The purpose of the NAME Foundation is to support forensic sciences through education and research, and to preserve the history of forensic pathology.  Every year the Annual Meeting has presenters judged for their platform or poster presentation.  The NAME Foundation supports funding in the amount of $1,000 each for the John Smialek Best Resident/Fellow Platform and Poster Presentations, funding in the amount of $1,000 each for the John Pless Best Student Platform and Poster Presentations and funding in the amount of $500 for the Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Presentation.

The Foundation also provides travel stipends - the Beth Frost Early Achievement Award - to eligible students and residents who present at the meeting and who have fulfilled the requirements for the stipends as listed in the Foundation Policy manual (submission of abstract prior to deadline and presentation at the meeting). From 2015 through 2023 the Foundation has awarded 217 travel stipends amounting to $58,750. Recipients are listed below after the award winners.

2024 NAME Foundation Awards

John Smialek Best Resident Poster Presentation

Thomas Herb, M.D. Disseminated Mycobacterium Tuberculosis from Infected Bone Graft Source: Case Studies In Iatrogenic Infections and Our Approach.

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $1,000

John Smialek Best Resident Platform Presentation

Zachary Alan Wilkinson, M.D. Intrauterine and Neonatal Deaths: A 10-Year Review of Referred Cases in Cuyahoga County, OH

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $1,000

John Pless Best Student Poster Presentation

Cole E. Rokke, B.S. Dissecting Dissections: A Series of Case Reports Looking at Aortic Dissections, their Associated Conditions, and Autopsy Protocol

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500

John Pless Best Student Poster Presentation

Heather L. Williams, CM2 Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mimicking a Primary Cardiac Tumor: Case Report and Review of Molecular Genetic Findings

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500

John Pless Best Student Platform Presentation

Gabriel Alexander Preventing Fentanyl-Related Overdoses with Naloxone: Insights from a Medical Examiner’s Office

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500

Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Paper

Kelli Oxborrow, BS An Unusual Death from Penetrating Cranial Trauma: The Importance of Investigating the Primary Scene of Injury

Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500

2023 NAME Foundation Awards

John Smialek Best Resident Poster Presentation
Mehrnoosh Ghandili, M.D.  Unearthing the Unexpected: Ossa Cordis in the Human Heart
Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $1,000.

John Smialek Best Resident Platform Presentation
Morgan Long, D.O.  Management of Unidentified and Indigent Remains in a Death Investigation System – The Pima County (Tucson), Arizona Experience
Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $1,000.

John Pless Best Student Poster Presentation
Yvonne Hojberg  Fatal Iron Tablet Aspiration: Importance of Early Diagnosis and Forensic Pathologist Awareness
Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500

John Pless Best Student Platform Presentation
Jessicia Schmitt, M.D.  Method Validation Study of Dipstick Urinalysis as a Screening Tool for Sodium Nitrite Toxicity
Sponsored by the NAME Foundation in the amount of $500.

Susan P. Baker Public Health Impact Presentation
Juniper Fedor, MS, PA Gender Identity in Medicolegal Death Investigation
Sponsored by the Maryland Medical Legal Foundation in the amount of $500.

Edward J. Barbieri Forensic Toxicology Award Presentation
Laura Labay, Ph.D., F-ABFT, DABCC-TC The Vanishing Zero – Do Trace Amounts Matter?
Sponsored by the Fredric Reiders Family Foundation in the amount of $500

Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) Foundation Award Presentation:
Katrina Monday, M.D.  Fentanyl Deaths in Infants and Children: A Case Series
Sponsored by the SUDC Foundation in the amount of $1,000.

2022 NAME Foundation Awards

John Smialek Best Resident Poster Presentation:
Abigail L Alexander, MD, MPH Bing-Neel Syndrome: A Rare Contributing Factor of Psychosis and Suicidality

John Smialek Best Resident Platform Presentation:
Cassie Brieana MacRae, MD History and Fashon Repeat Themselves: A Historical Comparison of Autopsy Practices During Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Data from a Large Academic Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts 

John Pless Best Student Poster Presentation:
Julita Gongolli  A Case of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection in the Setting of Exogenous Testosterone

John Pless Best Student Platform Presentation:
Samuel P. Prahlow, BS, MPH Gunshot Residue Deposition With and Without Firearm Suppressors (Silencers)

Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Presentation:

Laura Labay, PhD Tolerant or Intolerant? Learning from Drug Concentrations in the Living and the Dead

2021 NAME Foundation Awards

John Smialek Best Resident Poster Presentation
Brittany Holden, DO Molecular Autopsy in Vascular Ehlers Danlos (Type IV)

John Smialek Best Resident Platform Presentation
Kasey Kreutz, MD Let’s Talc about Drugs: Excipient Lung Disease and Interpretation of Postmortem Findings

John Pless Best Student Poster Presentation
Alexander Lokken, MSII  Relapsing Polychondritis As A Cause of Sudden and Unexpected Death with Central Nervous System Involvement

John Pless Best Student Platform Presentation
Ashley Prandecki, MD How Does a Mass Casualty Event Impact Staff of the Coroner’s Office and is Meditation an Effective Tool for Mediating these Impacts?

Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Presentation

No eligible submissions

2020 NAME Foundation Awards

John Smialek, MD Best Resident Platform Presentation:  
Lorenzo Gitto, MD Determination of Force Required to Produce Stab Wounds in Cadaveric Chest Tissue.  State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.
 
John Smialek, MD Best Resident Poster Presentation:  
Batoul Aoun, DO SARS-CoV-2 in the Kidneys: Postmortem Renal Histopathologic Findings in Three patients with COVID19.  Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 
John Pless, MD Best Student Platform Presentation:  
Ernest Allen Morton, MBA, MS  Novel Evaluation of Submandibular Salivary Gland Tissue for use as an Alternative Postmortem Toxicology Specimen.  Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
 
John Pless, MD Best Student Poster Presentation:  
McKenzie Jackson, BS Postmortem Diagnosis of Clostridium Without Culture Confirmation.  University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Presentation:
No eligible submissions.

2019 NAME Foundation Awards

John Pless, MD Best Student Poster Presentation: 

Kasey Kreutz - Reducing Laboratory Rejection Rates of Postmortem Specimens at a County Medical Examiner’s Office

John Pless, MD Best Student Platform Presentation:

Sarah Sweet Freddie Gray - How One Death Changed the City of Baltimore

John Smialek, MD Best Resident Platform Presentation:

Daniel C. Butler, MD Placental Refractile Material Identified in Three Cases of Intrauterine Demise Due to Known, Reported, and Suspected Misoprostol Use

John Smialek, MD Best Resident Poster Presentation:  
Kimberly M. Johnson, MD Critical Analysis of Laboratory Testing Methodologies When Interpreting Conflicting Results at Autopsy

Mary Fran Ernst Best Affiliate Presentation:
No eligible submissions.