The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office hosts a Citizens Academy that gives county residents an inside look at the world of forensic science. 

The Citizens Academy runs every spring and fall. The 2025 fall session begins Thursday, Sept. 18, meeting every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. for 10 weeks. Applications for the academy are due Aug. 8. It is free of charge.   

Residents can expect lectures, case reviews, and hands-on demonstrations by doctors, scientists and investigators. Topics include toxicology, death investigation, and trace evidence. 

What do you learn in the academy?

The purpose of the academy, according to Christopher Harris, external affairs manager for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, is to “educate the public about the work we do.”

“We will spend a week discussing death investigations and reviewing the steps involved when responding to a scene,” he said.

“Then we will place our participants in mock death scenes and have them perform their investigations,” he added. “This is an opportunity for them to apply information they’ve learned in the previous weeks.” 

Hands-on activities help demonstrate the complexity of investigations, Harris said, including the different types of cases and media requests.

The Citizens Academy does not provide job skills training, explained Harris.

“A graduate won’t receive a job or authority to investigate deaths,” he said. “However, they will receive a better understanding, and hopefully a new appreciation, for how a medical examiner’s office operates.”

Residents share what they learned

Cortney Stoutemire said she uses the information she learned in the academy “to help family, friends and colleagues understand the process of a death of a loved one.”

“I’ve been able to give my insight on what I learned about Cuyahoga County’s opioid issue,” Stoutemire added, so others can learn more about it. 

Another past participant, Apryl Harbaugh, said she “had no idea” about the types of jobs people do at the medical examiner’s office.

Jobs include everything from “death scene investigators, who arrive on a scene, to the drug chemists, who identify substances, or fingerprinting specialists, who identify decedents,” she said. “There are positions I wasn’t aware even existed.”

Harbaugh, who teaches high school, said she told her students about the various jobs at the medical examiner’s office as examples of non-traditional jobs.

How to apply

Harris said he was inspired to establish the Citizens Academy after attending an FBI Citizens Academy in Cleveland in 2014.

“I researched online and couldn’t find a citizens academy in the country that was based solely around the coroner or medical examiner,” he said. 

Harris launched the Citizens Academy in 2019. 

Participants in the Citizens Academy must live in Cuyahoga County and be at least 21 years old with no felony convictions. You may be subject to a background check. 

For more information or to apply, visit mecitizensacademy.com.