Gene O'Donnell

Leading the international training program for police forensic artists at Quantico for more than twenty years, Gene has been interviewed by scores of media outlets about his FBI casework and has served as a consultant for the television series Hannibal.

After a childhood spent in rural western Pennsylvania and stints at college, Gene turned to an area of study that he truly enjoyed: art. Accepting an appointment with the FBI, he quickly found his calling – forensic art; a mixture of two things that he loved best: helping others and creating art.

During his long career, Gene was nominated for the Department of Justice Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Performance on several occasions. He traveled the globe to assist other countries’ police departments with their unsolved cases, many of which were the result of a horrific crime.

Publishing collaborative scientific papers for the Journal of Forensic Science, his work has also been featured in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin. Gene has lectured widely around the U.S., and his work has been included in college textbooks on biological anthropology.