Dr. Crooks is a board certified forensic and clinical toxicologist with more than 30 years of experience.
Prior to a career in toxicology, he received his B.S. in pharmacy and Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry - both from the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Training in postmortem toxicology was accomplished while serving as an assistant toxicologist at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland.
Experience in clinical toxicology and workplace drug testing was gained while employed as director and Responsible Person at the National Psychopharmacology Laboratory (NPL) in Knoxville, Tennessee. NPL provided therapeutic drug monitoring and diagnostic testing for psychiatric patients, drug testing for treatment centers, and workplace drug testing as a SAMHSA certified laboratory.
Dr. Crooks later managed the toxicology laboratory at the Medical College of Virginia (currently, the VCU Medical Center) in Richmond, Virginia, and then established a CAP accredited urine drug testing laboratory in Rockford, Tennessee. As research director, and later laboratory director, at the Scientific Testing Laboratory (currently, Alere Toxicology Services) in Richmond, Virginia, his focus was criminal justice (probation and parole) drug screening as well as workplace drug testing (SAMHSA).
Most recently, Dr. Crooks served as the technical director and Senior Scientist of postmortem, DUID, and drug chemistry testing at Aegis Sciences Corporation in Nashville, Tennessee. The laboratory was ASCLD/LAB-International (ISO 17025) accredited and offered postmortem toxicology services to pathology groups and DUID testing to state agencies.
Dr. Crooks is board certified by the American Board of Forensic Toxicologists (F-ABFT), and the American Board of Clinical Chemistry in Toxicological Chemistry (ABCC-TC). He is also a licensed pharmacist in the state of Maryland. Professional affiliations include the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Society of Forensic Toxicology, and the Maryland Pharmacists Association.
Dr. Crooks has testified both in person and telephonically at state courts in Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida, as well as the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.