Gabby DiEmma

Gabby DiEmma is a forensic scientist at RTI where she provides technical expertise across forensic subject areas. She has experience creating, organizing, managing, and analyzing data using basic statistics in spreadsheets and databases. Ms. DiEmma helps manage the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grantee database as well as develop new proposals and project ideas in support of the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence’s mission to elevate the status of forensic science through advancing technology, sharing knowledge, addressing changes, and bridging the gap between scientific and justice communities.

Currently, Ms. DiEmma works on multiple projects under the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE), a program of the National Institute of Justice. In this capacity, she performs scientific evaluations of forensic-related tools, coordinates forensic science working groups, plans forensic education training events, and organizes the regular FTCoE and National Forensic Science Week newsletters and social media campaigns. She also creates infographics to disseminate information and banner images for the ForensicCOE website, newsletter, and social media posts to boost engagement with the criminal justice community. She was a guest host of the Strengthening the Forensic Workforce season of the Just Science podcast.

Ms. DiEmma participates in the planning and execution of multidisciplinary events, such as the Firearms and Toolmark Policy and Practice Forum (January 2022), the Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center (HHRRC) Poster Session (February 2022), and the NIJ Forensic Science Research and Development Symposium (March 2022). She acts as a facilitator for the Forensic Laboratory Needs Technology Working Group (FLN-TWG) to support NIJ’s mission to improve knowledge and understanding of the forensic technology needs of federal, state, local, and tribal forensic practitioners and crime laboratories. She also assisted with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)-funded sexual assault response workshop materials and accurate transcription of recorded events, workshops, and trainings.

Ms. DiEmma joined RTI in 2021. Prior, she completed an internship at Rutgers University, where she documented the human remains and artifacts recovered from LaGrange Place in Philadelphia, PA, as part of the Arch Street Project. During this project, she also conducted a case study of the elemental composition of hair and soil collected from two individuals recovered at LaGrange Place.  In completion of her Bachelor of Science degree, she conducted taphonomy research to test postmortem interval (PMI) estimation methods in animal proxies and theoretical, computational chemistry research.