AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills announced Friday she has appointed a new chief medical examiner to serve the state.
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Alice Briones, DO, joined the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta part-time this week, Mills' office said in a news release. Briones is expected to start working full-time as chief medical examiner in June once her family has relocated to Maine.
A Hampden native, Briones returns to Maine after a "distinguished military career culminating as the first woman to lead the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES)," the release stated.
Briones served as both director and chief medical examiner of AFMES. According to Mills' office, she was "responsible for overseeing more than 300 military and civilian personnel that provide the Department of Defense and other federal agencies with comprehensive forensic investigative services."
"With experience leading the world’s only global medical examiner system, Dr. Briones is incredibly qualified to serve as Maine’s next Chief Medical Examiner," Mills said in the release. "I am pleased to welcome Dr. Briones home to Maine and thank her for her service in this critical role."
"Governor Mills has recruited and secured an extremely talented candidate for this critical role," Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey added. "Dr. Briones will make an exceptional new Chief and we are grateful to have her serving the people of Maine."
In 2005, Briones earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pennsylvania. She then completed a residency in clinical and anatomic pathology at the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital in 2009. Following that, she completed a forensic pathology fellowship with the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator in 2010, according to the release.
Before that, Briones enlisted as a combat medic in the U.S. Army in 1990. She earned a bachelor of arts in clinical laboratory medicine and certification as a medical technologist from the University of Maine in 1994. Then, she was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force as a biomedical sciences corps laboratory officer, the release said.
"During her Air Force service, Dr. Briones served as assistant chief of lab operations and section commander at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and chief of lab operations at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts," the release stated. "Dr. Briones joined AFMES in 2010 as a junior deputy medical examiner. Then moved on to be the Director of the Department of Defense Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory."
Briones moved up as deputy chief armed forces medical examiner in 2017 before becoming the first woman to serve as director/chief in 2020.
"I am looking forward to bringing my family back to Maine, giving back to Maine, and continuing the great forensic practices already established within the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner," Dr. Briones said in the release Friday.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta is a statewide system that works to investigate sudden, unexpected, and violent deaths, according to Mills' office.