Senior Scientist
Dr. Joshua (Josh) DeBord is a Senior Scientist at the CFSRE working in the areas of forensic toxicology and forensic chemistry. Dr. DeBord joined the CFSRE in 2022 and has hit the ground running on research and projects related to the CFSRE’s drug characterization initiatives, including our NPS Discovery program. Dr. DeBord graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) with a B.A. in Anthropology. He earned his B.S., M.S., Ph.D., each in Chemistry, from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, FL. Dr. DeBord’s doctoral research was conducted under the mentorship of Professor José Almirall on profiling and geographic provenance determination of heroin. Before joining CFSRE, Dr. DeBord was employed at the North Louisiana Crime Lab in Shreveport, LA, as a forensic chemist and toxicologist.
Dr. DeBord and two colleagues took the toxicology section from blood ethanol content analysis in 2018 to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation for qualitative determination and quantitative measurement by March 2020. He also assisted with the development and implementation of the North Louisiana Crime Lab’s statistical sampling procedure to reduce backlog in the seized drug casework.
Dr. DeBord is passionate about teaching and his research interests focus on improving the work experience for forensic professionals and increasing the capabilities of publicly funded forensic labs.
