Continuing Education Committee

The TIAFT Continuing Education Committee aims to provide creative opportunities for online learning to members, as well as to explore additional engaging virtual education options.

Current Committee

Chair

Michaela Kenneally (Australia)

Michaela is a Senior Forensic Scientist within the Toxicology department of Forensic Science SA where she has worked since 2006. She holds a Bachelor of Technology (Forensic and Analytical Chemistry) and Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Flinders University, South Australia where she also hold lecturer status. Michaela has presented evidence in District and Magistrate’s courts and given lectures on forensic toxicology to South Australian Police, external clients and the public. She has presented at international conferences, supervised post-graduate students undertaking novel and applied research and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Michaela is the Treasurer of the Forensic and Clinical Toxicology Association of Australasia (FACTA Inc.), on the organising committee for TIAFT 2025 Auckland and on the editorial board of the Journal of Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology.

Co-Chair

Marilyn Huestis (United States)

Professor Dr. Dr. (h.c.) Marilyn Huestis retired as Chief, Chemistry and Drug Metabolism, NIDA, NIH where she conducted human controlled drug administration studies. She is currently President of Huestis & Smith Toxicology. Her research program focuses on cannabinoid agonists, kratom/mitragynine, DUID, and mass spectrometry. She published 589 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Professor Huestis received an AB in biochemistry, MS in clinical chemistry, PhD in toxicology, and a Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Helsinki, Finland. She received many prestigious awards recently including: 2025 Widmark ICADTS Award, 2023 CMCR Medicinal Cannabis Research Award, 2023 Mechoulam ICRS Award, 2021 AACC Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award, and 2021 NSC Distinguished Service to Safety Award. Clinical Chemistry featured her as an “Inspiring Mind”. She serves on WADA’s Prohibited List Committee, and NSC Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division Executive Board. She is a SOFT past president, AAFS past Toxicology Chair, and TIAFT past president.

Committee Members

Andrea Steuer (Switzerland)

Andrea Steuer studied pharmacy and obtained her PhD in clinical toxicology in Germany. Since 2015, she has worked as the deputy head of the Department of Forensic Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine in Switzerland. Active in routine work and research, she received her adjunct professorship in 2023. Her current research focuses on applying metabolomics techniques to several clinical and forensic toxicology questions. She authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to four book chapters. Andrea has been a TIAFT member since 2010 and was awarded the TIAFT Young Scientist Best Paper Award in 2011 and the TIAFT Achievement Award in 2022.

Amine Larabi (France)

Amine obtained his Pharm.D. and his degree in clinical chemistry and toxicology from the University of Medicine of Algiers, Algeria. He also has a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Medicine of Paris Saclay. He is currently holding a position as a forensic toxicologist at the laboratory of Pharmacology-Toxicology in Garches, France. His research focuses on new psychoactive substances and alternative matrices (hair testing, DBS…).

Amine is the president and member of the French Society of Analytical Toxicology (SFTA).

He has been awarded by the SFTA for the best publication in ToxAc journal in 2016 where he is now holding a position as associate editor. He also received Young Scientists Award in 2018 from the Moroccan Society of Clinical and Analytical Toxicology (SMTCA) and Elsevier Reviewer recognition in 2017 and 2018.

He is a member of TIAFT, SFTA and SOHT.

Volker Auwärter (Germany)

Professor Volker Auwärter holds a PhD in Chemistry and has been active in the field of forensic toxicology since 2000. He is head of the Forensic Toxicology Department of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Freiburg, Germany, and a board member of the GTFCh since 2013. Besides being an expert witness and reading for medical students he has been coordinating several EU funded projects on New Psychoactive Substances. Volker’s research focuses on cannabinoids, both natural and synthetic, and also covers other new drugs, post mortem toxicology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies. His work has been included in over 150 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, he was awarded with the TIAFT Achievement Award in 2013 and received several national awards for his contributions to forensic toxicology.

Yi Ju Yao (Singapore)

Yi Ju obtained her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the National University of Singapore. She is currently the division director at the Analytical Toxicology Division in Health Sciences Authority, Singapore. Her research interest is mainly on analytical toxicology techniques, focusing on various LC-MSs and HRMS.

She has been a TIAFT member since 2007 and served as the TIAFT Regional Representative of Singapore (2011-2020) and the TIAFT Ethics Committee (2016-2025). She was the chairperson of the Toxicology Workgroup of the Asian Forensic Science Network (AFSN, 2014–2019). She is also a member of SOFT and FACTA, the treasurer of the Toxicology Society of Singapore and a certified Fellow in Forensic Toxicology of the American Board of Forensic Toxicologist (ABFT). She has contributed to the organising of the AFSN annual meeting in 2013 and 2017, and the 2016 scientific congress of the Asia Pacific Association of Medical Toxicology (APAMT).

Helena Teixeira (Portugal)

Helena Teixeira has a Pharm.D. by the Pharmacy Faculty of the University of Coimbra (UC) (Portugal) and a Master on Experimental Pathology and a Ph.D. on Biomedical Sciences by the Medicine Faculty of the UC. She has a Superior Degree on Legal Medicine from the Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (NILMFS), being a Legal Medicine Superior Specialist at the NILMFS, since 2001. She was Director of the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory of the North Branch of the NILMFS between 2009 and 2012 and she is the National Director of the Investigation, Education and Documentation Department of the NILMFS since 2014, and Professor at the Medicine Faculty of the UC.

Helena is the TIAFT Regional Representative of Portugal since 2004, was a Member of the Young Scientist Committee between 2007 and 2015, and hosted the 51st International Meeting of TIAFT in Portugal, in 2013. She received the TIAFT Achievement Award, in 2016 (during a TIAFT meeting held in Brisbane, Australia).

Thomas Gluodenis (United States)

Dr. Tom Gluodenis earned a Professional MFS from Florida International University, an Executive MBA from St. Joseph University in Philadelphia, and his MSc. and Ph.D.in analytical chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Gluodenis is proud to serve as an Associate Professor at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the first degree granting historically black college/university in the United States. He is also the founder and organizer of the annual online symposium Current Trends in Forensic Toxicology. Entering its 5^th year, this annual event has provided continuing education in an online format to over 6,000 forensic science professionals in >80 countries. Dr. Gluodenis currently serves on several consensus body organizations including ASTM Committee E.30 (Forensic Sciences), E.37 (Cannabis) and the American Standards Board (Toxicology Subcommittee), is a founding member of the International Alliance of Clinical and Forensic Toxicologists (IACFT), a member of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT), the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS-Toxicology Section), The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT), and the Forensic & Clinical Toxicology Association of Australasia (FACTA). He previously served two terms as member of the NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) Seized Drug Subcommittee.

Alain Verstraete (Belgium)

Alain Verstraete studied medicine at Ghent University, and specialised in Laboratory Medicine and in vitro Nuclear Medicine at Ghent University Hospital. From 1987 till 2022 he was responsible for the Toxicology Laboratory of Ghent University Hospital. He was part-time senior full professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences of Ghent University and retired in 2022. His main research interests in the past 25 years have been driving under the influence of psychoactive substances and therapeutic drug monitoring of beta-lactam antibiotics in intensive care patients. He has been a TIAFT member since 1988, and served as TIAFT president between 2011 and 2014. He received several scientific awards: 2002 TIAFT award for excellence, 2002 ICADTS Haddon Award, 2002 AACC outstanding speaker award, 2005 Grand Prix de la SFTA, 2017 Irving Sunshine award of the IATDMCT and 2018 Alan Curry award from TIAFT. He has 214 publications in Web of Science and his Hirsch index is 38.

Younes Zebbiche (Algeria)

Professor Younes Zebbiche is a lecturer in toxicology, head of the Central Laboratory of Biology and Toxicology at AAI Hospital, and head of the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Health Sciences in Algiers. Holding a doctorate in medical sciences and trained in forensic toxicology in Europe, he has led several departments at the National Center of Toxicology, where he contributed to the development of advanced analytical methods and the establishment of national capacity for drug testing and intoxication management.

His research focuses on psychoactive substances, addiction, and the health risks associated with drug abuse, with a particular interest in innovative monitoring methods such as wastewater-based epidemiology. As Secretary General of the Algerian Society of Toxicology and an active member of international associations such as TIAFT and IACFT, he plays a central role in research, education, and the promotion of modern strategies for prevention and surveillance in clinical and forensic toxicology.