Diana Faugno

Diana Faugno is an extraordinary forensic nurse who has been serving victims of violence since 1973. Currently, she serves as a nurse examiner at the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center and for the Eisenhower Medical Center Sexual Assault Response Team. 

A trailblazer and selfless contributor to best practices, she has conducted more than 5,000 forensic exams. She is a role model for new nurses in this niche and donates her time to many professional organizations to improve forensic nursing. 

She is a founding board member of the newly formed Academy of Forensic Nurses, created to represent the expanding role of forensic nursing and support the use of technology and advanced forensic techniques. Ms. Faugno is also the founding board director for End Violence Against Women International and a board member for the California American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. 

She is the current president of the Academy of Forensic Nurses, a retired fellow in the American Academy of Forensic Science, and a distinguished fellow in the International Association of Forensic Nurses. 

Believing that forensic nursing goes beyond injury treatment and evidence collection, Ms. Faugno practices her craft knowing that early detection of abusive situations is a critical step in stemming the effects of violence. Whether she’s assisting a victim of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, human trafficking, or strangulation, Ms. Faugno uses a comprehensive methodology to work in concert with law enforcement, prosecution, victim advocacy, and crime labs to meet the objectives of criminal investigation and patient care. 

She has developed numerous forensic nursing training modules, including the 2017 Video-Forensic Examination Techniques for Secure Digital Forensic Imaging Telemedicine. She is also a co-author of numerous textbooks and papers on dealing with the forensic medical aspects of violence, including the Color Atlas of Sexual Assault, published in 1997, which is the first book of its kind in the Nation, and Sexual Assault Victimization Across the Life Span. 

Ms. Faugno holds an M.S. in Nursing from the University of Phoenix and a B.S. in Nursing from the University of North Dakota.