Dr. Roger Mitchell, Jr. is a forensic pathologist who serves as the Chief Medical Examiner of the Nation’s Capital. He is one of only four black Chief Medical Examiners of a major city in the US. Dr. Mitchell is an expert in Violence as a Public Health Issue and has recently appeared on MSNBC Morning Joe and CBS Sunday Morning advocating for federal funding for firearm violence prevention research. He has been bringing attention to the issue of Firearm Violence in the African American Community for over a decade and serves as Chair of the Task Force on Gun Violence for the National Medical Association (NMA). He recently co-authored a position paper on The Violence Epidemic in the African American Community for the Journal of the National Medical Association, published in 2017.

Dr. Mitchell is a proud graduate of Howard University, Washington DC, and New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ. Dr. Mitchell is licensed to practice medicine in Washington DC. He has performed over 1400 autopsy examinations in his career and has testified as an expert on numerous cases. Dr. Mitchell made history when he served as the first black man in the FBI DNA Laboratories as a Forensic Biologist in January 1997.

Dr. Mitchell is a national expert on deaths that occur while in the custody of law enforcement and has served as an expert in many high-profile cases. He recently served as Chairman and lead author among a group of nationally recognized forensic pathologists tasked with making recommendations for the Definition, Investigation, Postmortem Examination and Reporting of Deaths in Custody for the medical examiner/coroner community.

Dr. Mitchell has lectured for the Governments of, Egypt, Bangladesh, Mumbai, London and several countries in Africa and Asia. His most recent article is entitled: Incidence and Cause of Potentially Preventable Death after Civilian Public Mass Shooting in the US published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr. is a licensed minister at New Bethel Church in Washington DC and Master of Divinity student and Fuller Theological Seminary, who serves as a minister and mentor for those who are incarcerated. Dr. Mitchell is the author of a book entitled The Price of Freedom – A Son’s Journey where he shares how drugs and violence have shaped his own life. He is a dedicated husband to his wife, Angelique, of nearly 18 years and proud father to three teenagers (Matthew, Nina, and Nathaniel).