Aaron brings over 25 years of instructional experience, ranging from graduate-level teaching to leading seminar-style sessions for both public and private sector organizations. Previously, he served as a master instructor for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Instructor Development Program, and has taught at numerous colleges and police organizations. Aaron's instructional administrative roles have included coordinating law enforcement academies/jail academies, managing continuing education programs, and developing national criminal justice/social service-related programs. Additionally, Aaron worked as a police officer for nearly 20 years and found great fulfillment in serving the community. He holds a graduate degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in Public Finance, as well as degrees in Adult Learning and Community College Leadership.

As the Director of the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC), Russ is responsible for Fox Valley Technical College’s (FVTC) national criminal justice training and technical assistance programs. NCJTC conducts training for the criminal justice and child protection community on a cost-recovery basis. Prior to serving as the Director for NCJTC, he served in all ranks and divisions of the Portsmouth, NH Police Department for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003 as Chief of Police. He was instrumental in establishing the Portsmouth Police Department’s Child Abuse Unit, New Hampshire’s first child abuse multidisciplinary team, and the State of New Hampshire’s first Child Advocacy Center. He established the Northern New England ICAC Task Force program and served as one of the first 10 ICAC Task Force Commanders in 1998, when OJJDP established the national program.

Christopher has 30 years of experience working in the area of sex offender management and treatment, including both treatment & policy development. He currently works for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Justice as the Program Director for the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB), where he is responsible for the development of standards for the treatment and management of sexual offenders, & providing legislative and policy input. Christopher also works as a private consultant for federal and federally funded agencies and organizations, including Tribal jurisdictions, responsible for developing and providing training, program assessment, peer review of grant solicitations and reports, and legislative and policy development. He has also published a number of articles and chapters related to sex offender management, with specific expertise on the state implementation of federal sex offender management legislation and sex offender public policy.

Chris has been active in Search and Rescue since 1981, managing searches since 1986. He is the past reserve Captain for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team and serves as chair of the Bay Area Search and Rescue Council, Inc. (BASARC). He co-authored “Urban Search – Managing Missing Person Searches in the Urban Environment” (published 2007 by dbS Publication), and is a contributing author on several other books for search and rescue. Additionally, he is a Level 1 law enforcement reserve with the Sheriff’s Department, and the City of Danville and is an EMT 1 Instructor. Chris holds a Master of Science Degree in Construction Management and works as a Senior Project Manager for a large general contractor based in San Francisco, responsible for overall management of multi-million dollar ground up commercial, high rise, hospital, educational and hotel projects

Chuck began his career in forensics by spending 3 years as a crime scene technician in Baltimore City where he processed over 2000 crime scenes. He then spent almost 12 years with the Montgomery County (MD) Crime Lab as a Forensic Scientist in the Forensic Biology Unit performing DNA analysis and a Forensic Specialist 2 in the Forensic Services Section processing crime scenes, chemically enhancing latent fingerprints, and enhancing digital images. He is now a Senior Physical Scientist with the National Institute of Justice where he manages the DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction, DNA Efficiency Improvement and Capacity Enhancement, Solving Cold Cases with DNA, Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence – Inventory, Tracking, and Reporting (SAFE-ITR), Using DNA Technology to Identify the Missing programs, and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) program for which he was awarded the 2011 Samuel Hayman Service to America Medal in Justice and Law Enforcement.

Beginning in 2008, Dustin Driscoll worked as an analyst within the Case Analysis Unit at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). In this position, he was responsible for providing analytical assistance to law enforcement officers working various types of missing child cases. He spent the majority of his employment at NCMEC assigned to the Forensic Services Unit, where he was responsible for conducting more in-depth analyses of cold case missing and unidentified deceased children. In 2011, Mr. Driscoll was promoted to a Senior Analyst with NCMEC.

Jamie Stirling has 28 years of search and rescue experience with the Ontario Provincial Police, including 6 years as their Provincial Search and Rescue Coordinator. He has managed some of Canada’s most challenging cases and is recognized as a Canadian Provincial Court expert in mapping and GPS systems. An “Honorary Canadian Ranger” with the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol, Jamie has provided technical assistance to numerous organizations, both provincial and national governments, where his operational knowledge in search and rescue has been instrumental in creating a foundation for search and rescue operations and programs.

Jason is a member of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office where he has served for twenty-seven (27) years. He currently holds the rank of Commander of Police. In that role, Jason leads the Special Victims Division and Forensic Services Initiative. The Special Victims Division focusses on Human Trafficking related cases while the Forensic Services Division is responsible for the investigation of human identification cases, complex deaths, cold missing person and homicide cases, and death care industry incidents. He has made local and national headlines for leading major investigations and closing several high-profile cold cases. Among these are the Chicago Burr Oak Cemetery Case, the probe into the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, and the identification of three (3) of the victims of the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Recently, he has filmed two (2) separate, multiple part series on the Discovery ID channel called “Deadly Legacy” and “The Clown and the Candyman”. He also appeared in “Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes” which aired on Netflix. Jason has completed in depth research and field work regarding the burial of Cook County’s Indigent, Unclaimed, and Unidentified. He has served the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as the Vice-Chairman of their Advisory Board and has assisted that office with several items like the proper handling of Unidentified Deceased Person cases. As a result of his investigations, Jason has worked with county and state officials in drafting legislation regarding public burials and certain forensic methods. Recently, he drafted substantial amendments to the Illinois Missing Persons Identification Act which were signed into law. He has formed a Forensic Archaeology Team and has conducted dozens of grave exhumations and inspections to include clandestine grave excavations.

Kim started her career in the death investigation field as a Deputy Coroner/Medicolegal Death Investigator in 2001 at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. She was promoted to Coroner of Sacramento in 2014 where she served until retirement in 2022. While serving as the Coroner for Sacramento County, she introduced the ANDE Rapid DNA technology into the identification process of the victims of the 2018 Butte County Camp Fire which became the first major incident in the United States where Rapid DNA and FIGG were used in disaster victim identification. In 2019, she used Rapid DNA technology to help identify thirty-four disaster victims in the Santa Barbara County Conception Boat Fire. After retirement, she started her own consulting business and in 2023 assisted with the identifications of the Maui Wildfire victims.

Mark works in the Department of Forensic Biology, New York City’s DNA crime lab and the largest of its kind in North America. Throughout his 28 years with NYC, he has investigated thousands of criminal and missing persons cases. He is the manager of the World Trade Center DNA Identification Team, a unit dedicated to advancing science and helping return loved ones to their families. Mark has been recruited by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and several foreign countries to assist in locating the missing and designing protocols to further this ability. Additionally, he serves on the Missing Migrant Identification Task Force at our nation’s border. During mass fatalities, Mark is the Family Assistance Center Manager for New York City. His command of required operations gained by handling worldwide incidents helped shape protocol from lessons learned. Mark brought Rapid DNA technology to New York for use in disaster victim identification to improve and hasten the process. Using his expertise, Mark created New York City’s Missing Persons Day. This is a multiagency event designed to bring together relatives and friends of missing persons for the purpose of collecting information to find and identify their family members. Mark has appeared on television and documentaries hundreds of times with features on Netflix, HBO, 60 Minutes and Time Magazine. He has been a keynote speaker forcorporate events and serves as a professor and forensic advisor for Rutgers University.

Michael Coble, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Executive Director of the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of forensic DNA analysis and interpretation, and is co-author of the book, “Forensic DNA Profiling: A Practical Guide to Assigning Likelihood Ratios.” He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a member of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Dr. Coble currently serves as a commissioner for the Texas Forensic Science Commission, is a member of the North Carolina Forensic Science Advisory Board and is an invited guest at the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM). He is a co-editor of the Forensic Biology subject area of WIREs Forensic Science journal and is a member of the editorial boards of Forensic Science International: Genetics and The Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Dr. Robert J. Koester first joined the Appalachian Search & Rescue Conference in 1981. He earned a Ph.D. in search theory from the University of Portsmouth and a MS in biology (neurobiology) from the University of Virginia. His contributions to Search and Rescue include, seminal research on lost person behavior (with emphasis on dementia) and the International Search and Rescue Incident Database (ISRID). As a Search Mission Coordinator and instructor for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Robert has also worked for the United States Coast Guard, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Park Service, Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Author of numerous books and articles on search and rescue, including Lost Person Behavior he is currently co-editor of the Journal of Search and Rescue. Recently he has been developing search and rescue software called FIND as CEO of dbS.

Stuart Somershoe began his career as a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) in 1996. Since becoming a detective in the PPD Missing and Unidentified Person’s Unit in 2007, Stuart has investigated thousands of missing person cases, some of which received widespread media attention and spotlighted on such programs as 20/20, Dateline, and Disappeared. Stuart has been featured in books and media about missing and unidentified person cases, including Skeleton Crew (Simon & Schuster, 2014) by Deborah Halber, The Long-Term Missing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) by Silvia Pettem, and the Missing Alissa podcast by Ottavia Zappala. In December 2022, Stuart retired from the Phoenix Police Department. He continues to work in the missing person field as a volunteer and consultant.

Treena Kay has been a prosecutor for 24 years. Ms. Kay is currently the Division Chief of the Trial Division. Treena began prosecuting capital and non-capital homicides in 2005. In 2009, she started collaborating with the Phoenix Police Department’s Missing and Unidentified Person Unit. This collaboration involves the investigation of missing person/bodiless homicide cases. In her career, Ms. Kay has prosecuted seven bodiless homicides. Five of the cases were resolved through plea agreements and two were convicted at trial of First Degree Premeditated Murder. She has prosecuted an additional eight homicide cases that were charged as bodiless homicides but during the prosecution, the victims’ remains were recovered. In addition to supervising close to a hundred attorneys, Ms. Kay continues to work with law enforcement agencies when they suspect a missing person investigation is a bodiless homicide case.