Back in 2001, Gestring was a supervisor in a crime scene reconstruction unit at the Medical Examiner's Office. Gestring's unit joined emergency vehicles from all over the city converging on lower Manhattan. Soon after arriving on the scene, he was caught under the collapsing South Tower and knocked unconscious. How he survived remains a mystery to this day since many who were standing near him when the South Tower collapsed did not.
In addition to his work for New York City, Gestring also taught forensic science at Pace University which is a stone's throw from where the Towers once stood. When the planes hit the Towers on that unseasonably warm fall morning, Gestring's worlds collided.
Despite that morning shaping the rest of his life, he hasn't talked about it much. Last year, he was persuaded to recount some of his experiences for members of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences for the 23rd anniversary of the attacks.
Gestring who is a fellow of the Academy, used his experiences to draw attention to the negative effects of forensic providers' constant exposure to traumatic content. "Forensic scientists are trained to analyze evidence, but we are not immune to the emotional impact of our work," he said. "Acknowledging trauma is not a weakness; it is essential to building resilience."
The recent cuts to the World Trade Center Health program pushed him to reveal even more. Many made the ultimate sacrifice that day and more are continuing to die every day from the effects of prolonged exposure. Gestring said, "There are tens of thousands of stories that are more compelling than mine. As a nation, we can't turn our backs on those that put the needs of others before their own."
Over his career, Gestring has been both practitioner and academic. While he has always been passionate about forensic science, since 9/11 he has felt almost an urgency to improve his chosen profession and has used this to guide his career.
Under his guidance, New York became the first to standardize forensic laboratory reports for all its accredited labs. This was the first such effort ever attempted. He was also the principal architect for New York's statewide approach to crime laboratory backlog management. Evidence backlogs have crippled the criminal justice system. Gestring's statewide approach allows all the accredited labs in the state to benefit from each other, reducing backlogs across the entire state.
Even now as a forensic consultant with 4n6services, Brian Gestring continues to work developing ways to increase the reliability of forensic practice and the resilience of the system it operates within.
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