Forensic Pathology training at USF is conducted by the faculty at the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department in Tampa. Hillsborough County has a population base of 1,408,000, encompasses 1072 square miles, and has its seat in the City of Tampa. The County performs approximately 2000 death investigations per year, over 1100 of these involve autopsies.

Mission and Emphasis

The mission of our program is to provide comprehensive training in forensic pathology that will enable the fellow to practice in the field with competence, confidence, and compassion; fellows are expected to become American Board of Pathology Diplomates in Forensic Pathology.

The fellow will participate in a diverse array of autopsies involving traumatic and non-traumatic deaths, and learn skills and techniques specific to each category, as well as to reconstruct pathophysiological processes leading to death in specific cases. The fellow will learn to successfully integrate and communicate autopsy findings with law enforcement, attorneys, family members, and health care professionals in other disciplines. Interdisciplinary conferences are considered essential to training. We will provide the fellow with a congenial and welcoming environment that is conducive to learning.

After graduation, the fellow will be equipped to practice as a competent medical examiner or coroner’s pathologist, or to enter academic practice as the director of the autopsy service of a teaching hospital. The emphasis in our program is on the acquisition of analytical and cognitive abilities to permit the fellow to function as an expert consultant to the legal, academic medical and practicing medical communities. The fellow will be prepared to conduct outreach efforts with various governmental entities and non-governmental community groups on a local, state, and national level.

Program Aims

1. The program will graduate competent, board eligible forensic pathologists with the technical and analytical abilities to practice in a variety of settings. 
2. The program will train fellows to build upon their existing research experience, and demonstrate this through scholarly activities.
3. Through a variety of inter-disciplinary interactions, the program will impart and nurture values of collaboration, professionalism, and lifelong learning.

Required Rotations

A fellow can expect to perform over 200 autopsies during the course of the year, possibly testify in a few depositions, and toward the end of the year, testify in court (murder trials in Hillsborough County come to trial anywhere from 6 months to a year and a half after arrest). Each fellow spends two days at the Tampa Regional Crime Laboratory of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and attends a week-long course in forensic anthropology at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA, has opportunities to interact with USF anthropology students on skeletal remains consults, and has ample time for consultation with our two on-site forensic toxicologists in the toxicology section of the Medical Examiner Department.

Appointment and Conferences

Each fellow has a statutory appointment as Associate Medical Examiner, conducts scene investigations, performs autopsies, and signs his or her own reports. Our teaching program includes case supervision and daily teaching conferences; including fixed brains and hearts, journal discussion, and case discussion.

Scene Investigations

Hillsborough County medical examiners go to the scenes of all homicides, all infant deaths, some suicides, and all industrial accidents when there has been no hospital treatment; and to any other scenes that they elect. They regularly participate in the morbidity and mortality conference of the USF Department of Surgery at Tampa General Hospital.

Physical Plant

The autopsy room, coolers, toxicology laboratory and offices of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department are housed in a spacious state-of-the-art three-building complex (built in 2008) at 11025 North 46th Street, Tampa, near the medical school.

Geography

Tampa is situated at the head of Tampa Bay, and is the cultural and financial center of a metropolitan area of 3 million people spread over several counties. The urban core is surrounded by suburbs, lakes and waterways, cattle ranches, citrus groves, tropical fish farms, and phosphate mines. This diverse geography makes for a rich case mix. Because Hillsborough County is only 30 miles square, medical examiners can easily make personal appearances at death scenes anywhere in the jurisdiction. Because of the favorable climate, scene investigations are not made unpleasant by winter weather.

Selection of Candidates, Starting Dates, and Compensation

The fellowship starts July 1. Preference is given to candidates who will have completed required training in Anatomical Pathology in a program accredited by the ACGME. The salary is $95,000. Benefits are described on the USF website at https://health.usf.edu/medicine/gme/current/stipend-benefits. Beginning in the fall of 2022, the USF Forensic Pathology Fellowship will be participating in the National Resident Matching Program for the 2024-25 academic year and onward.

Faculty

• Kelly Devers, MD, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 2006. AP/CP, FP, NP. Chief Medical Examiner and Associate Professor. Special interests: neuropathology and trauma
• Carolina McEnnan, MD, Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario Facultad de Medicina, Colombia, 2003 AP/CP, FP. Deputy Chief Medical Examiner and Assistant Professor. Special interest: Cold cases
• Ashley Perkins, DO, AP/CP, FP. Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University 2015, AP/CP, FP, Associate Medical Examiner and Assistant Professor
• Milad Webb, MD, PhD, AP, FP. University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, Nevada 2015, AP/CP, FP, Associate Medical Examiner and Assistant Professor
• Ryan McCormick, MD, AP/CP, FP. Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 2012 AP/CP, FP. Associate Medical Examiner
• Noah Reilly, DO, AP, FP. Western University of Health Sciences, Lebanon, Oregon, 2016
• Julia Pearson, PhD, D-ABFT, Michigan State University, 1996. Assistant Professor. Chief Forensic Toxicologist. Special interest: novel psychoactive substances
• Dina Swanson, MS, D-ABFT, University of Florida, 2009. Assistant Chief Forensic Toxicologist. Special interest: designer opioids

For further information contact:

Dr. Kelly Devers
11025 North 46th Street
Tampa, FL 33617
Telephone: (813) 914-4500
DeversK@hcfl.gov

Department of Pathology and Cell Biology

Physical and mailing address:
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 11
Tampa, FL 33612