Hughes Receives Second Annual Burgess Award

Deedra Hughes is the recipient of the second annual Terry Burgess Assessor of the Year Award.

Established to honor the memory of a valued ANAB employee, the Burgess Award recognizes outstanding service by an ANAB contract assessor. The award was presented to Hughes on January 23, 2019, in conjunction with ANAB’s assessor development sessions in Nashville.

Hughes, who has been a contract assessor with ANAB since 2010, was recognized for her exceptional professionalism, dedication, and customer service in providing assessment for accreditation of forensic testing agencies.

She has more than 18 years of experience with the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, examining items of physical evidence for biological fluids, performing DNA analyses, and conducting statistical analyses on DNA profiles. Hughes serves as the DNA technical leader and the administrator of the laboratory’s Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS), the FBI’s program of support for criminal justice DNA databases that enables federal, state, and local forensic laboratories to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically to link violent crimes to each other and to known offenders.

Hughes is pictured above with ANAB COO Keith Greenaway.