Judy Melinek

Judy Melinek (born 1969) is an American forensic pathologist and writer. She is a pathologist at the Wellington District Health Board and Chief Executive Officer of PathologyExpert Inc.

Early life and education Melinek was born in Israel. Her father, a psychiatrist, served as a medic in the Yom Kippur War. Her mother was born in a Siberian refugee camp, and was a passenger on the Haganah boat Exodus. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology at Harvard University, which she graduated magna cum laude in 1991. She moved to University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied medicine and trained as a resident in pathology. She earned her Medical doctorate (MD) in 1996. She trained in both forensic pathology and neuropathology, only one of which (forensic pathology) is supported by the American Board of Pathology. She examined the remains of the World Trade Center and American Airlines Flight 587 crash.

Career In 2003 Melinek was appointed to the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner. She moved to the Office of the Chief medical examiner in San Francisco in 2004. Her first book, Working Stiff, is a memoir of her medical training in New York City. It appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Melinek is concerned about the shortage of forensic scientists in the United States. Melinek works for the Wellington District Health Board in Wellington, NZ.

After the National Rifle Association of America called for doctors who want to reduce gun deaths to stay in their lane, Melinek tweeted "Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn’t just my lane. It’s my fucking highway". In an interview with The Guardian, Melinek said that she conducts one autopsy a week involving a victim of gun crime. She is on the editorial board of The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology.

Personal life Melinek is married to T. J. Mitchell, an American author and scriptwriter. Together they have three children.

As of August 2026, Dr. Melinek is practicing forensic medicine in San Francisco, California, as the CEO of PathologyExpert Inc. She supervises five mortuaries and provides US and international forensic legal consulting. In addition to performing autopsies/consulting in the US, she performs autopsies in New Zealand through Communio LTD.