Not hypothetical challenges. Not field-wide abstractions. The actual, specific problems that four members of the ISHI Advisory Committee are working on right now — in their labs, with their teams, and in their research.
Shena Latcham is working on the backlog.
Missouri passed a statute requiring all sexual assault kits to be collected and submitted to the laboratory. The initial response was outsourcing — which, it turned out, made the problem worse. “That actually created a larger backlog for us because it took so long to get them back to us.”
The current approach is internal: restructuring workflows so analysts take on different roles through the processing pathway, improving throughput while maintaining quality. “We’ve had those programs in place for about a year now, and it has greatly increased our efficiency for that.”
The backlog on sexual assault kits is one piece of it. Reports, peer review, the rest of the caseload — that’s the next layer. “We’re just trying to get the biggest issue, which was processing solved first. And now we’re starting to focus on the other issues.”
Dawn Romano’s answer is about people — specifically, deploying them where they’re actually strong.
“We have a girl who was a teacher before she came to the lab. She helps me train. I have somebody who’s great with Excel. She helps me with worksheets.”
The problem she’s solving isn’t purely operational. It’s cultural: when people are given work that fits what they’re good at, and when their input shapes the systems they use, engagement follows. “They work harder because they’ve created the system that we use.”
Meradeth Snow’s lab is working on two threads: sampling methodology for postcranial remains, and epigenetic aging.
On sampling: “That is something that I think has a huge influence on whether or not you’re going to get DNA. Are you going to get usable DNA?” Research in that area has direct implications for her work with ancient and archaeological DNA.
On epigenetics: “I think that’s going to be a huge factor for a lot of this ongoing forensic work, especially if we can narrow that range down beyond what we can do with morphological characteristics.” The goal is a method that’s cheap, fast, and implementable in labs that already have the equipment to do it.
Pam Marshall’s answer zooms out.
Her students at Duquesne are working on mixture interpretation methods and on the ethical challenges currently facing the forensic community. She’s direct about the limits of what she and her colleagues can resolve right now.
“While we may not have all of the answers, I do feel like it’s the students and their generation that are going to create those solutions for all of us.”
It’s a bet on the people coming up — that the problems the field is currently grappling with will be solved by analysts who are still in graduate school.
Meet the ISHI Advisory Committee
Dawn Romano is the DNA Technical Lead and Forensic Supervisor of the Biology Unit at Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Forensic Services Division.
Shena Latcham is a Forensic Scientist Supervisor in DNA Casework at the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratory.
Meradeth Snow, Ph.D. is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Montana, specializing in degraded and ancient DNA, NGS, and forensic investigative genetic genealogy.
Pamela Marshall, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Director of the Forensic Science and Law Program at Duquesne University and a member of Promega’s Forensic Leadership Alliance.