with a focus on the estimation of age-at-death for adults. Her most recent research focused on the detection of clandestine graves, the use of ALS in outdoor pedestrian searches for human remains, and the estimation of adult age-at-death using the TA3 skeletal traits.

Dr. Michelle Rippy earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in forensic science and a doctorate in organizational change and leadership from the University of Southern California. Michelle spent over 10 years as a medicolegal death investigator, supervisor, and chief operating officer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michelle trained medicolegal personnel, developed formal training programs for death investigators and forensic autopsy technicians, and wrote policies to remain current with best practices in the field. For the past 12 years, Michelle has been a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team. Currently, Michelle is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at California State University East Bay, where she also serves as the department chair and the director of the Forensic Science Research Center. Michelle is on the NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science, serving as the executive secretary for the Medicolegal Death Investigation sub-committee, is a member of the Academy Standards Board’s Medicolegal Death Investigation Consensus Body, and is on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners.

Erin Worrell has been employed with The Denver Office of the Medical Examiners (CO) since 2019 and is their Chief of Investigations at that office. Prior to that, she was with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office from 2007 to 2019. Erin is a Board-Certified Diplomate with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators, receiving her Certification in 2013. Erin is currently a Board Member, runs the Basic Course with International Association of Medical Examiners and Coroners (IACME). Erin is also an Associate member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) since 2002, serving on the Postmortem Toxicology Committee, and is a Member of the Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) since 2006 and serves on the Opioid and Emerging Drugs committee. She has presented within all of these organizations multiple times on drug overdose-related deaths as well as all over the country for Attorney General’s Office, Universities, State Coroner systems, Medical Examiner Offices, as well as webinars for Centers for Forensic Science Research & Education (CFSRE) and Forensic Technology Center of Excellence.