We are thrilled to celebrate the graduation and appointment to a full-time role of intern Sabrina Cox, who joined our Forensic & Analytical Science Service in 2024.

Sab­ri­na is a proud Wirad­juri woman and says she has always dreamed of becom­ing a foren­sic scientist.

“I’ve always been inter­est­ed in foren­sic sci­ence since I was a lit­tle girl, which prob­a­bly sounds strange, but I grew up watch­ing crime shows and it was some­thing that fas­ci­nat­ed me,” she says.

Sab­ri­na has man­aged to turn that inter­est into reality.

She joined NSW Health Pathology’s Foren­sic & Ana­lyt­i­cal Sci­ence Ser­vice (FASS) in 2024 as part of the organisation’s Indige­nous intern­ship program.

Sab­ri­na recent­ly grad­u­at­ed from West­ern Syd­ney Uni­ver­si­ty with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree, major­ing in foren­sic science.

“I was so excit­ed to be study­ing this degree. I loved the course. The class­es were inter­est­ing, and it was great to meet new peo­ple with the same pas­sion for foren­sic science.

“I began work­ing as a Tech­ni­cal Assis­tant in the FASS Receipt Unit last year, and I am so grate­ful to have had that chance to get my foot in the door.”

She’s look­ing for­ward to pro­gress­ing her career in foren­sics and says there are lots of oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth at FASS.

“I’d love to even­tu­al­ly work my way up to a Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer posi­tion in the Foren­sic Biology/DNA laboratory.

“In the Receipt Unit, every­one gets trained in all the dif­fer­ent labs, so being trained in the DNA lab as a Tech­ni­cal Assis­tant has allowed me to expe­ri­ence a lit­tle bit of what it’s like up there.

“I’d need a lot more expe­ri­ence to become a Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer obvi­ous­ly, but that’s my end goal.”

Man­ag­er of the FASS Receipt Unit, Emi­ly Dun­can says the intern­ship has proved to be a great success.

“Sab­ri­na has been a real­ly great addi­tion to our team and I am thrilled she now has a per­ma­nent posi­tion,” Emi­ly said.

“The Receipt Unit is the entry point for most sam­ples com­ing into the lab­o­ra­to­ries here at FASS and we also pro­vide tech­ni­cal sup­port to the lab­o­ra­to­ries. Sab­ri­na is mak­ing a pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion towards a very vital role in our organ­i­sa­tion and has demon­strat­ed her abil­i­ty and enthu­si­asm to learn, and also to adapt to the many chal­lenges that arise with­in work­ing in our team.

“I believe Sab­ri­na has a bright future in the organ­i­sa­tion, and I wish her well in achiev­ing her goal to progress into a Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer role in the Foren­sic Biology/DNA laboratory.”

Sab­ri­na says she’s very thank­ful for the sup­port of her FASS col­leagues, along with NSW Health Pathology’s Asso­ciate Direc­tor of Abo­rig­i­nal Part­ner­ships and Inclu­sion Kevin Stanley.

“Kevin is bril­liant and I’m so grate­ful that he works so hard to cre­ate these opportunities.

“I think the Indige­nous intern­ship pro­gram will help a lot of peo­ple who don’t know how to pur­sue this sort of career and encour­age more peo­ple to con­sid­er study­ing science.

“It’s impor­tant for peo­ple to realise there are real­ly inter­est­ing jobs avail­able at the end of your degree.”

Kevin says the intern­ship pro­gram is all about attract­ing more diverse tal­ent to the organisation.

“We want to bet­ter reflect the com­mu­ni­ties that we serve and NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is proud­ly com­prised of peo­ple from all back­grounds, gen­ders, sex­u­al­i­ties, abil­i­ties and life expe­ri­ences,” he said.

“We are con­tin­u­ing to devel­op intern­ship pro­grams for First Nations peo­ple, as well as peo­ple liv­ing with a dis­abil­i­ty,” Kevin said.

The organ­i­sa­tion also has a strong com­mit­ment to its trainee­ship pro­gram, with approx­i­mate­ly 40 trainees cur­rent­ly work­ing across its labs and offices in region­al and met­ro­pol­i­tan areas of NSW.

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