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Forensic Institute for Research and Education

To advance forensic sciences through education, research, and community service in collaboration with faculty, students, and community partners.

Forensic Institute for Research and Education at MTSU

Alumni Spotlight

FIRE’s Alumni Spotlight features former Forensic Anthropology Search and Recovery (FASR) Team members. 

David Adcox

Former FASR Team member, Devin Adcox, graduated Summa Cum Laude in the fall of 2019 with a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduation, Devin worked as an autopsy technician for the Metropolitan-Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office. He is currently attending graduate school at California State University, Chico where he is taking an anthropology seminar, biological anthropology seminar, and a human identification and anthropology forum. He has also been participating in student-teacher training and has been assisting in the Human Identification Laboratory. Next semester, he will be enrolled in forensic anthropology and will take his qualifying exams.

Sunny Lusins

Former FASR Team member, Sunny Lusins, graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Forensic Science in the spring of 2020. Since graduating, she permanently relocated to Tennessee and was hired as a medicolegal death investigator with the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office. Her job is to assist forensic pathologists in their autopsies by investigating all unnatural deaths in the greater Nashville area. Sunny hopes to become ABMDI (American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators) certified within the next three months. After certification, she will be able to go out to scenes to conduct scene investigations and body examinations independently.

Fiona McLeish

Former FASR Team member, Fiona McLeish, graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the spring of 2020. Since graduating, Fiona prepared for graduate school by completing a NAGPRA inventory in the archaeology lab and by brushing up on her human osteology knowledge. In August, she moved to England. During quarantine, she studied her osteology notes and books and she read “An Introduction to Biomolecular Archaeology”. She is currently attending the University of York to obtain an MSc in Bioarchaeology.

 

Kendall Denney

After graduating from MTSU in the spring of 2019 with a Bachelor of Science degree, former FASR Team member Kendall Denney was hired by the Metropolitan-Nashville Police Department as a crime scene investigator. She pursued and earned a Master in Criminal Justice degree in the summer of 2020 while employed full-time with MNPD. After completing her in-house training, she graduated from Session LII of the National Forensic Academy. She will return to the Metropolitan-Nashville Police Department as a certified crime scene investigator

kendall denney
Summer Shipley-Meeks

Former Forensic Anthropology Search and Recovery (FASR) Team member Summer Shipley-Meeks graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in the fall of 2019. She was accepted into the Master of Science program at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA. She also was fortunate enough to obtain a graduate employee position within the Department of Applied Forensic Sciences at the university. 

Summer works with the department on active forensic cases and departmental tasks. She is also a teaching assistant for the undergraduate Introduction to Forensic Science course. In addition, she manages all undergraduate work studies for the department. She is taking fragmentary osteology, forensic archaeology, and basics of forensic anthropology courses for her first semester. By the end of this semester, she will be preparing to propose her thesis topic and take her comprehensive exams during the spring semester. 

Summer also married her husband, Logan Meeks, this summer. Congratulations Summer!

Hannah Guthrie

Hannah is a former FASR Team member and former Middle Tennessee Forensic Science Society (MTFSS) president. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in the spring of 2020, with a 4.0 GPA in Biochemistry. She started working part-time at Jack Daniel Distillery in the Quality Control Laboratory. She will continue to work there on weekends while she begins her graduate degree at MTSU in Professional Science with a concentration in Fermentation Science. She will use her position to complete her internship requirement by creating a research project that she helps with at the distillery.

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FIRE
Box 89
MTSU
Murfreesboro TN 37132


Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU P.O Box 109
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
37132

(615) 898-5223