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Dr. Ames is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). He is the inventor of the Ames test, a system for easily and cheaply testing the mutagenicity of compounds. His research concerns cancer and aging, and his more than 500 publications have resulted in his being among the few hundred most-cited scientists in all fields.

Dr. Ames's current research includes identifying agents that delay the mitochondrial decay of aging; understanding the role of mitochondrial decay in aging, particularly in the brain; and optimizing micronutrient intakes in the population to prevent disease, malnutrition, and obesity. He is also interested in mutagens as they relate to cancer prevention and aging.

Larry Bans, M.D.
Prostate Solutions of Arizona
2525 E. Arizona Biltmore Circle Suite C-236
Phoenix, AZ 85016

Dr. Bans is a urologist who has practiced in Phoenix for 23 years. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He completed his general surgery and urology training at Indiana University. In 1983 he joined Urology Associates in Phoenix and did general urology for 20 years. In October 2003 he started his own practice, Prostate Solutions of Arizona (“PSA”). At first he contracted with five insurance plans as well as Medicare. He has since dropped several insurance plans and became a nonparticipating physician in Medicare on Jan 1, 2006. On July 1, 2006, he opted out of Medicare completely.

Hon. John Buttrick
Judge, Superior Court of Arizona
Maricopa County
201 West Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Judge Buttrick received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1976. While associated with Brown & Bain, P.A., of Phoenix, he specialized in complex business litigation including antitrust, products liability, contract, environmental torts, and intellectual property. He represented individuals and businesses, including IBM, Intel, E.I. Dupont, McDonalds and many others, in federal and state courts throughout the country. He was appointed Judge in the Superior Court in 2001, serving in the civil department (May 2001—Aug 2003), the criminal department (Sept 2003—2004), family court (Aug 2004—present), and as an at-large member of the Judicial Executive Committee (2002—present).

Stuart Browning
stuartbrowning@onthefencefilms.com

Stuart Browning is a technology entrepreneur and founder of several companies. From 1992 until 2000, he was president of the San Francisco-based database software company Embarcadero Technologies Inc. (EMBT), of which he was a co-founder. EMBT enjoyed the single most successful initial public offering (IPO) of calendar year 2000.

Mr. Browning is chairman and a co-founder of an independent film company, On The Fence Films. He is a co-director and co-producer of the film Dead Meat as well as an executive producer and sole financier of the critically acclaimed Brainwashing 101 and the forthcoming feature-length film Indoctrinate U. He comments regularly on health care policy on his blog at www.onthefencefilms.com and has appeared on various radio shows in Canada and the U.S., discussing health care policy.

He is a 1984 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Michael F. Cannon
Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001

Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute's director of health policy studies. Previously, he served as a domestic policy analyst at the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee under Senator Larry E. Craig (R-ID), where he advised the Senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare, and Second Amendment policy. In addition, Mr. Cannon has worked as a health care policy analyst for Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation in Washington, D.C. Mr. Cannon has appeared on CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, and NPR. His articles have been featured in USA Today, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Most recently, Mr. Cannon coauthored the book Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.

Craig Cantoni
Capstone Consulting Group
9922 E. Doubletree Ranch Rd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
ccan2@aol.com

Craig Cantoni is an author, columnist, strategic planning consultant, founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (www.haalt.org), activist in health care reform and other efforts to protect individual liberty, and a former executive with some of the largest companies in the United States.

He has appeared on local and national radio and TV, has been covered by The New York Times and other newspapers, and has written for many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the Arizona Republic, Liberty Magazine, and various professional journals and think-tanks. His weekly opinion column in the Arizona Republic has been running for five years. For his efforts in forming a large political-action group to fight government bureaucracy in the 1980s, a New Jersey newspaper, the Courier News, honored him as “Public Service Volunteer of the Year” on its Sunday front page.

Mr. Cantoni is the author of Corporate Dandelions: How Corporate Bureaucracy Is Choking American Business And What You Can Do to Uproot It.

Jonathan Cohn
jcohn@tnr.com

Jonathan Cohn has been with The New Republic since 1997. He served for two years as the executive editor, and is now senior editor. He writes mainly about domestic politics and policy, with a particular focus on issues related to health care and social welfare.

In 2002 the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation awarded Mr. Cohn one of its media fellowships to study how America's system for financing medical care affects who gets care and who doesn't. He is now turning that work into a book, which HarperCollins will publish.

Before coming to TNR, Mr. Cohn worked for six years at The American Prospect, where he remains a contributing editor. He has also written for the Boston Globe, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Slate, and The Washington Monthly.

While at Harvard University, Mr. Cohn became president of The Harvard Crimson. He now lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

Richard O. Dolinar, M.D.
14224 N. 11th Way
Phoenix, AZ 85022

A private practice clinical endocrinologist in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. Dolinar earned his M.D. at The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and completed an endocrinology fellowship at Duke University.

Dr. Dolinar has testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and has also given Congressional briefings on Capitol Hill regarding medical issues. He represented the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) at the public hearings regarding the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and the Medicare drug benefit. He has also presented to State legislators as well as various medical industry professionals. Dr. Dolinar has been interviewed by both the local and national media, including CNN, CBS, and PBS, regarding medical issues.

Dr. Dolinar's articles and opinion pieces have appeared in both professional and consumer publications, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Diabetes Research, and various web sites including that of the Heritage Foundation. He is co-author of the book Diabetes 101. Dr. Dolinar is a member of the board of directors of AACE and serves on its National Legislative and Regulatory Committee. He is the chairman of its Future of Healthcare Task Force. Dr. Dolinar also serves as a senior fellow in healthcare policy at the Heartland Institute and has held leadership positions in other professional organizations, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Diabetes Association.

Dr. Dolinar served as a flight surgeon in the Vietnam War and is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.

Warren Evins, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P.
10642 Chillingham Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89183

Dr. Evins is board certified in internal medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is a graduate of SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Michigan State University in East Lansing. He has performed research in biochemistry, nutrition, endocrinology, and molecular and cell biology. He has been on the staff of Rockefeller University, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the University of Illinois. He trained at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and as a U.S. Public Health Service fellow.

Since 1983, Dr. Evins has been a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. He has served as Nevada Peer Review/Health Insight State Council director and as a representative to the Nevada Medicare Carrier Advisory Committee and Nevada Medical-Legal screening panel. Dr. Evins has chaired numerous hospital and state and county medical society committees, and is past president of the American Diabetes Association—Nevada affiliate, the Clark County Medical Society, and the Nevada State Medical Association. He has been a member of several medical liability task forces, PACs, and committees. He is currently employed by UMC McCarran Quick Care.

Paul Gorman, M.D.
Trinity Hand Specialists
P.O. Box 5969
Johnson City, TN 37602

In July 2005, after 15 years with an orthopaedic surgery group in Johnson City, Dr. Paul Gorman opened Trinity Hand Specialists, Upper East Tennessee’s first free-standing hand surgical and therapy office, along with two hand therapists. He is a board-certified, fellowship-trained, orthopaedic hand surgeon with a certificate of added qualification (CAQ) in hand surgery and additional board certification in independent medical exams. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association, and is past president of the Tennessee Hand Society.

Dr. Gorman limits his practice to the evaluation and treatment of upper extremity traumatic and reconstructive problems. He opted out of Medicare last summer.

His wife of 25 years, Debbie, oversees his office’s billing and bookkeeping, and their three home-schooled children are now in college.

John Hasnas, Ph.D., J.D.
6362 Burton Circle
Falls Church, VA 22041 John Hasnas is an associate professor of business at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he teaches courses in ethics and law. Professor Hasnas has held previous appointments as associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, visiting associate professor of law at the Washington College of Law at American University, and a law and humanities fellow at Temple University School of Law. Professor Hasnas has also been a visiting scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington, DC, and the Social Philosophy and Policy Center in Bowling Green, OH.

Dr. Hasnas received his B.A. in philosophy from Lafayette College, his J.D. and Ph.D. in legal philosophy from Duke University, and his LL.M. in legal education from Temple Law School. Between 1997 and 1999, Professor Hasnas served as assistant general counsel to Koch Industries, Inc., in Wichita, KS. His scholarship concerns ethics and white-collar crime, jurisprudence, and legal history. He is currently at work on a philosophical analysis of the Constitutional right to die.

Lawrence R. Huntoon, M.D. Ph.D., F.A.A.N.
P.O. Box 39
Lake View, NY 14085
editor@jpands.org

Dr. Huntoon is editor-in-chief of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. He is also a past president of AAPS, serves on the AAPS board of directors, and is chairman of the AAPS Sham Peer Review Committee. He is an unrepentant lampoonist, whose subjects have included Medicare bureaucrats, otherwise known as the Blue Bunglers, managed-care moguls, and others who are intent on demeaning, devaluing, attacking, and oppressing those who practice medicine. In addition to his collection of managed-care cartoons, known as Huntoon Lampoons, his creations have included the WEDONT CARE HMO Card, and his collection of correspondence with HCFA and Medicare bureaucrats, known as “Little Frank,” which now stands more than eight and one-half feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds.

Trained as a medical research scientist with a Ph.D. in neurophysiology, Dr. Huntoon is a practicing solo neurologist who is opted out of Medicare and runs a third-party-free practice.

Marianne Jennings, J.D.
P.O. Box 874006
Tempe, AZ 85287

Professor Jennings is a member of the department of management in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and is a professor of legal and ethical studies in business. She served as director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics from 1995—1999. She earned her undergraduate degree in finance and her J.D. degree from Brigham Young University. Her internships were with the federal public defender and U.S. Attorney in Nevada, and she has done consulting work for law firms, businesses and professional groups including AES, Boeing, Dial Corporation, Mattel, Motorola, CFA Institute, Southern California Edison, the Arizona Auditor General, the Cities of Phoenix, Mesa, and Tucson, the Institute of Internal Auditors, AIMR, Boeing, DuPont, AES, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Motorola, Hy-Vee Foods, IBM, Bell Helicopter, Amgen, and VIAD.

At ASU, Professor Jennings teaches graduate courses in the MBA program in business ethics and the legal environment of business. She has authored more than 130 articles in academic, professional, and trade journals. Currently she has six textbooks and monographs in circulation, including Case Studies in Business Ethics, Real Estate Law, and Business: Its Legal, Ethical and Global Environment. In 1997, she was added as a co-author to Anderson's Business and the Legal Environment, a text now in its 19th edition. Her book Business Strategy for the Political Arena was selected in 1985 by Library Journal as one of its recommended books in business/government relations. Her book A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success, and a Very Large Rabbit, a fable about business ethics, was chosen by Library Journal in 2004 as its business book of the year. Her book on long-term success, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons from Fifteen Companies, Each With a Century of Dividends, published in October 2002, has been used by Booz, Allen, Hamilton for its work on business longevity. Her latest book, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse will be published by St. Martin’s Press in July 2006.

Her weekly columns are syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Reader's Digest. A collection of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, first published in 1994 is still in print. She was given an Arizona Press Club award in 1994 for her work as a feature columnist. She has been a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public Radio.

Professor Jennings has conducted more than 200 workshops and seminars in the areas of business, personal, government, legal, academic and professional ethics. In 2005, she was named an All-Star Speaker by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

She is a contributing editor for the Real Estate Law Journal and the Corporate Finance Review and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Legal Studies Education during 2003—2004. During 1984—85, she served as then-Governor Bruce Babbitt's appointee to the Arizona Corporation Commission. In 1999 she was appointed by Governor Jane Dee Hull to the Arizona Commission on Character. During 1986—1988, she served as associate dean in the College of Business. From 1986—87, she served as ASU's faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and PAC-10. In 1999, she was elected president of the Arizona Association of Scholars.

Professor Jennings is a member of the State Bar of Arizona, and has served on the board of directors of Arizona Public Service (1987—2000), Zealous Capital Corporation, and the Center for Children with Chronic Illness and Disability at the University of Minnesota. She served as chairman of the Bonneville International Advisory Board for KHTC/KIDR from 1994-1997 and was a weekly commentator on KGLE during 1998. She was appointed to the board of advisors for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators in 2004 and serves on the board of trustees for Think Arizona, a public policy think tank. She has appeared on CNBC, CBS This Morning, the Today Show, and CBS Evening News.

Her husband since 1976, Terry H. Jennings, is Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Deputy County Attorney. They have four children: Sarah, Claire, Sam and John.

Eric Novack, M.D.
5605 W. Eugie #111
Glendale, AZ 85304
www.ericnovack.com

Dr. Eric Novack is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. He is a partner of Phoenix Orthopaedic Consultants, a single-specialty group with offices in Glendale, Arizona. He has a special interest in most fractures and disorders of the shoulder and knee.

Dr. Novack hosts a weekly talk show on KKNT on “Healthcare Policy, Politics, and Pride,” available for listening on the web.

Michael Ostrolenk
Washington, DC

Mr. Ostrolenk holds an undergraduate degree in government from West Virginia Wesleyan College. His masters degree is in transpersonal counseling psychology from John F. Kennedy University, and he is a licensed psychotherapist.

Mr. Ostrolenk is a public policy consultant who works on health, education, privacy, and food issues. He is a member of the AAPS government affairs team. He also serves as the Washington DC policy fellow for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. He was formerly on the board of directors for the Health Medicine Forum and the Republican Liberty Caucus. He is the founder and national coordinator for the Medical Privacy Coalition, and the co-founder of the Liberty Coalition, a transpartisan coalition of groups working to protect civil liberties, privacy, and property rights. Mr. Ostrolenk is vice president of The Center for Liberty and Community and serves as senior editor for their newspaper, The Free Liberal. He is also a member of the Integral Institute.

Jane M. Orient, M.D., F.A.C.P.
1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9
Tucson, AZ 85716

Dr. Orient is an internist in solo, cash-only private practice in Tucson and executive director of AAPS. She received her M.D. from Columbia University in 1974.

She is the author of Sapira's Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis, 3rd ed.; Your Doctor Is Not In: Healthy Skepticism about National Health Care; three novels; and more than 100 articles in professional and lay publications. She is the editor of AAPS News and managing editor of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. She was on the faculty of the University of Arizona College of Medicine for four years and is now a clinical lecturer in medicine. She has served as a peer reviewer for numerous professional journals.

A former schoolteacher, she still enjoys preparing lessons for the Robinson Self-Teaching Home School Curriculum, and authored Professor Klugimkopf's Old-Fashioned English Grammar and Professor Klugimkopf's Spelling Method.

Dr. Orient served as chairman of the department of internal medicine at Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson in 1992—1993 and has been director of continuing medical education there since 1990. She is a southern district director for the Arizona Medical Association (ArMA), a past president of the Pima County Medical Society, president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, and founder and president of Physicians for Civil Defense.

Lawrence R. Poliner, M.D.
7777 Forest Lane, Suite C600
Dallas, TX 75230

An interventional cardiologist, Dr. Poliner graduated from Cornell University's medical school in 1969. He formerly taught at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He has served as the director of internal medicine at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock.

Mark Schiller, M.D.
2299 Post St. Suite 104A
San Francisco, CA 94115
info@drmarkschiller.com

Dr. Schiller is a psychiatrist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. His undergraduate and medical degrees are from the University of Chicago, and he is a graduate of the Yale University psychiatric residency program. He completed a research fellowship at UCSF.

Dr. Schiller also holds a master's degree in economics and performs economic and policy analysis as a senior fellow in medical studies at the Pacific Research Institute. He has been very active in a broad range of legal, financial, and organizational reforms within the medical system as the founder and former president of the California chapter of AAPS. He is a past president of AAPS.

Dr. Schiller's writings have appeared in The New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, the Orange County Register, and California Banker. He frequently appears on radio and television, and he has been invited to testify before the California state legislature. He was a member of Bill Simon's healthcare and counterterrorism task forces.

Andrew Schlafly
939 Old Chester Rd.
Far Hills, NJ 09731

Mr. Schlafly is a member of the bars of New York and New Jersey and serves as the general counsel to AAPS. He advises physicians and frequently files amicus curiae briefs, in addition to winning a jury verdict in defense of an antitrust suit last December. His noteworthy legal briefs have included the cases of United States v. Dr. Sell (overturning an order to forcibly drug a defendant before trial); United States v. Dr. Rutgard (overturning a sentence of an ophthalmologist); AAPS & Congressman Ron Paul v. HHS (establishing the “country doctor” exemption to HIPAA); Dr. Phillips v. Nevada (vacating a plea bargain); Limbaugh v. Florida (challenging the search warrants for his medical records); Veeck v. SBCCI (establishing that no one can own the law); and CN v. Ridgewood Board of Education (overturning a ruling compelling students to answer intrusive questionnaires).

Mr. Schlafly received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor on the Law Review. He clerked for Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has taught at Seton Hall Law School, and speaks and writes widely. His testimony before the New York Assembly Committee on Health helped stop passage of emergency health powers legislation there. His college degree is in engineering from Princeton University, and he worked in that field for Intel and Bell Labs. He is originally from Alton, Illinois.

Jeffrey Segal, M.D., F.A.C.S.
P.O. Box 49669
Greensboro, NC 27419

Dr. Segal is a board-certified neurosurgeon who was educated at the University of Texas and the Baylor College of Medicine, earning Phi Beta Kappa and AOA Medical Honor Society recognition. He completed his neurosurgical residency at Baylor College of Medicine and continued as a spinal surgery fellow at University of South Florida School of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, North American Spine Society, American College of Legal Medicine, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. In the late 1990s, Dr. Segal served as secretary for the Indiana State Neurosurgical Society. Dr. Segal was a founder and served as chief executive officer of DarPharma, Inc, a biotechnology company in Chapel Hill, NC, focused on discovering and developing first-of-class pharmaceuticals for a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Segal initially conceived of Medical Justice in 1998, and the first patents were filed in 1999. At the time, he was practicing clinical medicine in Indiana, a state that had successfully controlled medical malpractice premiums by judicious use of medical review panels and caps on total payouts. Between 1994 and 2000, Dr. Segal participated on a number of these panels.

Dr. Segal worked to expand Medical Justice from an idea to a business. Between 1999 and 2003, several patents issued, the company developed infrastructure in underwriting and claims management, and the product was licensed to a pre-paid legal expense carrier in Florida. Under Dr. Segal’s guidance, Medical Justice has expanded into 47 states and provides benefits to a growing number of physicians. Dr. Segal currently serves as CEO of Medical Justice.

Dr. Segal was sued only one time for medical malpractice. That case was filed in 2001 and was later dropped. This suit was frivolous in nature, and its chief proponent was a neurosurgeon who had previously been expelled by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Segal employed the proprietary techniques in Medical Justice to help prevent others from being sued inappropriately by this expert witness. By experiencing the process himself, Dr. Segal understands, viscerally, the nature of the medical malpractice problem. More importantly, he understands what specific solutions can be effectively put to work today. In the process of conceiving, funding, developing, and growing Medical Justice, Dr. Segal has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice and remedies available through counterclaims.

Kathryn Serkes
Square One Media
Washington, D.C., and Seattle, WA
kathryn@aapsonline.org

Ms. Serkes, the founder of Square One Media, has served as AAPS public affairs counsel for more than ten years. She has most recently organized AAPS congressional briefings on pain management, AAPS regional practice management seminars (Thrive Not Just Survive), and numerous press conferences. She represents AAPS at the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). She is responsible for AAPS action alerts and press releases, frequently appears on television and talk radio, and is often quoted in major newspapers and professional publications. She is coauthor of Rx for Patient Power: the Patient's Handbook.

Jordan Lewis Shlain, M.D.
San Francisco On Call Medical Group
490 Post St. #710
San Francisco, CA 94102
Private Medical Services
Tel.: 415.732.7029

Dr. Shlain is founder and medical director of San Francisco On Call Medical Group, a fee-for-service primary and urgent care practice which specializes in housecalls. He graduated top of his class at UC Berkeley and subsequently took a year off to teach high school in Kenya via Harvard's WorldTeach. He attended Georgetown Medical School and completed his internal medicine residency in San Francisco.

Dr. Shlain currently lectures at UC Berkeley on micro- and macro-economic trends in medicine and is at the forefront in developing consumer-oriented healthcare models. In 1999, he dropped his traditional insurance practice and found that only 30% of his patients stayed for his fee-for-service model. After laying off two billing staff members and receiving 100% reimbursement, his salary was unchanged after one year and he had 70% more time. His practice is growing and now includes five doctors, and they have plans to expand to other cities.

Dr. Shlain sits on the board of directors of the San Francisco Medical Society and is an assistant clinical professor at the UCSF Medical Center. He also sits on many advisory boards for start-up healthcare delivery companies. Gerry Smedinghoff
4455 E. Paradise Village Parkway, South
#1088
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
Tel.: 602-595-6886

Mr. Smedinghoff is a consulting actuary, writer, and speaker on economic, medical, and technology issues. His writings have been published widely in newspapers, magazines and technical journals such as the Washington Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Skydiving, and Vital Speeches of the Day. He appeared on the nationally syndicated PBS television program Health Week, and speaks frequently to actuarial, economic, engineering, physician, and technology groups.

He is also a marathon runner and skydiver. His actuarial analysis of safety devices and newspaper editorials were instrumental in defeating a bill in the Nevada legislature to regulate the sport of skydiving in 1999.

Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
1119 Penn Ave. Suite 404
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Dr. Wecht received his M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, and his J.D. degree from the University of Maryland. He is certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic, clinical, and forensic pathology, and is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and the National Association of Medical Examiners. Dr. Wecht was formerly chairman of the department of pathology and president of the medical staff at St. Francis Central Hospital in Pittsburgh, and is actively involved as a medical-legal and forensic science consultant, author, and lecturer. He is the author of more than 500 professional publications, and the editor of 35 books, including the 5-volume set Forensic Sciences (Matthew Bender). He has personally performed more than 15,000 autopsies, and has supervised or reviewed about 35,000 additional post-mortem exhumations. He has testified in more than 1,000 cases. He has been involved in a number of historic cases, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert Kennedy, and Rev. Martin Luther King; the Waco Branch Davidian fire; the deaths of Vincent Foster, Elvis Presley, and Mary Jo Kopechne; and the cases of O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey, and Laci Peterson. His books include Cause of Death, Grave Secrets, Who killed JonBenet Ramsey, Mortal Evidence, and Tales from the Morgue.