Speaker Information

Dr. Annie Andrews is a pediatrician and mom, who has dedicated her career to fighting for a brighter future for all children. After working as a pediatrician at children's hospitals for 15 years, she decided to run for Congress to give children a voice in Washington, D.C. She was the Democratic nominee in South Carolina’s first congressional district in 2022.

She is the CEO and founder of Their Future. Our Vote., a national non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to advancing a Kids First Agenda, and Their Future PAC, the first ever Political Action Committee working to elect a Kids First Majority to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Annie is currently a clinical professor of pediatrics at George Washington School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., where she cares for children and adolescents at Children’s National Hospital.

She is a gun violence prevention researcher and community advocate working to reduce the frequency of pediatric firearm injuries. She is also a senior advisor to Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action.

Annie received her MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed her residency training in pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Dr. Mitchell is board certified in Anatomic and Forensic Pathology by the American Board of Pathology and now serves as Professor and Chair of Pathology at Howard University College of Medicine. He also serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the Howard University Adult Ambulatory Care Center. 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 in a dual role as Interim Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. He has performed approximately 2000 forensic autopsy examinations and has testified as an expert witness in over 60 cases.

Prior to his role as Chief Medical Examiner for Washington DC, Dr. Mitchell served as the Assistant State Medical Examiner In-charge for New Jersey. In addition to operating as the Chief Medical Examiner of the Northern Regional Office (Essex, Hudson, Passaic, and Somerset Counties), he also acted as the State Medical Examiner. As the highest-ranking medical examiner in the state, Mitchell worked as part of the Statewide Shooting Response Team, responsible for investigating officer involved fatalities because of the actions of the New Jersey State Police.

Prior to his time at the NJ Office of the State Medical Examiner, Mitchell served as the Assistant Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County, TX (Houston) and oversaw all medicolegal death investigations. He managed the 24/7 death investigation operations of nearly 11,000 cases per year for 3 years.
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. His expertise on Death in Custody has recently been highlighted nationally on “Dateline with Lester Holt” and “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.”

Dr. Mitchell is the current Speaker to the House of Delegates for the National Medical Association and sits on several additional Boards, including Mentoring in Medicine and the Hip Hop Caucus. He has lectured all over the world including in Africa and Asia, including 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