In February, the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE) welcomed Anthony Greiter as the new learning and development specialist. We sat down with Anthony to learn more about this position and what he hopes to accomplish in his new role.
What is the role of the learning and development at CSAFE? Briefly describe.
As the learning and development specialist at CSAFE, I see my role as one that supports the researchers and the amazing work they’re doing. I aim to reach as many people as possible with the research we know can have a significant impact on the lives of so many. I’ll be working on this through our existing and upcoming educational opportunities, including webinars, short courses, full courses, internships and symposiums.
What did you do before this? Describe your professional background.
After graduating from Iowa State University, I spent 11 years as a police officer. For the last eight years as an officer, I served as the Community Outreach Specialist and focused my efforts on two things: reaching the community I served through education, training, social media and large-scale events; and educating the international law enforcement community in ways to improve response to victims of sexual assault and increasing engagement with and inclusion of marginalized communities.
What attracted you to this position and to CSAFE?
This position beautifully crafts together my passions for education and the criminal justice system. I’ve been part of so many positive experiences in the criminal justice system and have also seen so many opportunities for important change. Being the learning and development specialist at CSAFE permits me to explore these passions and impact change.
How will you use your past work experiences in your new position?
I bring to this new position the unique experience of working in law enforcement on the other side of the research and work we do at CSAFE. There’s no doubt in my mind that the experiences I had as a police officer were or could have been impacted by CSAFE initiatives. This past experience provides me with insight into how we can approach new ideas and improve our reach within our current and new target audiences.
What do you most look forward to in your new position?
I’m very excited about the prospect of working behind the scenes. For the past five years, I lived life in the limelight, garnering international attention and recognition for my direct contributions to law enforcement social media efforts, sexual assault response initiatives and community engagement campaigns. I’d like to take those experiences and work behind the scenes to empower others to thrive in their environments and expertise.
What are you working on now?
CSAFE has such a massive footprint and is growing at such a quick rate, I often find new and exciting work to be done around every corner I turn. My current initiatives involve reviewing and evaluating past and present webinars and courses for improvements and tweaks. I’m also working on developing a few new courses for a variety of audiences. This summer will bring two student internship programs that will likely include 15-20 students I’ll get the pleasure of working with and learning from for a few months.
Do you see any changes to how CSAFE offers its educational programming now that it looks like in-person events are starting back up in the fall? Will CSAFE continue to offer online-only, or will there be in-person learning opportunities?
The idea of returning to in-person events is both exciting and terrifying for a lot of people. CSAFE continues to grow its virtual event audiences, and I would like to hold on to this growth while also allowing for in-person opportunities.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the CSAFE team?
The word “team” explains perfectly what I enjoy most about CSAFE. The environment in this organization is inviting, progressive and electric. It’s everything I’ve found in the greatest teams I’ve worked with in the past and has an ever-changing landscape where the grass is always green and growing.
What is the one thing that surprised you about working at CSAFE?
For such a small staff, CSAFE is doing unbelievably massive amounts of work, impacting masses of people worldwide. I continue to be amazed by the number of projects I didn’t know existed and the type of research I’m confident I thought only existed in science fiction novels and movies.
Contact Anthony at agreiter@iastate.edu if you have any questions or suggestions for future CSAFE educational programming.
To learn more about CSAFE’s learning opportunities for forensic science professionals, law enforcement officials, members of the judicial community, students and more, visit https://forensicstats.org/learning-opportunities/.
