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iIIRG VIRTUAL 2021

Feni Kontogianni

Gary Pankhurst

Veronica Hinestroza

Kirk Luther

Vincent Denault

Panel Overview:

What I Wish I’d Known – Advice from Expert Academics and Practitioners

In this live event, a panel of international expert practitioners and academics will discuss lessons they have learned of relevance to students and those in early career positions. 

Speaker Profiles:

Feni Kontogianni:

Feni Kontogianni is a Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the University of Winchester, United Kingdom. Her research focuses on applied memory and the effects that cognitive, social and cultural factors have on reporting information in applied settings. She previously worked as a Postdoctoral researcher on a CREST funded project (Centre for Research & Evidence for Security Threats – www.crestresearch.ac.uk), investigating questioning techniques to elicit accurate and detailed information in time-critical contexts. She completed her PhD at the University of Portsmouth, UK under the supervision of Prof Lorraine Hope, Prof Paul Taylor, and Prof Aldert Vrij. Her PhD was part of the Information Elicitation programme of CREST and it examined the effectiveness of mnemonics and reporting formats to facilitate retrieval for single and repeated multi-perpetrator events. She previously completed a two-year MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, and a BSc in Psychology at the Panteion University of Athens, Greece.

Gary Pankhurst:

Gary is the Chair and Co-Director of The International Investigative Interviewing Research Group. He had a thirty year policing career with the Metropolitan Police in London, UK as a detective.Specialising in investigation of Child Abuse, Sexual Offences, and Homicide. He has conducted and managed high stakes, complex investigations across the UK and internationally and worked as the Interview Adviser for a ground-breaking investigation of national importance into allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated within public institutions.

Gary has since worked as both a consultant and specialist trainer providing investigation and interviewing training to various public and commercial organisations. He is Chief Operating Officer for Interview Management Solutions and the founder of Pankhurst Investigative Interviewing Consultancy. A particular personal area of expertise is the investigation and interviewing within sexual offence enquiries.  Focused on applying into practice cutting-edge applied forensic research Gary has an MSc in Forensic Investigative Psychology and is currently finalising his PhD research thesis studying information elicitation in sexual offence interviews.

Veronica Hinestroza:

Veronica Hinestroza is an independent consultant and advisor on International Law with 18 years of experience. An expert on the documentation and investigation of grave human rights violations, Verónica regularly provides technical assistance and capacity building for criminal justice actors and civil society. A founding member of the Omega Research Foundation Network of Experts and a certified Justice Rapid Response investigations specialist, she has served on the working group updating the United Nations Istanbul Protocol. Between 2016 and 2019 she was a Senior Programme Lawyer with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, managing projects in East Timor and Latin America.

Kirk Luther:

Kirk Luther is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. He previously worked with Lancaster University as a Lecturer in Investigative Expertise as a member of CREST and Security Lancaster. Kirk received his PhD from Memorial University as a member of the Psychology and Law lab.

Kirk’s research interests include safeguarding legal rights for adults and youth, and advancing research and practice on investigative interviewing. Specifically, his research works toward (1) developing a theoretical model of the cognitive, social, and language factors that moderate and mediate individual’s comprehension of complex information (i.e., legal rights), and (2) developing a theoretical model of the cognitive and social factors that promote information provision in investigative interviews. Even though he’d like to pretend that he has some interesting hobbies, he usually spends his non-research time chasing around and entertaining three little rascals.

Vincent Denault:

Vincent Denault is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology of McGill University, and a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law of University of Sherbrooke. His past positions include Lecturer in the Department of Communication of University of Montreal, Postdoctoral Scholar at the International Centre for Comparative Criminology and the Public Law Research Center of University of Montreal, and Research Consultant at the Department of Communication of University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication (University of Montreal, 2020) and a Master of Laws (University of Quebec in Montreal, 2015). His research focuses on issues related to witness testimony, credibility assessment, deception detection, and nonverbal behavior in courtrooms. Vincent Denault is the co-founder of the Center for Studies in Nonverbal Communication Sciences of the Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute, and the co-founder of the Deception Research Society. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including the inaugural Emerging Scholar Award (2016) of the Nonverbal Division of the National Communication Association. In addition to his work in academia, Vincent Denault is a lawyer and a coroner investigating deaths that occurred as a result of negligence or in obscure or violent circumstances.