Faculty and Staff

Faculty

Melissa Connor, Ph.D., is the Director of the Forensic Science Program at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She has 30 years of archaeological experience, and has worked in forensics for the last 15 years. Dr. Connor has exhumed human remains throughout the former Yugoslavia, and in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and Nigeria. She teaches Forensic Archaeology and Forensic Anthropology.

Dan Strydom, Ph.D., is the Director of Laboratory Forensic Sciences and is the advisor for the forensic biology and chemistry students. He also teaches in the Chemistry Department at NWU. Dr. Strydom came to the program in 2002 with more than 30 years of research experience (more than 60 publications in peer–reviewed journals) – at Harvard Medical School (faculty member for 10 years, nearly 20 years of service), at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of South Africa, and as Vice President of Research at BioNebraska/Restoragen in Lincoln. He teaches Analytical Science as a Basis for Forensic Investigation; Introduction to Forensic Biology; DNA Testing, Quality Control and Lab Safety; Forensic Drug Analysis; Forensic Analysis of Accelerants and Explosives; and Chemical Identification in Forensic Investigation.

Gary Plank, M.A., is an Assistant Professor of Forensic Science and has worked with the program since its inception. He retired from the Nebraska State Patrol after 18 years, including 24 years in the Investigative Sciences Division as a criminal investigator. For the last 17 years of his career he was the State’s only behavior profiler. Mr. Plank has worked, consulted, and presented extensively on threat assessment, workplace violence, school violence, stalking, criminal sexuality, homicide, and other areas of violent crime. During his tenure with the State Patrol he developed and managed the State’s threat assessment response for high–ranking government officials and celebrities and implemented the State’s Sex Offender Registry and Cold Case Squad. Mr. Plank instructs Violence in Society, Criminal Investigative Analysis, Forensic Psychology, and seminar courses in threat assessment and interviewing.

Staff

Denise Waller, is the staff assistant who works most closely with the Forensic Science Program.

Adjunct Faculty and Instructors

Sgt. Larry Barksdale, M.A., is the head of the criminal investigations unit for the Lincoln Police Department and has over 30 years of experience as a police officer. Sgt. Barksdale teaches the Advanced Crime Scene and Document Analysis courses and many of the elective seminars including Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Forensic Photography, and Interviewing.

Steve Conlon, M.A. is the Assistant Director for the Division of Criminal Investigation for the Department of Public Safety in the State of Iowa. Mr. Conlon teaches a course on Serial Offenders and Personality.

Sandra Denton, J.D., has been an Assistant United States Attorney since 2007. Prior to that, she served as a supervisor in the felony unit at the Douglas County Attorney’s Office and handled numerous homicide cases. She received her law degree from Creighton University in 1994. She teaches Criminal Law and the Law of Evidence and Expert Witness.

Charles Eggleston, MFS is a board-certified documents examiner who retired to a ranch in Nebraska after a career with the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Eggleston currently teaches Document Analysis.

John Filippi, DDS, D–ABFO, is a Board Certified forensic dentist and a dental consultant for the Douglas County Coroners Office. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (1987AAFS), past team leader and co founder of the Nebraska Forensic Dental Identification Team in 1993. He is the current Training Officer for the DMORT Region Team. Through his affiliations with the HHS/NDMS/ DMORT system, he has been involved with dental identifications involving cemetery desecrations, 6 commercial airline disasters, including two tours of service at the World Trade Center/ 911 and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Dr. Filippi currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO) and was recently appointed as the Public Relations Chairman. He is on the Board of Governors for the American Society of Forensic Odontology (ASFO) and is also the current website chairman. Dr. Filippi is also deemed an expert witness for the State of Nebraska.

His most recent appointment has been to the National Association of Missing and Identified System (NAMUS), as one of five regional forensic dental coordinators. He is also a certified and registered member with the CJIS/FBI system of the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC), as a board certified forensic odontolgist.

Prior to his current focus as a forensic dental consultant, he practiced general dentistry for 20 years in downtown Omaha. He has a B.S. in Biology and D.D.S. from Creighton University in 1980. He currently maintains an outside business interest in a financial investment firm in Omaha and with investments licenses (Series 7,53,63).

Along with being a forensic dental consultant for the Jackson County Medical Examiners Office in Kansas City, Missouri, “doc” also teaches the forensic dental I.D. Workshop Lab at Creighton University since inception and for the last 12 years.

He lectures extensively and has been published in the area of Forensic Dentistry. Dr. Filippi has certificates ( ICS 100,139, 200,300,700,800), in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which supports his focus in mass fatality incident operations and dental identifications. He is an adjunct professor and currently teaches the Medicolegal Death Investigation course ( FORSC 508).

Donald Kleine, J.D., was elected Douglas County Attorney in November 2006. Prior to his position with the Nebraska Department of Justice as the Chief of the Criminal Bureau, he served as the Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney. In his 21 years of service as a Prosecutor, Don has tried many of the high profile criminal cases for Douglas County. One of the most recent cases was the jury trial in State vs. Christopher Edwards. This is the first trial in Nebraska where a murder conviction was obtained without the victim’s body. Another recent case was State vs. Roy Ellis, wherein after missing for six months, 12–year–old Amber Harris was found buried in Hummel Park.

Don is a certified legal instructor by the Nebraska Commission of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. In addition, he is on the faculties of both the Creighton University School of Law teaching Trial Preparation and the University of Nebraska Omaha teaching Business Ethics.

He serves on the Board of Directors for Project Harmony, the Executive Board of the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, the Nebraska Child Death Review Team, and the Nebraska Supreme Court Subcommittee on Criminal Jury Instructions. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Nebraska County Attorneys Association of which he is a past president.

Prior to becoming Chief Deputy for Douglas County in 1991, he was in private practice with an emphasis on civil litigation and criminal defense. He graduated from Creighton University School of Law in 1977.

Leigh Ann Retelsdorf, J.D., graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1977 with degrees in biology and wildlife management. She worked as both a field and laboratory biologist until 1981, for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Missouri Conservation Commission. She attended law school at University of Nebraska College of Law, graduating in 1984. Leigh Ann began as a prosecutor in the Lancaster County Attorney’s office 1984, and moved to Douglas County in 1987.

Since 1987, she has tried many high profile homicide cases in Douglas County, including a successful conviction in the murder of an Omaha Police Officer. She has prosecuted numerous homicides involving children and infant victims, recently convicting Andre Robinson for the beating death of his girlfriend’s 21 month old child. During 2007, Leigh Ann convicted Terry Sellers for the murder of two Omaha men and the attempted murder of a third. Recently, Leigh Ann, along with Don Kleine, prosecuted the case of State v. Christopher Edwards involving the first successful trial, without a body, in Nebraska. She has had the opportunity to use forensic evidence in the courtroom in many homicide and sexual assault cases and she has presented to both law enforcement and prosecutors on the use of forensic evidence and forensic experts in the courtroom.

Leigh Ann was on the initial committee which directed the formation of the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and subsequently served on the board of directors. She chaired the steering committee responsible for the development of Project Harmony, a multi–jurisdictional child abuse protection center, in 1994, and has served on the Board of Directors since the board’s inception, just recently completing a term as board president. She is a certified instructor for the Nebraska Commission of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Leigh Ann was involved in the development of evidence protocols and training for Omaha’s only SANE/SART unit at Nebraska Methodist Hospital. Leigh Ann has also served on the Board of Directors for the Nebraska County Attorney’s association and is a past president.

Amy Jacobsen, J.D., is currently Deputy Lancaster County Attorney in Nebraska. Ms. Jacobsen received her law degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is admitted to practice in Missouri and Nebraska. She teaches a seminar on testifying as an expert witness.

Jason Linder, M.F.S., F–ABC, is a Forensic Scientists in the Biology Unit of the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab. Prior to transferring to the Biology Unit, Linder worked as a Forensic Scientist in the area of Controlled Substances. Linder is certified as a Fellow through the American Board of Criminalistics. He assists Dr. Strydom in teaching Forensic Chemistry courses.

Jody Meerdink, Ph.D., retired from her position as Director of the Forensic Science Program. She currently teaches Research Methods and Statistics.

Kirk Newring, Ph.D., is the clinical psychologist supervisor for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services inpatient Healthy Lives Program for sexual offenders at the Lincoln Correctional Center. He also maintains a private practice, focusing on sexual offender assessment & treatment, as well as professional training and consultation in the areas of sex offender risk assessment and management. Dr. Newring teaches Violence, Mental Illness, and Risk Assessment.

John Olsson, MA, MPhil, Member, International Association of Forensic Linguists, Member, British Academy of Sciences, lives in England and teaches Forensic Linguistics on our Masters in Forensic Science via distance learning. This course has been running at NWU for five years. John is a practising forensic linguist in the UK, handling authorship and textual analysis inquiries. He has prepared over 200 reports for prosecution and defence and has given evidence many times in court. He worked on the Da Vinci Code plagiarism allegation. He has handled the linguistics investigations in many types of case, including murder, terrorism, suspicious death, robbery, narcotics, sexual and other serious assault, witness intimidation and suicide. He is regularly consulted by UK police and has also assisted law enforcement officials in the USA. His textbook ’Forensic Linguistics’ is available through all good bookstores, and can be ordered from our own campus bookstore or from Amazon.

Douglas D. Scott, Ph.D., has 40 years experience in archaeological investigations, focusing on nineteenth century military forts and battlefields. He is best known for his ballistics analysis of cartridge cases and bullets at the Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer´s Last Stand). He is a member of the Association of Firearms and Tool Mark Examiners. He has over 10 years experience in forensic archaeological investigations working on cases in the U.S. southwest, and internationally in El Salvador, Croatia, Cyprus, and Rwanda. He teaches Forensic Archaeology.

Sgt. Erin Sims has been employed by the Lincoln Police Department for 26 years. She is a supervisor in the Crime Scene Investigation Unit and assists Sgt. Barksdale in teaching Advanced Crime Scene Analysis. Her areas of expertise include Latent Fingerprint processes, Crime Scene Processing, and Blood Stain Pattern Analysis. She also is an instructor at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center.

Carmella Strong, M.F.S., heads the DNA Analysis Unit at the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Laboratory. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Science in the Criminalistics section, as well as several other professional organizations. Cammi has worked for the NSP Crime lab since 1998, and has also acted as a consultant, performing mtDNA data analysis on victims of the World Trade Center disaster. She assists Dr. Strydom in teaching Forensic Biology and DNA testing, Lab Safety and Quality Control.

Adjunct Faculty, Douglas County Sheriff´s Office (DCSO)

In 2006, the MFS program began a partnership with DCSO, teaching seminars in the DCSO training facilities. These seminars use the expertise of the DCSO crime scene investigators with experience and/or master´s degrees to teach seminars for the graduate students and law enforcement.

Dave Kofoed, Commander, DCSO CSI Division has almost three decades of experience in law enforcement. Before that, he was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is co–teaching a course on crime scene imaging with CSI Retelsdorf.

Josh Connelly, MFS is a graduate of the NWU MFS program. He has worked as a DCSO CSI for four years and is a latent print examiner.

Christine Gabig, MSFS is a specialist in trace evidence analysis and forensic chemistry. She has been with the DCSO for five years.

C.L. Retelsdorf, MFS is a graduate of the NWU MFS program and specializes in digital imagery and forensic video analysis. He has eight years of experience with the DCSO and is well–known for his dumpster diving skill.

Shanon Tysor, MFS is a graduate of the NWU MFS program. She is co–instructing a course on fire scene investigation with CSI Gabig.

Mariana Ward, M.F.S., is a Forensic Laboratory Supervisor — Latent Fingerprint Section of the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab. Mariana has worked for the Nebraska State Patrol since 2002. She is a member of the International Association of Identification (IAI), and a Secretary/Treasurer of the Nebraska Division IAI. Mariana is also a chair of the Nebraska AFIS Users Group.