Instructor Bios
2015 Annual Training Conference Instructor Biographies
October 26 -29, 2015
Lisa G. Skinner
Lisa Skinner is a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation Supervisory Special Agent. During her 27 years as a Special Agent with the FBI, she served in the following Field Offices: Houston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Tampa, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Anchorage, Alaska. Her final assignment was as an instructor at the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia.
Skinner’s investigative experience includes: Fugitives; Espionage; Foreign Counterintelligence; Domestic Terrorism; and Civil Rights. In 1994, the Hillsborough County, Florida Bar Association recognized her as the Federal Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The award was presented for her investigation and the successful prosecution of two active duty U.S. Army personnel for Espionage. She is a graduate of the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute and served as the Polygraph Examiner for the Knoxville and Anchorage FBI Field Offices. Prior to being assigned to the FBI Academy, she served as the Chief Security Officer for the Anchorage FBI Field Office.
From 2006 until her retirement in 2013, Skinner was assigned to the FBI Academy as an instructor for the National Academy. While at the FBI National Academy, she was designated as an adjunct professor for the University of Virginia, and served as an instructor for Interviewing Strategies through Statement Analysis, Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior and Investigative Interviewing and Interrogation.
In 2012, Skinner received the Jefferson Award from the University of Virginia for the research she and Dr. David Matsumoto conducted in verbal and nonverbal indicators of deception and veracity. This research was the basis of the class that they created specifically for the FBI National Academy, which combined Dr. Matsumoto’s years of research on micro facial expressions and emotional leakage with the techniques of statement analysis. Dr. Matsumoto’s and Skinner’s research has been published in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin and in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.
Skinner now serves as an Independent Consultant for Humintell and provides training in statement analysis and evaluating truthfulness and detecting deception through nonverbal behavior. Additionally, she assists law enforcement departments and agencies with investigative strategies.
Skinner received her Bachelor of Science degree in Corrections and Law Enforcement from Jacksonville State University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama.
Russell W. Strand
Russell Strand is currently the Chief of the U.S. Army Military Police School Behavioral Sciences Education &Training Division. Mr. Strand is a retired U.S. Army CID Federal Special Agent with an excess of 39 year’s law enforcement, investigative, and consultation experience. Mr. Strand is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of domestic violence intervention, critical incident peer support, and sexual assault, trafficking in persons and child abuse investigations.
He has established, developed, produced, and conducted the U.S. Army Sexual Assault Investigations, Domestic Violence Intervention Training, Sexual Assault Investigations and Child Abuse Prevention and Investigation Techniques courses and supervised the development of the Critical Incident Peer Support course. Mr. Strand has also assisted in the development and implementation of Department of Defense (DOD) training standards, programs of instruction, and lesson plans for Sexual Assault Response Coordinators (SARC), victim advocates, chaplains, criminal investigators, first responders, commanders, and health professionals. He is a member of the Defense Family Advocacy Command Assistance Team and Department of the Army Fatality Review Board. He routinely conducts training for national and international organizations. Mr. Strand developed the DOD Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement First Responders and Investigators training modules. Mr. Strand continues to conduct interviews of child and adult victims of physical and sexual abuse and provides investigative and consultation support as requested in ongoing sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse investigations, interventions, and military and civilian criminal trials.
– Mr. Strand responded to Ft. Hood, TX following the November 2009 mass shooting to provide critical incident and trauma victim interview support.
– He has developed a new trauma informed interview technique known as the Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI).
-Mr. Strand was inducted in the United States Army Military Police Hall of Fame in 2011.
– He was also selected to receive the 2012 End Violence Against Women International Visionary Award in recognition of his impact, vision and leadership in ending violence against women around the world.
– Mr. Strand was also a feature subject matter expert in “The Invisible War“ documentary on sexual assault in the military, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2013
– In 2013, Mr. Strand was selected by the Secretary of Defense to serve as the only DoD civil service employee on the Congressionally mandated Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault as a member of the Comparative Systems Subcommittee.
– In 2014, at the 7th National Forensic Sciences Conference in Kansas City, MO, Mr. Strand received the St. Luke’s Health System Forensic Committee Visionary Award for years of executive direction, education, and leadership in providing effective multi-disciplinary training and expert consultation.
David T. Bohatch
David Bohatch has been with Atlanta Fire Rescue Department for over ten years, currently holding the rank of Captain. He has developed various educational courses within the Atlanta Fire Academy primary dealing with ethics, rules and regulations, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Serving as a technical advisor in the development of Atlanta Fire’s Disciplinary Procedures Manual, he has been afforded the opportunity to restructure AFRD’s current policies, procedures, rules, and regulations.
Developing professionally, he has achieved a Bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice and Psychology, Instructor I, GSAR, Post Mandate, and recipient of multiple Atlanta Fire Rescue awards and honors. His career path has placed him on Atlanta Fire Rescue’s Squad 4 Hazmat Unit, Heavy Rescue 14, and an officer on the GSAR Unit, giving him hands-on working knowledge on hundreds of working fires and specialized rescue operations like the 2009 “Parking Deck Collapse”, “Botanical Gardens Skywalk Collapse”, and 2008 “Atlanta Tornado Outbreak”. David Bohatch has a remarkable ability to convert his lifelong professional experience into instructional blocks with a real life feel. His unique style of instruction alongside with the highly sought after content of his current courses has generated a significant demand for his instruction on both local and national proportions.
With over 20 plus years in upper management experience and serving as an experienced public speaker he has taken pride in achieving his professional accomplishments through the development of others. As a seasoned investigator, assigned to the Office of Professional Standards, he strives to reduce policy violation through proactive measures and cultivates a firm belief that, “behavior transformation begins with awareness which cannot take place without insight”.
Janice McCarthy
Janice McCarthy’s husband, Paul, died from suicide in July of 2006. Paul had been a well-respected Massachusetts State Police Captain. During his 21 year career he suffered three serious line-of- duty crashes, which proved to be the etiology of his PTSD.
Paul’s death spurred Janice to commit herself to the cause of PTSD recognition and suicide prevention in law enforcement Her passion is rooted in helping surviving families find the strength to reconcile the guilt so many suicide survivors experience. She draws upon her personal experience as a cop’s wife and now as a cop’s widow to connect with officers. She knows the law enforcement life and has been openly accepted by those to whom she has spoken.
In her training of officers, Janice uses Paul’s story to illustrate the need for all officers to reach out for mental health assistance without fear of repercussion. She calls for an end to the age-old stigma of asking for help. She clearly articulates how the “good old boy – suck it up” mentality was instrumental in fueling her husbands’ deterioration.
She has spoken nationally, telling her family’s personal story in an attempt to reach officers on an emotional level. She appeals to officers as a cops’ wife hoping that they might understand and appreciate their spouses’ sacrifices. She speaks candidly and emotionally of her children’s pain, hoping the officers might see their own kids in the images of Paul, Shannon and Christopher McCarthy. And she recounts witnessing firsthand her husband’s struggles, hoping the officers might associate themselves with Paul and realize the consequences of not reaching out for help when they need it.
Janice’s experience as a lecturer includes weekly recruit and officer in-service training in New Haven, Connecticut for the past 4 years. Her training has been incorporated into the Connecticut State Police Academy recruit training requirements. In addition she has frequently presented at CABLE (Connecticut Alliance to benefit law enforcement) seminars, the Asian American Police Officers Association Annual Conference, the 6th Annual Law Enforcement Employee Assistance Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the California Peer Support Association Annual Conference. She has lectured FBI agents and federal employees in Philadelphia and New York City. She was a guest speaker at the 2013 American Association of Suicidology Conference, as well as the 2013 “In Harm’s Way” conference.
Janice is a board member of Badge of Life, a nonprofit organization which promotes psychological survival for first responders. She is a recipient of The Commendable Service Award from the City of New Haven Connecticut and the Departmental Award of Education from the New Haven Connecticut Police Department for her devotion to the cause of suicide prevention and PTSD awareness in law enforcement.
In addition to her training, she has authored several short papers on “Policework, PTSD and its Aftermath”. She is currently working on a memoir of her family’s story and is actively fighting to have Paul’s death deemed Line of Duty by the State of Massachusetts and the Federal Government, which would enable her and her children to see Paul’s name on the Law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington DC. She considers her greatest achievement to be her three children whose strength and love fuel her in this cause.
Attorney Eric Daigle
Attorney Daigle practices civil litigation in federal and state court, with an emphasis on municipalities and public officials. He focuses civil rights actions, including police misconduct litigation and employment actions, as well as premises and general tort liability cases.
Mr. Daigle acts as legal advisor to police departments in the State of Connecticut and across the country providing legal advice to law enforcement command staff and officers in the areas of legal liability, policy development, employment issues, use of force, laws of arrest and search & seizure. His experience focuses on officers’ use of force, specifically in the training, investigation and supervision of force and deadly force incidents involving law enforcement. He has hosted and participated in seminars focusing on use of force legal standards including investigating force, Taser usage and responses to deadly force incidents by police.
Attorney Daigle is General Counsel for FBI- Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and a member of their instructor cadre teaching Managing Internal Affairs Investigations and Supervisory Liability.
He currently serves as a member of the Independent Monitoring Teams for Oakland CA and Niagara Falls NY and works as a police practices consultant for Law Enforcement Agencies who are under investigation or under a Consent Decree by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Litigation Section.
Attorney Daigle is a former member of the Connecticut State Police and currently maintains his certification as a reserve officer.
Attorney Jack Ryan
Jack Ryan was a police officer in Providence, Rhode Island who retired at the rank of Captain following a 20 year career. While active as a police officer, Jack attended Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts and has been a licensed attorney since 1994. Jack’s entire focus as an attorney has been the law as it relates to the law enforcement, including the road and jail operations.
Since 2002, Jack has been retained as an expert on law enforcement practices throughout the United States in Civil, Criminal, and Employment Proceedings. Jack has served as the expert for federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers and agencies. For more than a decade Jack has been a national trainer for the Public Agency Training Council (PATC), providing training in multiple areas of law enforcement practices dealing with high risk tasks. Jack is also involved with PATC in writing model policies, localized to specific states, for agencies throughout the United States.
In addition, Jack, through PATC, regularly provides reviews for agencies related to policies, practices, training, and supervision of the high-risk tasks, providing feedback to these agencies to assist in reducing agency liability by conforming to the best law enforcement practices.
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We thank all of these instructors for making themselves available to our fantastic association so that we can continue to improve the professional standards of our respective agencies.
As always, please feel free to bring any interesting cases or question(s) to your Executive Board members.
