Instructors:Sharon PlotkinLaura Zinn

Sharon has been a certified crime scene investigator since 2006 with the International Association for Identification and spent almost 21 years doing crime scene work in North Miami, Florida where she investigated thousands of cases ranging from burglaries to homicides and suspicious death cases.

Sharon has been teaching in higher education since 2003 and is currently full-time faculty at Miami Dade College in Crime Scene Technology since 2016.

Sharon obtained her Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology from Florida International University. Sharon received her doctoral degree in Education specializing in Curriculum and Teaching from Northcentral University in 2022. She is a member of several forensic organizations including the International Association for Identification, International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts and Goldcoast Forensics. She is a fellow with the American Academy of Forensic Science.

Sharon has received specialized training in various fields of crime scene investigations, including, bloodstain reconstruction, photography, crime scene reconstruction, fingerprinting, shoe wear casting and other various topics. She has traveled throughout the United States, Taiwan and the Caribbean attending and teaching at crime scene conferences that included experts such as Dr. Henry Lee, Dr. Michael Baden, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, Vernon Geberth, Dr. Bill Bass, Paul Kish, Richard Saferstein and other highly notable crime scene experts.

Sharon published a crime scene reconstruction textbook with author Robert Ogle Jr. and her second textbook in Fingerprinting was released in May 2021. She is working on a manuscript for a third textbook in crime scene safety.

Laura Zinn, MS, CCSI is an Adjunct Professor of Forensic Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, Florida.  Prior to this, she was a Crime Scene Investigator at the Sunrise Police Department in Sunrise, Florida. She worked in that position from 2010 until 2015.

Laura holds a Master of Science degree in Forensics with a concentration in Medico-Legal Death Investigation and a focus in Human Identity and Trauma Analysis (Forensic Anthropology). She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Forensic Studies and Criminal Justice. Laura is a member of forensic professional associations such as the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification (IAI), and the Florida Division of the IAI. She is certified by the IAI as a Certified Crime Scene Investigator.
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Laura is a member of the FEMORs mass disaster response team. Her extensive coursework and field experience in forensic anthropology has provided her with an exception knowledge of human osteology, human/non-human variation, surface and buried field recovery, establishing an estimated biological profile identification of skeletal remains, trauma analysis, and cranial reconstruction. She regularly consults with South Florida Law Enforcement agencies when they are investigating cases involving the recovery of human remains.