Forensic Document Examination in the 21st Century (PDF)

Jan Seaman Kelly has been an FDE since 1987. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in

Criminal Justice from the University of Central Oklahoma. She did her formal training in

forensic document examination from George Lewis at the US Postal Laboratory in San Bruno,

California. Ms. Kelly is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners

(ABFDE) and a Fellow of the Questioned Document Section in the American Academy of Forensic

Sciences (AAFS). She established Forensic Dynamics LLC, a private forensic document examination

firm that provides examinations and consultations in civil and criminal cases from government

and private sectors.

Ms. Kelly's accomplishments in the field of forensic document examination include serving

as Director, Secretary, and President of the ABFDE from 1995 through 2002. She held the offices

of Program Chair, Section Secretary and Section Chair of the Questioned Documents Section in

AAFS from 2016 to 2020. Ms. Kelly served as Section Chair of the 2020 AAFS Interdisciplinary

Symposium. She is a member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) Subcommittee for Forensic Documents and

a member of the Academy Standards Board (ASB).

Ms. Kelly received two awards in 2004: the Ordway Hilton Award presented by the Questioned

Document Section of the AAFS and named Safety Officer of the Year by the Rotary Clubs of

Southern Nevada. The ABFDE presented the Charles C. Scott Award to Ms. Kelly in 2002 for her

defense of the forensic document profession as a member of the Daubert Group.

Ms. Kelly is the coeditor and coauthor of several chapters in the second edition of Scientific

Examination of Questioned Documents, released by CRC Press in 2006. She is the author of

Forensic Examination