New State Crime Lab Director
By: Jennifer Griggy
Updated: February 29, 2008
(Little Rock, AR) Governor Mike Beebe has named Kermit B. Channell II of Benton as the new Executive Director of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.
Channell, 45, has worked at the State Crime Lab for 18 years. He started as an autopsy technician at the Lab in 1987. After taking another job out of state, Channell returned to the Lab in 1990 as a forensic serologist. He has worked there ever since, most recently as the Scientific Operations Director and as DNA Technical Leader under former Executive Director J.R. Howard. Howard became the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Arkansas in May.
In 2005, Channell received the Attorney Generals Larry Dunklin Award for Outstanding Advocacy and Service to Victims of Crime. He is a member of the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists and the Southwestern Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods.
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