Kollmann, Dana

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Kollmann, Dana

(Dana D. Kollman)

PERSONAL:

Married; husband's name Bob; children: Elias, Miguel. Education: Towson State University, B.S., 1990; George Washington University, M.F.S.; American University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Catonsville, MD. Office—Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Towson University, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252. Agent—TRC Garrow Associates, 9056 Chevrolet Dr., Ellicott City, MD 21042. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Anthropologist, forensic scientist, and educator. Worked as an archaeologist for Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, for one year; Arlington County Police Department, Arlington, VA, intern, Baltimore County Police Department, Baltimore, MD, forensic services technician, 1995-2004; Towson University, Baltimore, MD, lecturer in forensic science. Has performed archaeological survey and reconnaissance work for Maryland State Highway Administration, Maryland Historical Trust, Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology, and TRC Garrow Associates; has worked as an archaeologist and physical anthropologist in Croatia, Guatemala, and the United States.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Towson University faculty development research grant, 2001; Archaeological Society of Maryland research grants, 2002 and 2006.

WRITINGS:

Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals (sometimes under name Dana D. Kollman), including Cultural Resource Management, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology, and Maryland Archaeology.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dana Kollmann, who spent ten years as a forensic services technician with the Baltimore County Police Department, is the author of Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI. In the book, Kollmann describes the work of a crime scene technician, from dusting for fingerprints to collecting DNA samples to exhuming graves, and she distinguishes the realities of the job from the glitz and glamour often seen on such popular television dramas as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. ‘We didn't wear skirts and heels,’ she told Anna Ditkoff in the Baltimore City Paper. ‘We didn't interview suspects and conduct fancy experiments back at the lab like, you know, the individuality of nose hairs…. We were filthy when we came home. We were covered in fingerprint powder. We wore uniforms that always made your butt look too big. It just couldn't be any more different."

Kollmann's Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand earned generally positive reviews. ‘This informative, witty treatment of her work accessibly illuminates the reality of forensic science,’ noted Booklist contributor Mike Tribby. Though a critic in Kirkus Reviews took issue with the book's ‘jejune gallows humor,’ claiming that the author ‘aims to transmute all the blood and guts she sifts through into jaunty entertainment,’ Ditkoff called the work ‘an oddly merry romp through the worst times in people's lives filled with eccentric people, gross situations, and Kollmann's unshakable ability to find the funny in even the most disturbing circumstances."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Baltimore City Paper, March 14, 2007, Anna Ditkoff, ‘Working Stiffs: Humor Became Dana Kollmann's Armor against Harrowing Crime Scenes as a Baltimore County Forensic Scientist."

Baltimore Sun, February 27, 2007, Nick Shields, ‘Forensic Scientist Relates ‘Curious Adventures’: New Book Recounts Experiences of Crime Scene Investigator."

Booklist, December 1, 2006, Mike Tribby, review of Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI, p. 8.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2006, review of Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand, p. 1161.