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ABFO President Thomas J. David's message:
 

I am honored to serve as your President this year. I am deeply indebted to those forensic odontologists who helped me to reach what I consider the pinnacle of my forensic odontology career. When I attended my first AAFS meeting in 1983, I had no conception of where the journey would lead. I want to personally thank Dr. Ed Herschaft for the encouragement he provided 29 years ago. He challenged me to push myself to become a Diplomate of the ABFO and that was accomplished in 1986. It really doesn’t seem like all this started so long ago. I think that the ABFO has done a remarkable job of encouraging others to also become Diplomates of the Board by providing workshops that provide assistance in becoming Board- eligible. Until 2005, we had only one workshop that provided assistance in that regard. Since that time, we have added three additional workshops, beginning in 2005 with the Civil Litigation Workshop, which I initiated. We now have a Dental Identification Workshop and an Age Estimation Workshop that began in 2010.

I’d like to welcome our new Diplomates to the ABFO: Dr. Jackie Reid of New Jersey and Dr. Scott Hahn of Florida. Scott is the only FBI Agent who is a member of a forensic Board!

It is with sorrow that I report the recent passing of one of our Diplomates, Dr. Araceli Ortiz.

Please keep two of our members in your prayers – Dr. Jerry Vale and Dr. David Sweet. They are both currently facing health challenges. Dr. Sweet was awarded the Reidar Sognnaes Award for Excellence in Forensic Odontology at this year’s Meeting in Atlanta.

I also join all our members in thanking Aribex for their support of the ABFO during the past year.

I would also like to thank Dr. Bob Barsley, our Immediate Past President for his leadership this past year.

We had a great meeting this year in Atlanta. The Annual ABFO Diplomates Dinner at the Commerce Club was well attended and our speaker provided a fascinating presentation of the Leo Frank Case. The Dental Identification Workshop the first weekend and Civil Litigation Workshop the second weekend were great successes. Thank you to all the Diplomates who helped to make these workshops a resounding achievement. Special thanks go out to Drs. Loomis and Brumit for steering these workshops in the right direction. Next year in Washington, DC, we will present the Bitemark Workshop at the beginning of the week and the Age Estimation Workshop at the end of the week. There will be more details about these workshops available later on our website.

As we move forward this year, changes are ahead. As of June 1st this year, the new requirements for challenging the Board will go into effect. Any application filed or completed after June 1st will be subject to the new requirement of 5 additional bitemark cases. There will be more details about this on the website later in the year. The Bitemark Committee is in the process of populating the Bitemark Repository that will be made available to those who need additional bitemark cases to complete the new requirements to challenge the Board. In addition, the Age Estimation Committee is populating its own repository in anticipation of the addition of age estimation requirements that take effect in 2014. All of the 17 Diplomates who recertified this year completed the Recertification Examination. Also, the ABFO is currently discussing proficiency testing for our Diplomates. We have several current Diplomates on SWGDVI (scientific working group on disaster victim identification) and are in the process of exploring the formation of a SWG focused solely on dental issues, SWGODONT or SWGDEN perhaps.

Please monitor the information on the website, including the Members Only section, on a regular basis in order to stay up to date with current activities of the ABFO. I look forward to a productive year!

Thomas J. David, DDS

President, ABFO