Director of Laboratory Operations
Melissa Fogarty is a graduate of York College of Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in forensic chemistry. She then obtained a Master’s degree in forensic science from Arcadia University.Currently, Melissa serves as the Laboratory Manager at the CFSRE. In this role, she is responsible for maintenance of analytical instrumentation and general laboratory operations. Melissa maintains an active research agenda and is funded through the National Institute of Justice and serves as an advisor on student research projects. Her current research interests include method development and validation for new emerging drugs of abuse. In recognition of the advancements she has made to the field of forensic toxicology through research, Melissa was awarded the “Toxicology Best Poster Award” at the 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada for her poster entitled “Development and Validation of a Confirmatory Method for Six Novel Psychoactive Substances in Whole Blood using UPLC/MS/MS”. Additionally, she was awarded “UCT’s Excellence in SPE Award” in 2018 for her manuscript entitled “Analysis of Fentanyl and 18 Novel Fentanyl Analogs and Metabolites by LC-MS-MS, and report of Fatalities Associated with Methoxyacetylfentanyl and Cyclopropylfentanyl”, which was also recognized as the top-cited article in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology in 2020.
