Holland honored for work done with identifying veterans
By submitted, 09/18/19 9:58 AMThomas D. Holland, JD, PhD, RPA, D-ABFA, is Director of Partnerships and Innovations for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency at the Pentagon.
Previously, he directed the Department of Defense Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for 23 years, where he had the responsibility for identifying the remains of U.S. personnel lost from past military conflicts. While there, he led recovery missions to numerous countries including North Korea, Iraq, Kuwait, China, and Cambodia.
He earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a JD from the University of Hawaii, Richardson School of Law. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and is licensed to practice law in Arkansas and the District of Columbia. He chaired the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology and serves, or has served, on numerous committees and advisory groups including the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science, the Department of Justice Crime Scene Committee, the White House Office of Science and Technology’s Interagency Group of Forensic Science, and the Forensic Advisory Boards for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland and the International Commission on Missing Persons in Bosnia.
In 2014 he became the second-youngest member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to forensic anthropology. He has published widely in the science literature and is the author of three novels.
His wife (Mary Smart Holland) and he are natives of Fort Smith, Arkansas. They have two sons.
