For the first time, a woman will be Chief Medical Examiner for Dallas County.
Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Jessica Dwyer will take over when the current director retires this week.
Dwyer will head the county's Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences.
She will be Dallas County's third medical examiner since the office was created.
SWIFS manages many labs for the county and area law enforcement, courts and health departments, including toxicology, DNA and trace evidence.
Dwyer has been with the medical examiner's office since 2017.
She was an assistant professor of forensic pathology and a medical examiner until her promotion to deputy in 2023.
She will take over from Chief Medical Examiner Jeffrey Barnard.
He retires Nov. 1 after 37 years with the county.
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