The Power of Partnership: The First 10 Years of SAKI’s Impact on Ending the Rape Kit Backlog

Ilse has 25 years invested in victim advocacy and is a nationally recognized expert on the rape kit backlog. She leads Joyful Heart’s End The Backlog campaign, which is at the forefront of identifying untested rape kits across the country, appealing for laws and policies to improve criminal justice responses to sexual violence; and working with jurisdictions to assist them to develop and implement survivor-centered reforms. Ilse also manages the Foundation’s Image-Based Abuse Initiative, which raises awareness of the problem, changes laws and policies at the state and federal level, and pushes for rights and resources for survivors. Previously, Ilse spent 16 years at the National Center for Victims of Crime, where she created the DNA Resource Center and led the center’s efforts to reform policies and practices related to testing rape kits, stalking, and victims’ rights. She credits her mother with instilling a duty in her to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Cesar Tirado has been employed by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office since 2007.  For the first ten years, he worked as a bilingual Victim Advocate for the Victim Services Division and was assigned to the Major Crimes Bureaus.  For the past eight years, he has been MCAO’s SAKI Site Coordinator.  Mr. Tirado received his undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice Administration at San Diego State University and his master’s degree in Public Administration at Arizona State University.

Dr. Rachel E. Lovell is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Director of the Criminology Research Center at the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. A criminologist and methodologist, she specializes in applied research and evaluation, collaborating closely with criminal justice agencies, community organizations, and public and social service systems. Her work focuses on issues including sexual assault, sexual assault kits, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and gun violence. An accomplished scholar, Dr. Lovell has secured nearly $8 million in external funding since 2013, published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and recently served as lead editor of the monograph Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape.

Dr. Angela Williamson joined the Bode leadership team in November 2024 as VP- Cold Case Solutions & Special Initiatives after 10 years of federal government service. She formerly served as the Supervisor of the Forensics Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ViCAP (Violent Crime Apprehension Program) Liaison at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Angela also served as the Forensic DNA Subject Matter Expert for the FBI ViCAP/Behavioral Analysis Unit and assisted law enforcement agencies across the United States with active and cold case investigations. She developed and oversaw the National Sexual Assault Kit and Cold Case Initiatives (SAKI/NCCI), along with other forensic-based programs at BJA. She has more than 20 years of experience as a forensic specialist working on complex criminal cases and missing/unidentified persons’ investigations.

Prior to joining DOJ, she held the positions of Director of Forensic Casework at Bode Technology (2007-2011) and Forensics and Unknown Victim Identification Project Manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

In 2018 and 2020, Angela received the DOJ Assistant Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to the mission and goals of the Office of Justice Programs. In 2019, Angela received the International Homicide Investigators Association Award for Excellence for her role in the Samuel Little serial killer investigation. 

Angela received her doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry from the University of Queensland in Australia.

Kym Loren Worthy is the current Prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan, home to the city of Detroit. She is the first African American woman to serve as a County Prosecutor in Michigan. She became internationally recognized for prosecuting then Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the beginning of March 2008. In 2009, Worthy began working on resolving a massive backlog of unprocessed rape test kits in Detroit. Some of the kits had been sitting in a Detroit Police Department property room for over three decades. Since that time, almost 235 rapists have been convicted and over 800 serial rapists have been identified. In 2018, she was inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her years of tireless work as the Wayne County Prosecutor and specifically for her outstanding work on resolving the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Backlog.

Steve O’Camb has been a Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Investigator for the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS), State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) since 2017. He has 28 years of law enforcement experience with city, county, and state agencies. Steve began his career in 1995 at the Millard County Sheriff’s Office in Fillmore, Utah as a dispatcher, corrections officer, and patrol deputy. He then spent nearly 15 years with the West Valley City Police Department (WVPD) before retiring in 2015 as detective sergeant over the special victims unit. During his tenure, WVPD underwent unprecedented reforms in the investigation and prosecution of sex crimes. Utah DPS has been a part of SAKI since 2015, as a subgrantee in FY2015 and FY2017, and a grantee in FY2020 and FY2024. The SAKI team provides training and investigative support to the more than 150 police agencies in Utah, on 5,000 previously unsubmitted/partially tested sexual assault kits, and another 48 unsolved sexually motivated homicides. Steve coordinates Advanced DNA Testing statewide and is the site coordinator for the newest SAKI grant. He is also an instructor for the Advanced Sexual Assault Investigations course at Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) since 2018. He is a certified trauma advocate and was appointed by Governor Cox to sit on the Crime Victim Reparations and Assistance Board of Directors at the Utah Office for Victims of Crime from 2021 through 2024. He can be contacted at ocamb@utah.gov

At WVPD, Steve received the Utah Domestic Violence Council, Family Violence Prevention Award (2008), Investigator of Year Award (2009), Sworn Supervisor of the Year Award (2013), and Chief’s Award (2015) for outstanding contributions to the department. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement from Utah Valley University in 2017. At DPS, Steve has received the Crime Victim Service Award from the Utah Council on Victims of Crime (2018), an NAACP of Utah First Responder Award (2019), a DPS Medal of Excellence (2020), the Community Impact Award from SBI (2023), the Outstanding Performer Award from the Utah Cold Case Review Board (2024), and the Crime Victim Service Award from the Utah Victim Services Commission (2025).

Mr. Gamette was born and raised near Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and did undergraduate work in Zoology. He also received a Master’s Degree from Brigham Young University in Microbiology where he studied parasitology with an emphasis on Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Mr. Gamette completed a certificate program in laboratory management through West Virginia University Forensic Management Academy, holds a certificate in Laboratory Management and Leadership from the University of California at Davis, and graduated as a Certified Public Manager in the Idaho program.

Mr. Gamette interned with the Utah State Crime Lab in Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked in the Spokane Laboratory of the Washington State Patrol from 2002 to 2008 as a biologist/DNA scientist and crime scene responder. He was promoted to Forensic Scientist 4 (Spokane Local DNA Technical Lead) in 2008. He has trained hundreds of detectives, crime scene responders, forensic nurses, and first responders in the collection of biological evidence. Mr. Gamette started his career with the Idaho State Police in late 2008 as the Laboratory Improvement Manager/Quality Manager for the laboratory system. He was promoted to Laboratory System Director over the three laboratories of the Idaho State Police in July 2014. 

In his personal life, Mr Gamette is a professional soccer referee and referee mentor, he also a basketball referee. He is the Scoutmaster of a local Scouts BSA troop. He is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hiking, camping, water and snow sports, and traveling. He owns his own small business doing property management and landscaping for commercial and residential properties. He has been active in and has served in many leadership roles with his church.

Melissa has spent 25 years at the intersection of communications and public policy, with experience in the federal government, the private sector, and at nonprofit organizations. She spent more than a decade in the federal government, at the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Justice, and in the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. She served from the first to the last day of the Biden-Harris administration in roles including Senior Counselor to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Chief of Staff to Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, and as the agency’s Communications Director. She currently works as the Chief Public Affairs and Policy Officer at Democracy Forward.

Prior to her return to public service, Melissa was the Director of the First Lady’s office for the Presidential Inaugural Committee and Senior Advisor to Dr. Biden on the Biden-Harris campaign. She served as Chief Operating Officer at The Bromwich Group for almost nine years. Projects included coordinating communications strategy for efforts to raise awareness of the rape kit backlog and gender-based violence, conserve public lands and the ocean, and facilitate a just transition for coal communities. She also managed the firm’s crisis communications practice, where clients included former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during the confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Melissa is an Adjunct Faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s Master of Arts in Communication program and a Senior Affiliate Instructor for the University of Washington’s Communication Leadership graduate program. She earned her M.A. in Political Communications from Johns Hopkins University and B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Teresa M. Stafford-Wright, MCJA is the Chief Executive Officer at Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center. Teresa’s experience includes more than a decade of leadership at a Northeast Ohio rape crisis center and establishing a witness victim unit for one of the largest county Prosecutor’s in Ohio. She has over 25 years of experience in strategic leadership with a strong focus on survivor services. She shared her expertise as a contributing author for the book, Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape. Teresa approaches this work through her own lived experiences as a survivor of incest, rape, and teen dating violence.