American Board of Forensic Toxicology

It is a privilege to serve the forensic toxicology community as the President of the American Board of Forensic Toxicology (ABFT).  I believe that all of us should strive to uphold the guiding principles of our field, and certification and accreditation is vital in this goal.

For those unfamiliar with the ABFT, the objective of the Board is to –

To establish, enhance, and revise as necessary the standards of qualification for those who practice forensic toxicology, and to certify as qualified scientists those voluntary applicants who comply with the requirements of the Board. In this way, the Board aims to establish a practical and equitable system of readily identifying those who possess the requisite qualifications and competence in forensic toxicology. Currently, there are a total of 235 Certificants – 140 Diplomates and 95 Specialists.

To establish, enhance, and maintain standards of qualification for those laboratories that practice Postmortem Forensic Toxicology or Human Performance Toxicology, and to accredit as qualified laboratories those applicants who comply with the requirements of the Board. In this way, the Board aims to establish a practical and equitable system of readily identifying laboratories who have demonstrated the requisite qualifications and competence in forensic toxicology. Currently, there are 30 certified laboratories.

Effective July, the Officers of the ABFT are:

President – Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Vice President – Daniel Isenschmid, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Secretary – Jeri Ropero-Miller, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Treasurer – Loralie Langman, Ph.D., D-ABFT

In addition, the Members of the ABFT Board are:

Yale Caplan, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Frederick Fochtman, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Brad Hall, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Graham Jones, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Robert Middleberg, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Susan Mills, M.S., FTS-ABFT
Theodore Shults, J.D., M.S. (Public member)
Elizabeth Spratt, M.S., D-ABFT
Marina Stajic, Ph.D., D-ABFT
Ruth Winecker, Ph.D., D-ABFT

This has been a very active year so far for the ABFT.  In July, Dr. Bradford Hepler, ABFT Diplomate and former Director of the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office Toxicology Laboratory, was hired as the ABFT Executive Director.  Dr. Hepler will be responsible for the facilitation of the day-to-day business of the Board.

Also, the Accreditation Committee is finalizing a significant update to the laboratory accreditation documents including the laboratory manual and checklist.  Copies of the revised documents will be sent to all laboratory directors before the end of the year.

Congratulations to those who were recently certified by the Board:

Diplomate:

Sandra Bishop-Freeman, PhD
Damon Borg, PhD
Prentiss Jones, PhD
Sherri Kacinko, PhD
Michele Merves, PhD
Adam Negrusz, PhD
Brianna Peterson, PhD
Michael Smith, PhD
Duncan Stephen, PhD (United Kingdom)
Carl Wolf, PhD
Yi Ju Yao, PhD (Singapore)

Specialist::

Tara Catlin, BS
Jenna Chin, MS
Bart Gray, BS
Theresa Hippolyte, MS
Kevin Shanks, MS
Edwin Smith, MS
Michael Stypa, MS
Mary Zaney, BS

Finally, the Certificant examinations will be administered at University of California San Francisco on Monday, December 3, 2012.  In addition, the examinations will be given at the 2013 TIAFT meeting in Portugal.

For additional information regarding the Board, please visit www.abft.org.