Class of 2025: Kiersten Fultz found her focus in forensic science

By Haley Tenore

Kiersten Fultz navigated a fairly common path for a college student – transferring from a smaller school, switching majors and building confidence for the future. But her destination, both at Virginia Commonwealth University and beyond, is a bit more uncommon.

Fultz, who initially envisioned herself as a pharmacist, has instead become one of VCU’s first graduates from the Department of Forensic Science’s accelerated bachelor’s to master’s program. She now plans to move across the country to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to work as a DNA analyst.

“I was a bit hesitant at first to transfer to VCU, because I was nervous about a bigger-city location,” said Fultz, who grew up in Harrisonburg and studied biochemistry for two years at nearby Bridgewater College. “But it ended up being a very good decision for me.”

Fultz was in the first cohort of students in VCU’s accelerated forensics program, offered in the College of Humanities and Sciences. Students begin their master’s coursework while completing their undergraduate degree, which can save them a semester of time.

For Fultz, the program offered a fresh path that appealed to her strengths.

“I did start out interested in pharmacy, because in high school, I enjoyed my science courses,” she said. “I’m also an introverted person, so I thought I wanted to go into something medical-related” that wasn’t primarily based on interacting with patients.

Though working in a retail pharmacy helped Fultz expand her skillset – she even became a certified pharmacy technician – she began searching for other science-related fields.

“I also have been interested in true crime and mystery books. I watched so many true crime documentaries,” Fultz said. “Once I realized that was an option for me, it clicked that was what I wanted to do. There aren’t that many forensic science programs in Virginia, but VCU stood out to me” – in part because of its small class sizes and strong access to professors.

The academic opportunities were highlighted by her graduate research project involving bioinformatics – in her case, high-resolution melting that, through a heating process and fluorescent dyes, can help differentiate DNA from different people. The method helps investigators identify how many people’s DNA might be mixed on a piece of evidence, and the technology can be especially useful in older cases in which degraded DNA can be harder to identify.

“My job was to further optimize the prediction modeling part of the code,” Fultz said. “I also determined if the model could predict not only if a sample is a mixture, but if it can predict how many people make up that mixture.”

In October, Fultz presented her master’s thesis defense on the research.

“It was a nerve-wracking process, but I’m glad that I did it. It was one of the largest crowds I’ve had to present in front of, and it was a 45-minute presentation, which was, I think, the longest presentation I’ve done,” Fultz said. “But it was gratifying to finalize everything I’ve done in that session and tell the audience everything that we’ve accomplished in the lab – and the potential of the research.”

She now will pursue her career potential in a setting that will be a natural fit. Fultz, who enjoys hiking, is excited to explore the rural expanse of Wyoming and the many trails throughout the Great Plains.