Georgia Health Sciences Health System’s Tissue Donor Services and the Georgia Coroners Association, District 2, are teaming up for the third annual Coroners Symposium from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25 in the Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditoria Center at Georgia Regents University.
About 100 coroners, deputy coroners and law enforcement officials will participate in this free continuing-education event featuring keynote speaker Joseph Scott Morgan, a criminal justice and forensic professor and author of the book Blood Beneath My Feet: The Journey of a Southern Death Investigator.
Other presenters include Dan Hillman, Executive Director of Child Enrichment, Inc., who will discuss how to recognize maltreatment of children. Eric Emery, Medicolegal Operations Consultant for the National Transportation Safety Board, will speak on mass fatalities and disaster victim recoveries; and the Rev. Brennan Francois, a chaplain at Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center and a motivational speaker, on making a difference in the midst of tragedy.
The symposium provides valuable training to the coroners who participate, while also raising awareness about organ and tissue donations.
“One tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people,” said Carl Eubanks, Director of Tissue Donor Services at GHS Medical Center. “Coroners work with families who’ve lost loved ones. If they can broach the subject of organ donation with the families they encounter, perhaps these families will choose to give the gift of life to another, and maybe experience a touch of hope during their loss.”
For more information about the symposium, call Eubanks at 706-533-4210, or Augusta-Richmond County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Bowen at 706-821-2383.