Lisa Briggs

Professor, Director of Emergency and Disaster Management Western Carolina University

  • Cullowhee NC

Lisa Briggs specializes in forensic based criminology with a focus on missing persons, as well as the use of scent detection K9s.

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2 min

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene - WCU's experts on the ground assisting

Hurricane Helene brought record levels of devastation, damage and death along America's eastern coast. Massive recovery efforts are underway and WCU's Lisa Briggs and her team were featured in an in-depth piece of coverage by USA Today. Lisa Briggs, director of emergency and disaster management at Western Carolina University, and Onna, a 6-year-old full German Shepherd, are pictured getting off the water craft. The pair is part of a search operation at the French Broad River deployed after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. Photo: Gaby Velasquez, USA TODAY 'Humbled by the river' Hampton and his crews are organized through the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, not FEMA. Finding bodies is one challenge — extracting them from the river is another, he said. Sometimes, the bodies are fastened to the boats and paddled to a safe opening in the shoreline, where they’re placed in body bags and driven over to county officials. Other times, the bodies need to be hiked out of a particularly dense stretch of wilderness. The dogs are trained and led by Lisa Briggs, director of the Emergency and Disaster Management program at Western Carolina University and a regional leader in training cadaver dogs. At the start of the day, she gave a command, "Hunt up!" and Onna, the cadaver dog, excitedly pranced toward the raft. At a shoreline littered with downed trees, roof siding, and shards of ripped clothes, Onna crisscrossed the sandy area, squeezing between branches and passionately sniffing the ground. Later, she jumped back in the raft and the team drifted downriver. On that day, Hampton’s raft covered the right shoreline while another of his rafts with his twin brother, Jack, and other volunteers covered the left. They paddled and drifted down more than five miles, until around 5 p.m., when they pulled the boats. It was a rare day: No bodies were found.  October 07 USA Today Onna, a 6-year-old full German Shepherd cadaver dog, gets off the shaft to sniff the ground along the river during a search and rescue operation at French Broad River on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in the aftermath of flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Photo: Gaby Velasquez, USA TODAY The work of the WCU team has been tremendous and if you are interested in learning more about the role of cadaver dogs, how they are trained or the other work Lisa Briggs is taking on at Western Carolina University then let us help with your coverage. Lisa Briggs is the director of WCU’s emergency and disaster management program. She is available to speak with media any time simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Lisa Briggs

2 min

Experts in the Media: WCU cadaver dog training program wins professional development award

Earlier this winter, WCU's human remains detection cadaver dog training program was awarded the 2022 University Professional and Continuing Education Association award for special populations. The honor was given out at the UPCEA South Conference in Atlanta and recognizes outstanding professional development programs offered by universities across the southeast. The event was featured in The Sylva Herald and Ruralite HRD K9s are a specially trained group of search dogs that specialize in locating missing people in criminal investigations, suicides, overdoses, lost persons, natural disasters and structural collapses. “Once thought of as a pseudoscience, understanding how canines can be effective and reliable as tools in human remains recovery is being accomplished at WCU through interdisciplinary relationships in the College of Arts and Sciences and WCU’s Forensic Osteology Research Station,” Briggs said. “It is crucial that HRD K9s be trained on actual human remains and not placenta or pseudo corpse,” Briggs said. In addition to directing the programs at WCU, Briggs also serves as a search and recovery specialist for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and is on the State Bureau of Investigation Human Remains Task Force, as well as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Reunification Team. This is an important program and if you are interested in learning more about the role of  cadaver dogs, how they are trained or the other work Lisa Briggs is taking on at Western Carolina University then let us help with your coverage. Lisa Briggs is the director of WCU’s emergency and disaster management program. She is available to speak with media any time simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.  

Lisa Briggs

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Biography

Briggs has been a criminologist for more than 20 years, and for almost the past decade she has been specializing in forensic based criminology with a focus on missing persons, as well as the use of scent detection K9s and human decomposition.

Briggs is a full, tenured professor of criminology and criminal justice at Western Carolina University, she is the director of the Emergency and Disaster Management Program, as well as the WCU Cadaver Dog Training Program director.

Briggs is past president of the State of North Carolina Criminal Justice Association (NCCJA), as well as the past secretary of the North Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association. She is also on the board, and an instructor, for the DuPont Rescue Challenge.

She holds a Ph.D. in Crime and Deviance, a Master of Public Affairs, as well as a Master of Science. She has field experience in law enforcement and criminal justice and has taught at several major universities including University of Connecticut, NC State University, East Tennessee State University and Western Carolina University. She has been recognized as being one of the top educators in the state of North Carolina by the Governor.

She is a committed educator and has been recognized by receiving several teaching awards as well as service engagement awards at different universities particularly because of her dedication to serving the community and the field of criminal justice. While as an educator she is committed to “boots on the ground” involvement, her current research focus is on presenting conference papers, conducting experiments and research studies, and writing publications on the science of human decomposition and the use of scent detection canines.

She is the author of more than 30 academic publications including text books, peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Importantly, she merges her commitment to education with her passion of being a successful human recovery canine handler and trainer. Briggs actively serves on criminal cases at either the federal, state or local level, and has been specifically involved in many high-profile cases. She is a TAC for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and she “vets” K9 teams to be utilized by NCMEC. Briggs deploys often across the country on missing person’s and missing children cases and combined work from one of her four own personal HRD K9s has recovered 29 victims as of early 2022.

Industry Expertise

Research
Education/Learning
Writing and Editing

Areas of Expertise

Crime and Deviance
Forensic Based Criminology
Criminology
Missing Persons
Scent Detection K9s

Accomplishments

UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching

2012

Education

North Carolina State University at Raleigh

Ph.D.

North Carolina State University at Raleigh

M.S.

Western Carolina University

M.P.A.

Public Affairs

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Affiliations

  • North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations Human Remains Task Force : Member
  • DuPont Rescue Challenge : Board member

Languages

  • English

Media Appearances

Cadaver dogs are in Maui to help find the dead. Here’s how it works and why it’s difficult

CNN  online

2023-08-14

Lisa Briggs, a forensic criminologist who specializes in the use of human remains detection dogs, told CNN not all human remains detection dogs have the same skills – and the dogs in Maui would need to be imprinted specifically on burnt remains in order to search effectively.

“This disaster demonstrates why we need to conduct the science and have the specific proper training in order to be successful,” Briggs said.

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WCU cadaver dog training program wins professional development award

The Sylva Herald  online

Western Carolina University’s human remains detection cadaver dog training program was awarded the 2022 University Professional and Continuing Education Association award for special populations at the UPCEA South Conference in Atlanta.
This award recognizes outstanding professional development programs offered by universities across the southeast.
WCU’s HRD cadaver dog program, which is under the direction of Lisa Briggs, director of WCU’s emergency and disaster management program, has been offered at WCU since 2011.

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WCU fire investigation training contributes to community, law enforcement, public safety

WCU Stories  online

2022-06-01

The K9 handlers had come from across the United States and abroad for the university’s highly specialized detection dog training, conducted annually by Lisa Briggs, professor and director of WCU’s Emergency and Disaster Management Program. This particular session – coinciding with the fire training – was a rare opportunity for handlers to build the necessary foundational skills to recover victims who perish in accidental fires or arson, Briggs said.

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Articles

D.RA.MA: An Extended Conceptualization of Student Anxiety in Criminal Justice Research Methods Courses

Journal of Criminal Justice Education

2009

The challenges of teaching research methods and statistics to students majoring in criminology and criminal justice are well known. The professor has to deal with an array of obstacles among students, including Disinterest, Relevance Argumentation (viewing statistical skills as detached from the “real world”) and Math Anxiety (D.RA.MA).

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