dgelrick@iastate.edu
Professional Background
In 1983, I pursued bachelor’s degrees in both chemistry and biology from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. During undergraduate studies, I was afforded a summer internship at the Iowa DCI Criminalistics Laboratory, where I was exposed to the different disciplines in the laboratory. My major concentration during my internship was in the toxicology section; which is the examination of bodily fluids for illicit drugs and poisons. I graduated in 1987 with B.A. degrees in both chemistry and biology.
After graduation, I was unable to immediately secure a job at a crime laboratory, so I spent the next two years conducting medical research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The research I participated in was a multi-generational study on hypertension. At the time, the work seemed unrelated to what my goals were, but the researcher to which I was assigned, had a strong interest in computers. He passed on not only research skills, but also his interest in computers. He required learning research statistics through the Mayo Clinic graduate school and to learn basic computer functionality.
I was then fortunate enough to take a position at the Iowa Crime Lab in 1989. I started as drug chemist, which examines the illicit drugs before they enter the body. I worked in this section of the laboratory for thirteen months before transferring to the trace evidence and serology/DNA section. This section examines bodily fluids for identification of a subject, as well as paint, glass, hairs and fibers. In 1992, a case came to the laboratory with a damaged floppy disk, involving the abduction and assault of a nine-year-old girl. I was the one with computer experience from my time at Mayo Clinic, so was assigned the case. This case opened up my interest in the new field of digital forensics and I started the Computer Crime Unit for the laboratory. I became a contract instructor for the National White Collar Crime Center, which was missioned with training law enforcement officers in the field of digital forensics. I also was elected to a volunteer non-profit training organization (IACIS). I spent 5-6 weeks a year conducting professional training for law enforcement. I found that I greatly enjoyed teaching others about the forensic field and developing curriculum.
In 2002, I left state employment and joined a private company named Digital Intelligence in Wisconsin. I was tasked with developing and conducting forensic training and heading up the civil case laboratory as the Director of Forensic Services. I developed forty-hour training courses for private sector, law enforcement and military forensic examiners and conducted many courses. During my time in Wisconsin, I was also asked to develop and teach an introductory computer forensic course at the local two-year technical college (WCTC).
In 2010, I returned to Iowa to open a Digital Intelligence office in the Des Moines area and also began teaching part-time at DMACC in both face-to-face classes, as well as blended, and fully online classes. From 2011 to 2013, I earned a Master of Science in Digital Forensics from the University of Central Florida. I was asked to become an adjunct instructor at Simpson College, where I helped develop and teach an undergraduate/graduate course for the school. I also embarked in writing a textbook entitled the Forensics Examination of Windows Supported File Systems, which was completed in 2014.
After over twenty-five years working in the forensic field (drugs analysis, serology/DNA, digital evidence, and crime scene processing), providing professional training to law enforcement, military and corporate security, and teaching at the collegiate level part-time, I realized that I am very interested in teaching full-time at a college or university and sharing what I have learned over the years.
When providing professional training, the focus is typically on the presentation and the presenter, not on the participant. Courses are evaluated based on how well the participants “liked” the material and the instructor, not on what they learned. Learning is rarely measured in training courses. Typically, motivating the participants in professional training is not an issue. The participants usually come with their own intrinsic goals, providing the needed motivation to complete the tasks in the course. In becoming an adjunct instructor, I made the false assumption the college students would also come with their own motivations to learn. I also made the incorrect assumption that it was not my job to help provide that motivation for them, thinking that if they did not want to learn, that was their issue. I soon learned that being a teacher is not about what or how I present, but what the students come away with. This is especially true with fully online courses, where students can fast-forward through lectures and never look an instructor in the eyes when posting comments.
This is just one of the areas I needed to learn through the graduate education program. I needed to be exposed to the various theories of how people learn, the ideas on motivating students, methods for developing curriculum, and the different ways of conducting educational research. Over the past few years of courses and projects through the School of Education, I have been exposed to the concept of understanding the students and what issues they face, issues that can be a deterrent or an enhancement to learning.
I am now embarking in a new challenge as a full-time instructor at DMACC.