CFSO Board of Directors

Pete Marone is the Director of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. He began his forensic career at the Allegheny County Crime laboratory in 1971 and remained in Pittsburgh until 1978 when he accepted a position with the Virginia Bureau of Forensic Science. He has held the positions of Central Laboratory Director (1998) and Director of Technical Services (2005).

He is a member of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD); Mid-Atlantic Association of Forensic Scientists, former president; Forensic Science Society, and the International Association for Chemical Testing, former Treasurer. He has also served on the ASCLD DNA Credential Review Committee and as the chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee of the Technical Working Group for Forensic Science Training and Education (TWGED), and is immediate past chair of ASCLD-LAB (American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors - Laboratory Accreditation Board).

Pete is a Commissioner of the American Academy’s Forensic Education Program Accreditation Commission (FEPAC) which administers an accreditation program for undergraduate and graduate forensic science programs. He is also an Associate professor with Virginia Commonwealth University’ Department of Forensic Science.

Most recently he was nominated to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community.

James Claude Upshaw Downs, M.D., is coastal Georgia’s first Regional Medical Examiner. He has served as a Medical Examiner since 1989, in Charleston County, South Carolina until 1994, and then in Mobile County Alabama until 2002. He was Alabama’s State Forensics Director and Chief Medical Examiner from 1998 to 2002. He has lectured extensively in the field of forensic pathology and has presented at numerous national and international meetings in the fields of anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology. He lectures regularly at the National Forensic Academy in Knoxville, Tennessee and at the FBI National Academy.

He is a consultant to the FBI Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia, having authored four chapters in their manual on Managing Death Investigation, and was primary author of the FBI’s Forensic Investigator’s Trauma Atlas. Professional activities have included service on numerous professional boards and committees. He has testified in state and federal court, as well as before the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He is on the Board of Advisors for the National Forensic Academy and the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medical Examiners. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1983, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his doctor of medicine degree and his residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology, and his fellowship in forensic pathology from the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston) He is board certified in anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology.

Earl Wells is the Laboratory Director of the Forensic Services Laboratory for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, an ASCLD/LAB accredited laboratory. Mr. Wells began his career in forensics with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) as the Assistant Chief Chemist for the Forensic Chemistry Laboratory and Director of the South Carolina Implied Consent Program. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from Limestone College and worked as a research and development chemist in the field of polymer fibers before entering the field of forensic science in 1969.

During his career in forensic science Mr. Wells has worked as a practicing scientist in the disciplines of trace evidence, drug chemistry, toxicology, serology, crime scene processing, quality assurance and laboratory management.

Mr. Wells has authored the following papers and publications:

• “An Integrated State of the Art Forensic Laboratory”, “American Laboratory”, October 1991
• Utilization of Funded Federal Grants – 2003 American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Symposium, St. Petersburg, FL
• Quality Issues in Forensic Science – 2005 International Association of Forensic Science, Hong Kong, China
• Advocacy in Forensic Science – 2006 American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Symposium, San Diego, CA
• Forensic Science in the United States – 2005 International Forensic Seminar, Madrid, Spain

Mr. Wells is the past President of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. He currently serves as the Secretary of the Consortium of Forensic Science (CFSO). He is a member of The Southern Association of Forensic Scientist (SAFS) , and the International Association for Identification, South Carolina Chapter. He is an assessor for both the Legacy and the International forensic laboratory accreditation programs of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB). He has served as an instructor for the National Forensic Academy at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. He is a member of the American Society of Testing Materials E30 Committee and the National Institute of Justice General Forensics Technical Working Group. He assisted in the development of a forensic chemistry degree program for Newberry College, Newberry, South Carolina.

Joe Polski is the Chief Operations Officer and a past president of the International Association for Identification (IAI). Polski is currently the Treasurer of the Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations (CFSO). In addition he is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Forensic Science Committee and chair of its resolutions sub-committee, a member of the General Forensics Technical Working Group of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and a member of the Identification Services Sub-Committee of the FBI’s Advisory Policy Board. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Forensic Science Technology Center (NFSTC) in Largo, Florida.

Polski has long been active in the field of criminal identification and forensic science at the local, state, and national levels. He is a retired Commander with the St. Paul, Minnesota Police Department, where he served for 31 years. During that time Polski held many positions dealing with identification and forensic science including that of laboratory director.