2023 Speakers

Dr. Denise Abboud, Regional Forensic Manager for the Near and Middle East at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As a forensic specialist, Dr. Abboud finished her PhD at the Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. Her PhD research focused on the post-conflict indicators of state rebuilding and the link with Forensic investigations. She is a biochemist who attained a post-graduate diploma in Applied Forensic Toxicology and completed her MSc in Forensic Science at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom. Dr. Abboud moved to Lausanne in 2012 to participate in a 6-month project on drug profiling at the ‘Ecole de Sciences Criminelles’. This was followed by working closely with the Crime Scene Unit of the Fort Worth Police Department and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office (TCME) in Fort Worth, Texas. Her work covered Crime Scene Investigation and several laboratory forensic disciplines and mortuary management in addition to crime lab quality control, and crime labs accreditation procedures. Dr. Abboud also completed a fellowship in Human Identification at the TCME. In 2014, Dr. Abboud was appointed the Forensic Science Department and Crime Lab head coordinator, at the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the American University of Science and Technology in Beirut; she also teaches graduate courses in forensic science at Saint Joseph University, Beirut. Dr. Abboud worked as a consultant on security sector reform and forensic capacity building projects in the Middle East and North Africa; she was the Team Leader on the Netherlands Support to Forensic Capability and Uptake Programme in the Middle East from 2016 to 2019, and a specialist for the CT-MENA project funded by the EU and covering 5 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. She previously acted as the national expert responsible for the establishment of the first forensic evidence storage room at the Justice Palaces of Beirut and Saida. She was also part of the EU-SSP training team that trained the Judicial Police of Internal Security Forces. Dr. Abboud is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS).