Dr. Mitchell is board certified in Anatomic and Forensic Pathology by the American Board of Pathology and serves as Professor and Chair of Pathology at Howard University College of Medicine. He is the immediate past Chief Medical Examiner for Washington, DC where he served from 2014 to 2021. Just before his tenure ended as Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Mitchell was the only forensic pathologist in history to also serve as Interim Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. He has performed approximately 2,000 forensic autopsy examinations and has testified as an expert witness in over 60 cases.
Dr. Mitchell has been published in 13 peer review journals, provided nearly 100 lectures on a myriad of forensic topics, has written two book chapters and serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of the Center for Policy Analysis & Research at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. His recent academic research on gunshot wounds is highlighted in the Journal of Acute Care Surgery and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Mitchell also serves as Chair of the Task Force on Gun Violence Prevention for the National Medical Association. He co-authored the paper entitled “The Violence Epidemic in the African American Community: A Call by the National Medical Association for Comprehensive Reform”. He recently led a national group of forensic pathologists in the paper entitled: “National Association of Medical Examiners Position Paper: Recommendations for the Definition, Investigation, Postmortem Examination, and Reporting of Deaths in Custody”.
He currently supports the Autopsy Initiative for Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp that provides second autopsy examinations for cases of Death in Custody. Recently, Dr. Mitchell was a featured expert in the docuseries entitled Uprooted on Discovery+. He is the current Vice Speaker to the House of Delegates for the National Medical Association and sits on several additional Boards, including Mentoring in Medicine, Hip Hop Caucus, and DC Violence Fatality Review Board. He has lectured all over the world including in countries such as England, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, and Belize. Dr. Mitchell currently works with the CDC Foundation supporting the Medicolegal Death Investigation International Community of Practice where he provides technical support to numerous international medical examiners and coroners from over twenty-six countries.
Lastly, Dr Mitchell is ordained and serves as the prison minister for New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington DC. He has been married for nearly 20 years to college sweetheart and has three wonderful children.
