Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office Welcomes New Chief

Luis Arturo Sanchez, M.D. was named the new chief Harris County medical examiner effective Jan. 1, by the unanimous vote of the Commissioner’s Court Dec. 17. Sanchez succeeds Joseph M. Jachimczyk, M.D., after whom the forensic center is named, and Joye M. Carter, M.D.

Sanchez joined the Harris County Medical Examiner’s staff in June 2001 as the senior deputy chief medical examiner, with more than 10 years of hands-on experience and expertise in forensic pathology. He is certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and forensic pathology.

Prior to his appointment by Carter as senior deputy chief, Sanchez served as the acting chief medical examiner for the District of Columbia and was the liaison to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Sanchez also served as a deputy medical examiner for the District of Columbia for six-and-a-half years. He was a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Homicide School.

Sanchez holds faculty appointments at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has been an active educator of residents and fellows throughout his career, and is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the National Association of Medical Examiners.

As an active consultant in forensic medicine since 1995 for the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, under the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Sanchez has taught all aspects of forensic medicine, including the on-scene role of the medical examiner, to police officers, doctors, and lawyers, in programs he designed and implemented in emerging democracies throughout the world. During the last seven years, these programs have become integral to the ongoing development of viable medico-legal systems throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan).

Sanchez recently returned from a trip to Brazil. His next foreign assignment will be this spring in the Republic of Guatemala.

---

©2006 Texas Medical Center

---

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/01_15_03/page_06.html