Leading the IGG Center at 69色情视频 for the past four years has been the greatest honor of my professional life. The people and experiences (the good, the bad, and the ugly) have inspired and re-shaped me in ways I could never have predicted. I am proud of every team member and the work that we have done together. Thanks to the dedication of the team, the IGG Center rests on a solid foundation. As my wife and I make the move back to Arizona with our family, I leave my role with gratitude and confidence. The field of IGG has as its goal to provide justice and answers to victims and families, and the IGG Center is now a leading light in that effort. The center\u2019s missions of providing proven casework, expert education, and imaginative research are well-established. With these accomplishments in mind, innovation and expansion benefit from the temporary turmoil of restructuring, and so I believe that the impact of the IGG Center will only increase in the years to come.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beginnings<\/b><\/p>\n When I came to 69色情视频 as a professor in the fall of 2019, I had an idea\u2014more a dim flickering, really\u2014to start a clinical program that combined my earlier work on wrongful convictions with the new investigative method that had identified the Golden State Killer and already led to one exoneration, Christopher Tapp. The problem was time. As a new professor teaching a full load of classes, time was in short supply. Then, in the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 brought turmoil and uncertainty to the world, one of the many odd and unexpected outcomes of that awful event presented itself: time. For someone who did not yet have kids to take care of and was fortunate enough to have family that avoided the worst of the disease, the most sudden impact of COVID was a surplus of that previously scarce resource. It was in those long, strange months that I had the time to blow oxygen onto the idea of creating an investigative genetic genealogy program at Ramapo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The need was clear. A relatively small number of practitioners were solving cases with IGG at that time. And there were potentially hundreds of thousands of cases\u2014including unsolved violent crimes, unidentified remains, and wrongful convictions\u2014that could benefit from the method. To work those cases, an army of well-trained practitioners would be needed. After an intensive course in genealogy in the summer of 2020, mentoring from IGG pioneers such as Lori Napolitano and Margret Press, and innumerable fits and starts, I began to put the pieces together for a program at Ramapo. What I didn\u2019t know then was that my most significant IGG education was ahead of me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To convince Ramapo\u2014and myself\u2014that the idea was viable, I created a stand-alone class for undergraduate students where they would learn how to do IGG using simulated cases with DNA helpfully provided by several of my friends (thanks Paul, Sam, and Katy). The students were enthralled and rose to the challenge mightily (one of them, Emma Brennan, later graduated from the IGG Certificate Program).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was still the problem of convincing Ramapo. An avenue opened when Ramapo took on a new president in the summer of 2021. With the encouragement of my ever-supportive dean, Aaron Lorenz, I submitted a proposal under the president\u2019s call for innovative ideas for new centers at the college. In the early summer of 2022, I formally presented the idea, where I emphasized the public good of IGG and the potential for Ramapo to become a hub for IGG education, practice, and research. To my delight, the proposal was approved. Now . . . to build an IGG Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (A note on hubris: in the initial thoughts about the center, I imagined doing the work largely on my own. Thankfully, Nemesis arrived sooner rather than later, and slapped sense into me.)<\/span><\/p>\n What happened next is one of the innumerable moments of serendipity that have accompanied the birth and growth of the IGG Center. Margaret Press of the DNA Doe Project suggested that I meet up with an early DDP volunteer who by then was the director of education and development at that organization. Her name was Cairenn Binder, and she happened to live right across the Hudson River from my home in Nyack, NY. We met at a coffee shop (Runcible Spoon, for the curious) to talk shop, with no agenda but sharing notes: Cairenn picking my legal brain and me picking her IGG brain. I can\u2019t recall if it was at our first or second meeting that I rashly, and half-jokingly, suggested that she give up her nursing job and come work at Ramapo. I had no authority to offer anyone a job at that point, and I knew that adding another paid, full-time position to an already-speculative idea would be a hard sell to Ramapo. But suggest it I did, with all of the concomitant disclaimers about unlikelihood and uncertainty. The idea landed and took root, and within a month I\u2019d emailed Cairenn an outline of how the center would operate and a proposed job description.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Foundations<\/b><\/p>\n Looking back now after four years, I am amazed at how nearly every speculative goal laid out in that email has been realized\u2014and exceeded. Cairenn and I were, from the start, eerily united in our visions for the center and have remained so through the ups and downs of the past four years. With Cairenn at the helm of the certificate program, what began as the upstart education program in the field quickly became the go-to destination for practical, hands-on IGG training. Skeptical initial receptions to our outreach to law enforcement, medical examiners, and wrongful conviction organizations has, through a record of reliable communication and successful leads, turned into a steady stream of referrals from our, now, trusted partners and new contacts alike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Building the center has not been without challenge. We have faced many moments of struggle and stress, along with long days and nights. Each member of our team has made sacrifices of time and energy that I am astounded by and endlessly grateful for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, the IGG Center is a recognized leader in the field. Our team has provided leads in nearly fifty cases, one of which led to the exoneration of two brothers, Robert and David Bintz. Over 350 individuals have graduated from the IGG Certificate Program and are collectively responsible for helping to solve sixteen cases during their training. Four cohorts of our IGG Bootcamp (from where I write this post as a new lead is quickly developing around me) have spent an intensive week solving cases in person at Ramapo. Our annual RIGG conference, now in its fourth year, hosts IGG luminaries and neophytes alike with expert presentations, topped off with what we lovingly call Ramapo\u2019s \u201cescalated\u201d BBQ. Research at the center has produced thirteen scholarly articles and book chapters and helped influence legislation. Our Latin American DNA Project has filled the databases with hundreds of new testers. We have helped train international colleagues in the United Kingdom through our partnership with Sheffield Hallam University, and recently Cairenn and Tracie held the first overseas bootcamp in Australia. The number of conferences where we have presented is nearly uncountable, from ISHI to the Innocence Network to IHIA and more. Media has covered the work of the center with a plethora of news articles, interviews, and features throughout the United States, and the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All of this has been a team effort. What began with myself and the quick addition of Cairenn has grown to a team that is the apogee of the IGG world. Tracie Boyle, our case manager expertly shepherds cases from intake to lead generation, providing regular updates to agencies along the way. Julian Rebelo, our staff IGG practitioner, works doggedly on cases and oversees our teams of volunteers that put the long, strenuous hours into casework. Our four certificate program assistants, Marianne Hess, Christine Fiechter, Tiffany Sowell, and Diane Bates provide practical and patient mentoring to our cohorts of students. Traci Onders and Monique Platt, our first assistants, were instrumental in building a successful program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Promotion of Cairenn and Restructuring<\/b><\/p>\n And Cairenn Binder. From the earliest days of the center\u2019s formation all the way to the present day, Cairenn has been the beating heart of the IGG Center. Her drive and resilience are unmatched in anyone I have encountered in my professional career. As a mentor to students, she is professional, approachable, and patient. As an IGG practitioner, she is nonpareil in her quick wits and ability to spot trends in the tree\u2014indeed, she is, without doubt, the most impressive practitioner I have witnessed at work. Watching her work cases in the first months of meeting her was an education in IGG beyond what I had considered possible up to that time (her facility with Millennial and Gen-Z slang alike has been another education in its own right!) As a presenter and communicator, she is clear, conscious of her audience, and never put off by tough questions. As a colleague, she is a fount of inspiration, and I am privileged to call her a friend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is because of Cairenn that I feel enormous confidence and optimism in leaving the IGG Center. Over four years, I have witnessed Cairenn develop as a leader at the center and in the field as a whole. And so it is with boundless confidence that I announce the promotion of Cairenn Binder, MS, AIGG, to the role of director of the IGG Center at 69色情视频. Cairenn\u2019s relentless passion for the power of IGG to do real good in the world is a testament to her character and a cynosure for the entire field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Along with Cairenn\u2019s promotion comes additional restructuring. Tracie Boyle will rise to director of case management. Tracie\u2019s dedication to cases is manifest every day, and her shining optimism has been a beacon for me in hard times. To lead the certificate program, a newly hired director\u2014to be announced\u2014will come on board soon. And Marianne Hess and Christine Fiechter will step up as senior program assistants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As I leave the center, many of the projects we\u2019ve been working towards for years are finally coming to fruition. I know that each one of those projects will be carried forward with aplomb under Cairenn\u2019s leadership.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thank You<\/b><\/p>\n There are many more people to thank, more than I can possibly list here. Nick and Susan Vallario, whose generous donation launched the IGG Center in 2022. Nick passed away earlier this year, and I miss him greatly, but I know he would be proud of where the center is today and where it is headed. Stan Richmond, who has supported the center in a variety of ways since its founding. Aaron Lorenz, my dean, who has since moved on to a well-deserved vice provost position at Salve Regina University. I could not have navigated the early years of the IGG Center without his unwavering support and steadying advice. Susan Gaulden, Ramapo\u2019s previous provost, who saw the early potential in bringing IGG to Ramapo. Kathy Stasis and Chris Tredici, from the budget office, who have graciously fielded my many inquiries about the byzantine budget systems of the college. Chris Romano, a Ramapo VP who has never missed an opportunity to trumpet the mission and success of the IGG Center to audiences of alumni and Ramapo boosters. President Jebb, who took a risk in approving a new and untested idea from a fresh and then-untenured junior professor. Provost Middleton, who helped remove barriers to the center\u2019s growth.<\/span><\/p>\n All of the Ramapo staff from housing, dining, IT, and communications who have provided the unseen and too-often unsung foundations that make the IGG Center function.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My colleagues in the law and society program at Ramapo\u2014Jeff Ellsworth, Mia Serban, Sangha Padhy, and Atieh Babakhani\u2014who stood behind my unconventional path (not something, I imagine, they anticipated when they hired me as a professor in 2019). Naseem Choudhury, from the faculty union, who was always willing to listen and offer advice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thank you to Margaret Press, CeCe Moore, and Lori Napolitano for supporting and mentoring me when I was a complete unknown. Thanks to Greg Hampikian for providing sage advice on building a practical program within an academic setting. To Kelly Harkins Kincaid, thank you for providing a steady stream of patient responses to my lab questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To our agency partners, and the families and victims you represent: you are the reason that we do what we do. It has truly been an honor to assist you in providing answers to the families of the missing and justice to victims of violent crime. Thank you for trusting us with your cases, and thank you for the work that you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To Jim Mayer from the Great North Innocence Project: thank you for helping me to fulfill one of the initial goals of the IGG Center in helping to free two wrongfully convicted men from prison, and for giving me a full circle moment working on a case from the organization that first put me on the path that has led me here.<\/span><\/p>\n Our students and volunteers who have dedicated thousands of collective hours in the service of justice: thank you, thank you, thank you. Never forget the significance of the work you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tracie, Julian, Monique, Tiffany, Marianne, Diane, Traci, and Christine: thank you for who you are. I am fortunate to know you and to have had the opportunity to lead such a team of remarkable people. Thank you especially to Cairenn, who came like a shooting star over a battlefield when I met her in 2022, and to whom I am forever grateful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And, most of all, thank you to my wife, Arthi, for standing by me through the long nights and weekends when I was busy with the center, and the frequent travel that took me away from home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To every IGG practitioner, law enforcement officer, medical examiner, forensic scientist, and attorney, named here and otherwise, who has recognized the power of IGG as a tool for justice and works on behalf of the nameless, those who have been swept by violence, and the wrongfully convicted, draw strength from the good work that you do. There is much more noble work to be done, thousands of cases representing victims and families in search of justice and answers, and you are needed. Take heart. I leave you with these words:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n that which we are, we are;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One equal temper of heroic hearts,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By David Gurney Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem. (OK, OK, but see the note below on hubris.) Leading the IGG Center at 69色情视频 for the past four years has been the greatest honor of my professional life. 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