Katherine began working in the field of human identity testing in 1998, and obtained her M.S. in Criminal Justice, specializing in Forensic Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. She trained and worked in the Forensic Biology and DNA Casework section of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, and later became the Technical Leader of Forensic Operations at Bode Technology. Katherine has testified in numerous criminal cases, she has taught forensic science courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and she has served as a forensic laboratory auditor/assessor with NFSTC and ASCLD/LAB-International. Katherine earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the George Washington University in 2013, and then began her post-doctoral work with the Applied Genetics group at NIST. Katherine's doctoral research on ancestry and phenotype informative SNPs and her background in forensic DNA casework serve as a useful foundation as she develops next-generation sequencing technologies for forensic use.
Honors/Awards
2012 – National Institute of Justice Ph.D. Fellowship
2000 – Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine Training Fellowship
Memberships and Committees
International Society of Forensic Genetics
American Academy of Forensic Sciences
SWGDAM Next Generation Sequencing Working Group
Selected Publications
Gettings, K.B., Kiesler, K.M., Faith, S.A., Montano, E., Baker, C.H., Young, B.A., Guerrieri, R.A., P.M. Vallone. Sequence variation of 22 autosomal STR loci detected by next generation sequencing, Forensic Science International: Genetics 21, 15-21 (2016).
Gettings, K.B., Kiesler, K.M., and P.M. Vallone. Performance of a next generation sequencing SNP assay on degraded DNA, Forensic Science International: Genetics 19, 1-9 (2015).
Gettings K.B., Lai R., Johnson J.L., Peck M.A., Hart J.A., Gordish-Dressman H., Schanfield M.S., and D.S. Podini. A 50-SNP assay for biogeographic ancestry and phenotype prediction in the U.S. population, Forensic Science International: Genetics 8, 101-108 (2014).