Department of Health Announces Dr. Victor Weedn As New Chief Medical Examiner
The Maryland Department of Health announced Monday that Dr. Victor W. Weedn will return to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, this time as the department head.
Weedn, who formerly served as an assistant medical examiner for the state from 2009 to 2012, will officially replace acting Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Pamela Southall on Wednesday.
“We extend our sincerest appreciation to Dr. Southall for her leadership and service over the last year,” said Dr. Jinlene Chan, the Department of Health’s acting deputy secretary for public health services, in a statement. “She led the [Office of the Chief Medical Examiner] through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured that both personnel and operational needs were supported and addressed during a very challenging time.”
In Maryland, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is tasked with determining causes of death for people who have died outside of the care of a medical professional or in unusual circumstances. It is also charged with tracking deadly infectious diseases that pass through the state.
An attorney and forensic pathologist, Weedn received his law degree at the South Texas College of Law in Houston and his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas.
He completed his medical residency at the University of Texas Medical School and was a forensic pathology fellow at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
Beyond his time with Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Weedn has worked as a crime laboratory director and flight surgeon with the Air National Guard, a professor and former department chair at the George Washington University Department of Forensic Sciences and served as the former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
He is currently a member of the National Association of Medical Examiners’ Board of Directors.
“Dr. Weedn is an experienced and well-regarded forensic pathologist who is more than capable to serve as Maryland’s chief medical examiner,” Dennis R. Schrader, acting secretary for the Maryland Department of Health, said in a statement. “I’m confident he’ll excel in the role and advance one of the nation’s leading medicolegal institutions.”
Hannah Gaskill
Reporter
Hannah Gaskill was a reporter for Maryland Matters. She left the publication in May 2022. Gaskill received her master’s of journalism degree in December 2019 from the University of Maryland. She previously worked on the print layout design team at The Diamondback, reported on criminal justice in Maryland for Capital News Service and served as a production assistant for The Confluence — the daily news magazine on 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR member station. Gaskill has had bylines in The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Before pursuing journalism, she received her bachelor’s of fine art degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. She grew up in Ocean City.
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