Dr. Mary Ellen O'Toole
Have you ever watched the hit TV series Criminal Minds and wondered if the program is like the real FBI BAU? Have you ever wondered what it’s like to sit across from a real serial killer and get inside his head? Could you spot a psychopath if they sat across from you on a train? You’ll have the chance to ask Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole these questions and many more when she’s joins us at the 2020 Crime Con. Dr. O’Toole is a retired FBI Agent who worked in the BAU for many years where she worked on a wide range of violent crimes including many serial murder cases and had the chance to talk to a wide range of serial killers and other violent offenders.
Dr. O’Toole is currently the Director of the Forensic Science Program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. This is one of the most respected forensic science programs in the United States, which provides both graduate and undergraduate degrees in Forensic Science. Dr. O’Toole works with a faculty of experts in a wide range of sciences including DNA, Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic Chemistry, and Biology, Forensic Facial Reconstruction, Forensic Anthropology, and Crime Scene Behavior. As a fulltime professor at the University, Dr. O’Toole provides training in Critical Thinking and Criminal Investigative Analysis.
Dr. O’Toole served as an FBI Special Agent for nearly 28 years. For more than half of that time, she worked in the Bureau’s prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), the Unit featured in the hit TV series Criminal Minds. As one of the senior and most accomplished agents in the BAU, Dr. O’Toole consulted on many of the FBI’s highest profile and most complex cases, including serial murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, school and campus mass shootings, predatory behavior, product tampering cases, extortions and other crimes of violence against children, adults, and crimes involving psychopathic offenders. Dr. O’Toole is one of the primary contributors to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin’s (LEB), Special Edition entitled Psychopathy published in July 2012 which is available online.
Dr. O’Toole was the Principal Investigator for the FBI’s research on school and mass shootings and the primary author of the FBI’s publication: A School Shooting: A Threat Assessment Perspective, which has been used throughout the world as a guide to assess and evaluate threats in all levels of schools and to understand the mass shooter’s behavior during the crime. Dr. O’Toole’s concepts of Leakage, Injustice Collector, and Mission Oriented Shooter, as they relate to mass shootings, has helped to further the understanding of these cases in terms of offender mindset and behavior.
Dr. O’Toole is the author of Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us published by Hudson Street Press. This book teaches people how to read other people, and spot signs of dangerousness in people we might otherwise trust.
Dr. O’Toole is the Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender, published by Mary Ann Liebert Publications. Violence and Gender is an international, peer-reviewed, scientific journal which publishes research on a wide range of topics that affect violent behavior with a particular focus on the examination of biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence.
Some of Dr. O’Toole’s media appearances include appearances on CBS Face the Nation, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, FOX News, CBS Evening News, The Today Show, CBS’s The Morning Show, NBC, CCN, ABC, MSNBC, Dateline; 48 Hours; The Discovery Channel; Forensic Files; the Oxygen and Investigation Discovery Channel.
Dr. O’Toole is a Fellow the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF), She is also a member of the Society for Former Special Agents of the FBI and the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.