PHOENIX -- May 30, 2003 -- The celebrities of the forensic community will headline Forensic Focus 2003, a multi-disciplinary medico-legal forum for nurses, medical examiners, technologists, investigators and other forensic practitioners. The conference will be held June 17-20, 2003 at the Millennium Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Michael Baden, MD, a familiar face on cable news networks, has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies in his career spanning more than four decades. Baden frequently serves as investigator and expert witness in high-profile forensic cases. Past cases have included the murders of Chandra Levy, 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 from 1960 to 1985 and currently serves as co-director of the Medicolegal Investigative Unit of the New York State Police. Baden is also the author of "Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner" (1989) and "Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers" (2001), and host of the HBO series "Autopsy."
Until her retirement in July 2001, Candice DeLong served as the head field profiler in the San Francisco office of 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. She has lectured widely on issues of protecting women and children, and this spring became a host of the new series "What Would You Do?" on Lifetime Television for Women. She penned "Special Agent: My Life on the Front Lines as a Woman in the FBI." DeLong serves as an independent forensic and profiling consultant to cable news networks.
Other respected forensic experts include Charles Wetli, MD, chief medical examiner for Suffolk County, N.Y.; Mary H. Dudley, MD, chief medical examiner for Sedgwick County, Kan.; Patrick Besant-Matthews, a forensic pathologist and forensic photography expert; Barry Fisher, crime laboratory director for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Also sharing their experiences will be forensic nurses Nancy Cabelus, MSN, RN, DABFN; Tascha Boychuk-Spears, PhD, RN; Sharon Crowley, RN, MN; and Diana Faugno, RN, BSN, CPN, FAAFS. Rounding out the expert panel of dynamic speakers are Brad Simpson, William Smock, Paulette Sutton, Brian Donnelly, John Piakis, Bruce Sackman and Diana Schunn.
Forensic Focus 2003 is sponsored by Olympus, Polaroid, Wallach, Puritan, Elsevier Academic Press and Whatman. The conference offers a dynamic slate of presentations, including pre-conference workshops on courtroom testimony for the medical professional; evidence collection, preservation and documentation; forensic photography; and a special case study on quadruple homicide. Plenary and concurrent sessions will be presented by more than 20 forensic science experts, forensic nurses, FBI agents and civil and military professionals on topics ranging from the role of forensic nurses in forensic medical investigations, to practical applications for clinical forensic medicine in the ER. More than 30 nursing continuing education units (CEUs), approved by the Arizona Nurses Association, will be offered.
Forensic Focus 2003 also will offer book signings, vendor presentations, a gala dinner and a special Forensic Nursing Career-Building Seminar on June 20, 2003, from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., for students and nurses wanting to enter the exciting and fast-growing field of forensic nursing. A highlight of the event will be the presentation of a special lifetime achievement award to noted author, clinician and retired USAF Col. Janet M. Barber Duval, RN, MSN, FAAFS, USAF Col. (Ret.) in recognition of her leadership, vision and innumerable contributions to the discipline of forensic nursing.
Full-package registration is $345. Pre-conference workshops are $119. Tickets for the gala dinner are $65. The Career-Building Seminar is $75. All pricing is through June 13, 2003. Call for on-site registration information.
Forensic Focus 2003 is sponsored by the Health and Nutrition Division of Phoenix-based Virgo Publishing Inc., publisher of forensic nurse magazine. For more information about this unique, industry-defining publication, log on to www.forensicnursemag.com. For more details about Forensic Focus 2003, log on to www.forensicfocus.net or call Stacy Davis at (480) 990-1101, ext. 1718.
